Publications of the Forum for Research on the Languages of Scotland and Ulster is a free, web-based, rigorously peer-reviewed series with a primary (although not sole) concentration on any languages which are or have been spoken in Scotland (including the Northern Isles) and the Irish province of Ulster.
While largely linguistic and sociolinguistic in focus, this series also welcomes contributions concerned with the language of literature in the languages of Scotland and Ulster. Although primarily intended for the publication of collections of essays (often those associated with FRLSU colloquia and conferences), the publication of scholarly monographs will also be considered.
This initiative has been prompted by a growing awareness that traditional publishers, for perfectly understandable reasons, are beginning to shy away from considering book proposals for either edited collections or monographs dealing with subjects which, by their nature, will only attract a small scholarly audience. If such a volume is accepted for publication, the book produced is often made unattractive to both University Libraries and individual scholars by its price, thus increasing the minoritisation of the field(s) involved.
Free online publishing where the same rigorous peer-review process takes place as in other scholarly outlets solves many of these problems. The reader's primary outlay is associated with printing out the book, should he or she wish to do so; the editorial team will contribute the same care to the final product as would occur in conventional book production. It is likely that, with efficient publicity, many volumes which would not otherwise be available to the scholarly community will become more readily so.