Scottish Universities Press
Edinburgh Napier University Library is proud to have joined with 17 other Scottish academic libraries to create a new open access publishing press.
The Scottish Universities Press aims to provide a clear and cost-effective route for researchers to make their work freely available to a global audience, meeting the requirements of funders and realising the ambition to extend the impact of research across society.
The process began with the identification of a shared challenge. In this case it was the need for a clear and cost-effective route to open access publishing that would satisfy funder requirements, REF requirements and align to the principles of Plan S.
A key driver was the announcement from UKRI that from 1 January 2024 monographs, book chapters and edited collections must be made open access within 12 months of publication. Beyond meeting this immediate objective there is an appetite to explore alternative approaches to academic publishing, that are of the academy and have the needs of the academy at the core.
It also recognises that the options for facilitating OA from commercial publishers can be both complex and costly. The Scottish Universities Press aims to offer a clear route to a professional standard of publishing on a not-for-profit basis.
The press will initially focus on publishing monographs during the initial two-year pilot phase, with a view to extending coverage to other types of content.