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Open Access Monographs

Publishing your book open access enables unrestricted access and distribution to anyone interested in your research.

 

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Trailblazers

Open Access Monograph publishing

Open Access publishing removes the need for purchasing or borrowing copies. It facilitates a diverse and increased readership, enabling impact and public engagement.

Funders such as UKRI and the Wellcome Trust have open access policies for monographs. The next REF open access policy is likely to include an open access monographs requirement. See Funder Open Access for more.

The University is keen to support authors to make their monographs open access and meet funder requirements. Support for Open Access has advice for authors considering publishing their monograph open access.

Library commitment to open access monographs

We embrace the transformative power of Open Access (OA) monographs in academia to enable worldwide collaboration, knowledge sharing, and research progress.

Our Principles

Cost

We aim to avoid costly Book Processing Charges (BPC). We support OA monograph business models which are: 

  • sustainable
  • equitable
  • cost-effective.

Equitable Access

We champion universal access to knowledge, removing geographical and financial barriers. OA monographs embody this by providing unrestricted global access to scholarly content.

Academic Excellence

Our commitment to academic excellence fosters: 

  • rigorous research
  • collaboration
  • innovation. 

We advocate for diverse, quality-driven scholarship through OA monographs. This encourages interdisciplinary cooperation and wider scholarly engagement.

Transparency and Accountability

By openly sharing research outputs, we contribute to a transparent research environment that encourages: 

  • peer review
  • accountability
  • collaboration
  • public engagement.

Our Commitment

Advocacy and Education

We're committed to advocating for OA monographs within our academic community.

Content Development

We'll financially support sustainable OA monograph initiatives and publishing formats.

Collection Enrichment

Our library actively curates and boosts the visibility of OA monographs. We ensure they are accessible to researchers and students.

Author Support

We provide extensive support to authors aiming to publish Open Access monographs.

Advocating for Change

We drive sustainable OA monograph publishing models through collaboration with:

  • publishers
  • academic institutions
  • policymakers.

Community Collaboration

We actively engage with: 

  • academic libraries
  • consortia
  • publishers
  • stakeholders.

We exchange: 

  • best practices
  • insights
  • resources. 

How Salford is supporting open access monographs

The Library is providing financial support to these collective support initiatives:

These schemes offer equitable and sustainable business models. They allow authors to publish without the payment of a fee. They align with our teaching and research strategy.

We're keen to provide publishing opportunities for early career researchers at Salford. We're having conversations with libraries and progressive publishers to develop alternative OA monograph publishing models. We'd like to have conversations with other organisations committed to developing new open access monograph publishing models.

Here are some examples of open access monographs we've supported through our institutional open access fund. For more information, or to arrange a conversation, contact library-research@salford.ac.uk.

Trailblazers - submissions for 2026 cohort now open!

Graphic titled “Trailblazers: The Open Access Initiative for ECRs,” established by Lancaster University, University of Liverpool, and University of Salford, with Liverpool University Press, and displaying partner university logos.
The poster for the Trailblazers initiative.
Trailblazers application form
Trailblazers application form - questions preview

Trailblazers is an open access initiative providing early career researchers with the support and open access funding to publish their first monograph with Liverpool University Press. 

It is a joint project between the Universities of Salford, Liverpool, Lancaster, Liverpool John Moores, Reading and Wolverhampton with the humanities and social sciences publisher Liverpool University Press (LUP). All books published through Trailblazers will go through the same rigorous editorial and peer review process as non-Open Access publications and will also be sold as print copies and authors will receive royalties. 

Selected ECRs will experience a transparent publication process, undergoing proposal and manuscript peer review, editorial guidance from senior commissioning LUP editors, as well as professional copy-editing, typesetting, and marketing, concluding in the publication of an open access edition of their work. A series of masterclasses by publishing and library professionals will cover everything from how to write a proposal and turn a dissertation into a book, right through to how to index and what alt-text means, plus invaluable guidance on marketing, library collection management, research metrics, and how an open access monograph will benefit your research career.

The scheme is open for expressions of interest from current University of Salford PGRs and Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in SHAS and SAMCT. LUP will work with chosen authors over summer to develop their proposal for review and commissioning in Autumn 2026.​ The first workshop will be held in June 2026 to welcome authors and introduce the publishing process.

