WRUP has a strong commitment supporting OA publishing in all possible ways, and also delivers publishing as a service. As such, WRUP is a non-profit press and generates no income or profit from publishing activities. The White Rose Libraries Collaboration of the University Libraries of Leeds, Sheffield and York provides funding that covers all WRUP's staffing, infrastructure and core operational costs.

WRUP wants to remove as many barriers as possible, both to readers of OA publications but also to authors, and has always been committed to offering “diamond” monograph publishing to authors at WR institutions via waiver funds held within the libraries. However, until now, we have been unable to extend similar funding to external authors. WRUP is exited to work with the Jisc OACF scheme to develop a pilot to allow us to offer funding support for monographs by authors from beyond Leeds, Sheffield and York. 

Funding via the Jisc OACF initiative sees WRUP benefit from funding via sponsorship from other institutions who also want to support the growth of OA publishing. As a pilot, we have asked for funding to support the publication of one monograph a year, for three years, that would not be eligible either for grant funding or for funding via the WRUP waiver funds. We are really pleased to had had some engagement with this already from sponsors, and the WRL collaboration has pledged to cover any funding shortfall should subscriptions not fully cover the publication costs.

This would enable WRUP to engage with the wider academy and further support the shift towards OA monographs as driven by e.g. UKRI policy developments. It would support WRUP in exploring a more sustainable operating model, and would also lead to increased visibility for WRUP and, in turn, its publications, over the next 3 years.

Do you have a monograph proposal?

If you are an academic author external to the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York with a proposal for a monograph, or a completed draft manuscript, based on your research, and would like to discuss eligibility for this pilot, please get in touch! As we are looking to publish one monograph per year as part of this pilot, funding availability will depend on demand and the quality of the project, and all volumes will go through the normal WRUP commissioning process led by the WRUP Editorial Board and based on rigorous peer review. We would be excited to hear from you of you'd like to discuss this further!