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Funding and governance

Funding

The Press is an integral part of the School of Advanced Study (SAS) at the University of London, which receives special funding from Research England to promote and facilitate humanities research. 

Our funding situation means that we have a unique responsibility in service to the arts and humanities more broadly. We support the work of SAS and its strategy across several key areas relating to publishing and impact – for example, through the books we publish publish and experimental models of open access publishing, training, and advocating for humanities disciplines and researchers in sector discussions around open research and academic publishing (see About us for more detail).

The funding we receive through the School of Advanced Study primarily relates to staffing costs for  a small team and the publishing costs of between 20–25 books each year. Our funding means we can publish books open access in our ‘core’ book series without author charges (see our Open access policy for more detail). 

As part of SAS, we are also linked to the wider University of London federation. We collaborate with other departments within the University of London, and receive some institutional support from the University in relation to our infrastructure (office space and central services, for example).

We also receive limited income from the print sales of our books, which is reinvested into our publishing programme and our advocacy for the humanities. Where authors are able to access to institutional or grant funding towards open access publishing costs, we encourage the payment of publishing fees (also called ‘Book Processing Charges’). This income supports us being able to publish additional titles. For more information on this, please see our Open access policy.

We participate in a range of new funding schemes which offer alternatives to the ‘Book Processing Charge’ model, particularly those which involve close collaboration directly with institutional libraries. We have been successful in securing funding direct from library supporters through Jisc’s ‘Open Access Community Framework’, with the Knowledge Unlatched scheme and recently through our inclusion in the new Open Book Collective (see Projects and initiatives). These funding models are helping us to strategically grow our publishing programme beyond our current financial limits. 

Support the University of London Press

The Press is grateful to receive donations in support of our work in promoting the value and importance of humanities research, our experimental publishing models and our training programme.  

Examples of what your support will enable:  

  • Publishing additional open access titles in our book series
  • Helping us to make the open access books we publish discoverable and accessible globally and to non-academic audiences through enhanced marketing support 
  • Our work as part of the new Open Institutional Publishing Association 

We are happy to work with potential supporters to ensure that any donations are spent on specific activity which is a priority, where this is possible (for example, support for a particular book series).  

Our thanks to those institutions who have donated funding to the Press to support our publishing programme:

If you would like to support us and make a donation, please email philanthropy@london.ac.uk or visit the dedicated Donate to UOL Press page on the University of London website.

Governance

We operate with a Publishing Committee, responsible for making final publishing decisions on proposals submitted to the Press following successful peer review. We are also establishing a refreshed Advisory Board, who will oversee the Press’s strategic direction, policies, finances and operations. Individual book series are usually established with a dedicated series Editorial Board who assist with the evaluation, peer review and commissioning of new proposals for the series. Day-to-day operations are overseen by our Head of Publishing.

Publishing Committee 

Our Publishing Committee has responsibility for ensuring that all new publications have been successfully peer-reviewed, are of high quality and fit with our broader publishing strategy. The Publishing Committee meets monthly to review and make a final decision on all proposals which have been successfully peer-reviewed. The Publishing Committee consists of relevant members of the Press team in key roles across editorial, production, sales and marketing along with senor staff within SAS and the wider University of London.

Advisory Board

We are currently establishing a new Advisory Board to oversee the strategy and operations of the University of London Press. The development of an updated Terms of Reference for this group is underway, and membership is also being refreshed. More information will be shared on the membership and responsibilities of the new Advisory Board here shortly. The new Advisory Board will have oversight of the Press’s financial budgets, offer input on policy decisions and provide feedback on the Press strategy.

Series Editorial Boards 

We aim to develop a dedicated Editorial Board for each new book series we commission, made up of academics in the relevant field who help with commissioning, evaluation and peer review of new proposals submitted to the series. You can find some examples of these series Editorial Boards for our New Historical Perspectives series and our Reimagining Law and Justice series.