The following specifications apply:    

  • First long-form publication by a PGR or ECR (defined as within 8 years of PhD).
  • Word length: 80,000 – 100,000 words (includes all text such as prelims, main text references, alt-text, captions – everything except the index).
  • Images: a maximum of 20 black and while images (permissions to be cleared by the author). Colour images to be avoided due to publishing costs.
  • Subject area: humanities and social sciences (in line with LUP's publishing portfolio).
  • Proposal/ manuscript is not under consideration elsewhere and LUP will be given exclusivity.
  • You agree to act in accordance with Liverpool University Press' AI Policy
  • If you require workload allocation you will need to discuss this with your School before submitting your application.

Timeline for the 2026 Trailblazers cohort:

  • Sunday 12 April 2026 - Deadline for expressions of interest 
  • End of April 2026 – Authors notified of decision.
  • Week commencing 15 June 2026 - in-person workshop in Liverpool with LUP to turn expressions of interest forms into publishing proposals. 
  • Autumn 2026 - Review of publishing proposals by Liverpool University Press, including external peer review. 
  • Early 2027 – Publishing Contracts signed. 

Submissions will be reviewed by your School, and you will be notified if you are to be put forward by the end of May 2026. We are aiming to select one proposal each from SHAS and SAMCT. If we receive applications for monographs acknowledging UKRI funding we may be able to support these as additional selections via the UKRI’s funding for open access monographs – get in touch if you are UKRI funded and interested in the scheme.

If you have any questions about the submission process, please email library-research@salford.ac.uk. For questions relating to publishing with LUP please email Alison Welsby, Editorial Director at LUP (awelsby@liverpool.ac.uk). 

Good Luck!

Trailblazer books coming soon from Salford authors:

  • A degree of modernism: the building and buildings of the University of Salford, 1954-1976 by Simon James Hadfield
  • Rewriting the Irish mother figure: dismantling stereotypes of motherhood and maternity in contemporary Irish literature by Katie Barnes
  • Invalidated grief: exploring responses to loss at the intersection of intellectual disability and minoritised identities by Patience Udonsi
  • Deconstructing the Poverty Industry by David Beck
Trailblazers form - Questions preview
Take a look at the questions before filling out the form
  1. Name
  2. School
  3. Are you a PGR or ECR
  4. If you require workload allocation you will need to discuss this with your School before submitting your application. Please provide details of agreement by the School if workload allocation is required.
  5. Is your book a result of UKRI funding and therefore comes under the UKRI Open Access Policy? 
  6. Do you plan to submit the published book to the Research Excellence Framework (REF)?
  7. Why would you like to publish your monograph open access?
  8. Please confirm that if selected you grant permission for LUP to contact you as part of a group email for Trailblazers communication (your name and email address will be visible to other members Trailblazers cohorts).
  9. Please confirm that you understand and agree to the following specifications for the scheme
  10. Please confirm that you have read and adhere to LUP's AI Policy (https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/pages/ai-policy)
  11. Book title
  12. Brief summary (A few sentences summing up the proposed book)
  13. Aims and scope of the book (A more detailed explanation of the proposed book)
  14. Possible contents list with synopsis of each chapter
  15. How does your proposed book build on the work of others and contribute to current debates in the field?
  16. What are your proposed book’s strengths or unique selling points? 
  17. Who is the intended market for the book? 
  18. Are there any competing books?
  19. What is your ideal total word length? (Please include contents, acknowledgements, references, bibliography, captions and alt-text for all images in your word count – everything except the index)
  20. Do you require illustrations, tables, graphs or diagrams?
  21. If you plan to use any third-party material in your book (images, text, graphs, maps, datasets etc – anything that is not by you) – please supply details and confirm you will acquire permission from the copyright holders to use the material in your book, for both print and ebook editions?
  22. Does any part of your proposed work (sections or as a whole, other edition, thesis or a pre-publisher version) appear in other publications (in print or online). If so, please provide details.
  23. What is your proposed submission date for completion of the manuscript? Do you require the book to be published by a particular date?
  24. Please confirm you have read the LUP Publications Ethics document (https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/pb-assets/files/lup_publication_ethics.pdf) and your work adheres to the guidelines set out by COPE, including COPE’s Position Statement on Authorship and AI tools (https://publicationethics.org/cope-position-statements/ai-author)
  25. Please confirm if you plan to use AI in any capacity in the researching and writing of your proposed book.
  26. List of recent publications (inc. any forthcoming publications):
  27. Brief education / employment history: