been absolutely transparent with our members around costs and they have direct input in the decisions concerning the financial management of the press. There are no unknowns for our member libraries so that openness certainly makes it easier to assess value.”
Proof
The issues that motivated the creation of SUP were not new in the sector and were well known to commercial publishers. But there was no evidence they would be addressed. Gillian said: “The transpar- ency and understanding around budget constraints that we seek as a sector are perhaps not realistic expectations of a com- mercial profit-oriented company.” One way around these obstacles was to set up a press. “To find out if library-led publishing could work, SCURL commis- sioned a proof of concept study including a consultation with stakeholders and provided a broad view of what was required and what could be supported administratively.” The report found out what researchers wanted and provided enough detail to identify an achievable, sustainable model. “There were no major surprises in the feedback,” she said, “but there was an unequivocal call from researchers for quality assurances, so we knew that high production standards would be key in establishing ourselves as a credible alternative to the big players in academic publishing.”
Model options
The survey results helped define the best model with specific demands narrowing the options. “The requirement for offering a print option also came through very strongly,” Gillian said. “This meant that low cost and perhaps Diamond publish- ing were not considered viable for SUP. Instead, we have adopted a full-service production model which covers copyedit- ing, design, typesetting, marketing and global dissemination. To meet the costs of delivering this level of service we have developed a hybrid model whereby par- ticipating library services pay an annual subscription fee and publishing institu- tions pay a unit cost for each book that they publish with us. We call this a Book Production Charge rather than a Book Processing Charge, as is typically used by other publishers, both to recognise our hybrid approach and because it’s a clear description of what the cost covers. SUP operates on a not-for-profit basis which means that our charges aim to recoup the costs of production and build sustainability rather than meeting profit targets.”
Real alternative
Gillian hopes these will help in “creating a more equitable academic publishing ecosystem and offering researchers a val-
Rewired 2025
experience more acceptance and interest in what we’re doing. Often we hear that it’s the not-for-profit status that’s most appealing to our authors. There remains much to be done, though, for true adoption of the DORA principles to be achieved at grassroots level as well as top level acceptance. The upcom- ing REF mandate for 2029 is important for taking OA forward. Joining up the dots across the research ecosystem and top-level support for alternative models are essen- tial to achieve a more equitable publishing ecosystem.”
Why text books? Gillian Daly, SUP Press Manager.
ues-driven route to publishing their work”. But she said: “Overcoming disparity of scale will be really challenging. Even the biggest institution-led presses are small when compared to the big commercial presses. Collaboration is key to making our efforts more competitive. This is why SUP is committed to OIPA and other networks such as the IFLA Library Publishing Group.” She said that the OIPA network brings together institutional publishers across the UK, adding: “We have benefited greatly from the support of colleagues already operating similar models. White Rose Uni- versity Press is our closest comparator as a library-led collaborative press involving three universities.”
Author buy in
But are authors choosing publishers like SUP? Gillian said: “Academic books don’t tend to sell many copies, so the income often doesn’t amount to much. It’s far more important for a researcher to appear in the journals that are highly regarded in their field of study or to work with publishing houses with a reputation in their discipline. Within this there is also a practical concern around retrieval – having your content where the conver- sation is. Promotion and standing within their research community can depend on the location of the publication as much as the content produced. The DORA princi- ples (
https://sfdora.org/) were introduced to overcome this issue and have the support of major international funders, including UKRI. In practice, the perception that it’s all about where you publish lingers.” However, she said: “The Open Access community has worked wonders in overturning some of the negative views or myths around OA in recent years. We have witnessed a marked improvement in engagement with OA in this time and
In May SUP launched a new open access textbook programme to address what it described as “the significant need for more affordable and accessible educational resources across the UK higher education landscape”.
Asked why the programme will focus on postgraduate rather than undergraduate textbooks, Gillian said: “Postgraduate textbooks are generally shorter and simpler than undergraduate textbooks which gener- ally must cover a lot of ground in providing a foundation understanding of a topic.” She said there was no timetable yet for undergraduate textbooks, but “the postgrad- uate limitation is very much part of our pilot approach so we will review uptake in six months and report back to our Management Board before deciding on the next steps.” There is also flexibility about how text- books are defined and how often they will be updated. “SUP is now in the position of considering all long-form academic publica- tions, so books of all type. This means that we can be flexible when it comes to defini- tions. Each book proposal will be viewed on its own merits,” she said, adding that
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