After almost ten years at the Research Institute for Irish and Scottish Studies, Aberdeen University Press (AUP) becomes an online and fully Open Access university press based at the Sir Duncan Rice Library, University of Aberdeen.
The University has signed a contract with ]u[ Ubiquity to provide services to support our open access research publishing activities, and will become part of the international Ubiquity Partner Network.
This will enable the Press to extend its portfolio beyond its existing focus on Scottish culture and literature, to a wide range of disciplines and also interdisciplinary research.
By joining the Ubiquity Partner Network of University and Society Presses, AUP will be able to adopt and disseminate best practice in the Open Access publishing sector.
Our vision is for AUP to become a global publisher of high-quality academic journals and monographs, with a particular focus on championing interdisciplinary research publications in line with the University’s guiding principles as set out in the Aberdeen 2040 strategy. Publications are expected to be accepted from the end of 2022 onwards.
"Our aim is to make AUP once again a leading publisher in Scotland of academic research and of all forms of creative and documentary writing" Professor George Boyne
University Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Professor George Boyne, said: “The reinvigoration of Aberdeen University Press is an important demonstration of the University of Aberdeen’s foundational statement ‘open to all and dedicated to the pursuit of truth in the service of others’. It will ensure that the University plays its part in making high quality international research open to everyone. Our aim is to make AUP once again a leading publisher in Scotland of academic research and of all forms of creative and documentary writing.”
University of Aberdeen Director of Digital & Information Services and Project Sponsor, Brian Henderson said: “Aberdeen University Press will provide researchers, and their collaborators worldwide, with a high-quality professional publishing service with open access at its heart. We are delighted to partner with Ubiquity to facilitate this and look forward to working with our colleagues as we start to put an academic board in place ahead of launching the service later this year.”
Brian Hole, CEO of ]u[ Ubiquity, said “We are thrilled to be supporting Aberdeen University Press, which has exciting plans for both journal and book publishing. We especially welcome AUP as the first Scottish institution to join our network of partner presses, contributing to the global resurgence of university press publishing, which is helping to advance Open Access and provide a counterbalance to the established publishers.”
First incorporated in 1900, Aberdeen University Press published many important works in its long history including Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain (first published 1977) and Michael Fry’s Patronage and Principle: A Political History of Modern Scotland (1987), which remains a standard work in the field.
The Press ceased publishing in 1992 and was restarted on a limited basis in 2014 through the Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies, with a primary focus on Scottish culture and history, releasing Alan Spence’s award-winning No Nothing (2015) and a range of other titles.