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Practical guidance for starting or developing a university press
Posted by Dawn Cockcroft on 2019-06-25
Megan Taylor (University of Huddersfield Press Manager)
Kathrine Jensen (Research Assistant REF Impact, School of Education and Professional Development, University of Huddersfield)
Why did we want to find out about the processes of university presses?
Megan and Kathrine both work across the research and scholarly communications sectors, and have an interest in how and why university presses have developed. They were keen to expand their own knowledge, and bring together those working in similar areas at other institutions, in order to find out common issues and how to support each other to address them.
Best practice sharing event
With this in mind, in June 2018 the University of Huddersfield Press organized a best practice sharing event to bring together those working in university and library publishing, and initial findings from the event were shared on the Press blog in September 2018. Participants were all at different stages of developing a press; in some cases there was a well-established business model, whereas others had no funding model or definite mission statement in place.
What did we do with the data?
Megan and Kathrine spent the months after the event analysing the data and drawing up lists of common issues, and looking at the suggestions for addressing them. The result is a model for developing a university press based around three guiding principles and six key stages of the publishing process, with associated activities.
What next?
The model has been published as part of an article in UKSG Insights . Although it is published, it is very much a work in progress and the aim is for it to be continually developed and informed through input from the university press and publishing community. If you do have any feedback or comments then please get in touch with Megan or Kathrine.
Contacts:
Megan Taylor m.taylor2@hud.ac.uk
Kathrine Jensen k.jensen2@hud.ac.uk
Read the published article: https://insights.uksg.org/articles/10.1629/uksg.469/
Kathrine Jensen (Research Assistant REF Impact, School of Education and Professional Development, University of Huddersfield)
Why did we want to find out about the processes of university presses?
Megan and Kathrine both work across the research and scholarly communications sectors, and have an interest in how and why university presses have developed. They were keen to expand their own knowledge, and bring together those working in similar areas at other institutions, in order to find out common issues and how to support each other to address them.
Best practice sharing event
With this in mind, in June 2018 the University of Huddersfield Press organized a best practice sharing event to bring together those working in university and library publishing, and initial findings from the event were shared on the Press blog in September 2018. Participants were all at different stages of developing a press; in some cases there was a well-established business model, whereas others had no funding model or definite mission statement in place.
What did we do with the data?
Megan and Kathrine spent the months after the event analysing the data and drawing up lists of common issues, and looking at the suggestions for addressing them. The result is a model for developing a university press based around three guiding principles and six key stages of the publishing process, with associated activities.
What next?
The model has been published as part of an article in UKSG Insights . Although it is published, it is very much a work in progress and the aim is for it to be continually developed and informed through input from the university press and publishing community. If you do have any feedback or comments then please get in touch with Megan or Kathrine.
Contacts:
Megan Taylor m.taylor2@hud.ac.uk
Kathrine Jensen k.jensen2@hud.ac.uk
Read the published article: https://insights.uksg.org/articles/10.1629/uksg.469/
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