The questions academics should ask when looking for a publisher

Choosing where to publish can be a difficult decision. Academic authors traditionally consider many factors – funding requirements, reputation, discoverability, editorial quality, production standards, time to publication and marketing support, as well as expectations specific to their disciplines. With £112 million annually spent by UK universities on Jisc-negotiated agreements with the five largest publishers (Wiley, Taylor & Francis, Springer Nature, Elsevier, Sage), academic “legacy” publishers may have the upper hand financially over more agile start-up presses.

But increasingly outdated understandings of prestige and visibility are only part of the picture. More authors are also now considering whether a publisher’s approach, mission and values align with their own professional and personal priorities, particularly in a context where the sector is under strain.

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The UK’s academic publishing ecosystem is diverse. The Publisher Global digital directory lists 144 publishers at the time of writing. These include both university-based not-for-profit publishers as well as international commercial publishers, all of which offer a variety of publishing services and often, to different standards. Some may only publish a handful of books a year; others publish hundreds. So, how should an author approach making the important decision – opting for one press over another to publish their book – and what should they look out for when comparing and contrasting the offerings of different publishers and assessing their ethical values and practices?

Questions worth considering include:

• Does the publisher have a clearly stated mission?
• Are its editorial and peer review processes transparent?
• How does it approach open access and accessibility for its publications?
• Does it publicly communicate its policies on issues such as research integrity, sustainability and the use of artificial intelligence?
• How does it engage with authors, peer reviewers and the academic communities it works with?
• What do colleagues or peers who have published with the press recently say about their experience?

These answers can provide useful indicators of how a publisher approaches its relationships with researchers and the wider scholarly ecosystem.

What do authors say they value?

Authors we’ve spoken to tend to value practical considerations ahead of abstract principles in their choice of publisher. Editorial support featured strongly, with one author mentioning the importance of “a genuine interest in and respect for the work”, while another said, as an academic editor “who had read chapters so many times we could no longer spot errors”, critical editorial input was a deciding factor. 

Authors also valued a commitment to open access, with one describing it as “essential in our decision” and another claiming his publisher’s open access format meant “the book I published with them has already reached more readers than all of the other books that I published over the past thirty years”.

From what we’ve heard, authors prioritise a combination of quality, reach and professional support. Values often only become meaningful when they translate into tangible publishing practices.

Open access and values-driven publishing

For many researchers, open access is one area where values and practical outcomes intersect. Authors who personally support the wider dissemination of publicly funded research or who need open access publication to meet funder or national mandates, may be led to favour publishers that make their content freely available to readers worldwide.

Open access can help broaden readership beyond academia, making research accessible to policymakers, educators, practitioners and members of the public. Open access publications often achieve higher levels of readership and usage, with higher download rates and increased citation levels for open access books, according to research.

But open access funding and publishing models vary considerably between publishers. Authors should look carefully at licensing arrangements, funding requirements, preservation strategies and any associated publishing charges before making a decision.

Community, collaboration and transparency

Many university presses, scholar-led publishers and university-led publishing place particular emphasis on community engagement, knowledge sharing and researcher support. The Open Institutional Publishing Association, Open Book Collective and Copim  are just some of the organisations setting up in recent years, driven largely by the growing interest in more collaborative approaches to scholarly communication.

Participation in these networks does not automatically make a publisher the right choice for every author. But these affiliations can provide useful insight into how an organisation views its role within the broader research ecosystem.

Our presses support the work of the Open Institutional Publishing Association (OIPA), a new national infrastructure supporting non-profit open access publishing in universities. Ensuring that our collective values are front-and-centre has been a key part of the process of setting up this new infrastructure, which currently includes members from across over 45 UK universities. 

This approach helps keep current and prospective members aware of our shared ambitions – supporting open access publishing – and helps to advocate for this model of publishing through community and collaboration. 

Publishers affiliated with OIPA are committed to non-profit open access publishing, increasing the visibility, accessibility and impact of research they publish. Academics also highlight their experience that presses operating within universities or research institutions often offer a more collaborative and mission-driven approach to publishing. Authors benefit from close editorial support, transparent processes and alignment with institutional and personal values.

By publishing with an OIPA-affiliated publisher, authors contribute to a growing movement that challenges traditional commercial publishing models. OIPA as an association also provides a collective voice in discussions with funders and policymakers, advocating for sustainable, equitable and researcher-led publishing practices, working with organisations such as Jisc and the Open Book Collective.

In an era where GenAI is adding further pressure to questions around ethics, research integrity and misinformation, it’s increasingly important for authors to understand how academic publishers operate, what they stand for and how they contribute to the wider research ecosystem. 

So, our advice to authors is: look beyond headline claims and evaluate how a publisher’s stated values are reflected in its everyday practices. Editorial quality, transparency, accessibility, responsiveness and commitment to scholarly communities can all provide useful signals. Ultimately, the best publishing partnership is one that not only serves your research goals, but also aligns with the principles that matter most to you as a scholar.

Katharine Nelson is sales and marketing manager at the University of London; Elinor Potts is marketing and communications officer at LSE Press. Both universities were founder members of the Open Institutional Publishing Association.