Jisc is pleased to announce the launch of a New University Press Toolkit to support new and existing university and library open access publishing ventures.

https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/new-university-press-toolkit

The toolkit has its roots in the 2017 Landscape study of New University Presses (NUP) and Academic-Leb publishing (https://repository.jisc.ac.uk/6666/). We put together an international Editorial Advisory Board consisting of University Presses (Liverpool, Stockholm, Westminster, White Rose, UCL) and other experts in the field as well as working alongside our sister toolkit, the OAPEN OA books toolkit (https://oabooks-toolkit.org/), which was written at the same time.

The Jisc toolkit supports new university presses and library-led publishing ventures. It gives guidance in short, structured articles to existing presses as well as those planning to launch or investigate whether to establish a press. Keys questions covered include:

• How to get institutional buy-in, and understand resource and budget requirements in order to justify the start-up of a press
• How to achieve sustainability and define what it is – e.g., service to researchers and/or growing prestige
• How to attract and support authors

We hope the toolkit will appeal to:

• University press staff
• Subject liaison librarians
• Library directors (wishing to set up a press and inform senior university staff)
• Educational technologists
• Scholarly communications managers and research officers
• Academic staff (both as authors, editors and publishers)
• Senior university staff (heads of department, PVCs for research)

The toolkit is designed to have several entry points, with links to relevant sub-sections throughout. It can also be read as a whole. The toolkit acts as a signposting tool linking out to existing information and resources for those that would like to gain a deeper understanding of a particular topic. Each section also contains an extensive list of references.

Find the toolkit here: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/new-university-press-toolkit