By Wendy Taylor, Open Research Coordinator (Publishing) at the University of Salford
Trailblazers was established in 2024 by the universities of Lancaster, Liverpool, and Salford, with Liverpool University Press (LUP), to provide early career researchers (ECRs) with an opportunity to publish their first monograph open access and benefit from a series of workshops to support their publishing journey. These institutions came together to develop a new approach to open access monograph publishing that is not reliant on expensive Book Processing Charges (BPCs) in the long term, or money from funded research. Whilst funding is currently based on the BPC model, all partners have signed a Memorandum of Understanding which includes a commitment to explore alternative funding models to support sustainable open access for monographs.
Growing the number of institutions involved in the scheme is an important step towards being able to develop a different model. Currently each institution funds its own authors and open access costs are reduced the greater the volume of books being published. Following positive feedback and interest from the UK higher education sector, the scheme in 2025 has been opened to other universities and we are pleased to be joined by Liverpool John Moores University and the universities of Reading and Wolverhampton, enabling more ECRs to benefit from the scheme.
In this post we’ll provide the perspective of one of the founder libraries, the University of Salford, and explore how Trailblazers fits into Salford’s open content strategy and our experience of selecting and supporting authors.
Salford is committed to enabling authors to publish open access and providing support to business models offering an alternative to expensive and inequitable BPCs. The Library has publicly stated our commitments and principles on our website, which also includes details of the collective support initiatives we support financially.
Whilst our research activity and strengths are growing, we have limited open access funding from our institution and funders and so are unable and unwilling to pay expensive BPCs. We also do not believe BPCs are a long-term, viable, affordable and sustainable model for advancing the development and growth of OA monograph publishing. Trailblazers has provided an opportunity to support ECRs to publish open access as well as creating an opportunity to promote the benefits of open access and highlight the challenges authors face when choosing where to publish open access. The scheme also provides a direct tangible offer for our researchers. One of the challenges of supporting many current open access monograph schemes is the lack of direct return on investment in publishing terms for our authors at Salford, and the options available to authors to choose to publish open access without significant BPC funding are limited.
Last year, Salford was able to support Trailblazers applications from each of our four Schools. We promoted the scheme widely via internal communication channels and engaged with research groups and committees. We received a high number of proposals, demonstrating the interest and demand for the opportunity to publish open access. The application form was based on the LUP proposal form, providing applicants with an authentic experience of writing a book proposal, a useful experience even they were not selected. Each university has developed their own processes for the assessment and selection of proposals. At Salford we asked the Academic Dean for Research from each School to facilitate a process for the submissions to be reviewed and ranked.
Trailblazers participants receive a series of workshops in addition to publication. These are being developed and provided by LUP and represent an additional value to the open access costs. LUP provide a workshop for the chosen authors where the publishing process is explained and the authors are advised how to develop their proposals for peer review. This first workshop provided an opportunity for the cohort to meet each other and hear about each other’s proposals. Participants from the institutions’ libraries also attended, thereby providing a very useful insight into the academic publishing process. Unsuccessful applicants were also offered a workshop to support them with choosing a publisher and developing their ideas. Other workshop topics offered to authors will include guidance on marketing and indexing. The Libraries will also provide workshops on research metrics, the challenges for libraries to make ebooks available and the benefits of open access monograph publishing, thus ensuring the ECRs are equipped with the knowledge needed to be make informed decisions in future publications and becomes champions of best practice.
We currently have five books going through the proposal and contract process and the feedback from our authors has been very positive. One author says:
Open access has provided a chance to broaden the scope of the original research and share the findings with a wider, socially engaged audience. The proposal and peer review stages have been invaluable in helping me understand the process of producing a book for a wider audience. Liverpool University Press’s support has been instrumental in deepening my understanding of what is required for publishing at this level. I’m now looking forward to rewriting each chapter in alignment with our finalised contract. This experience has given me a unique opportunity to grow professionally and share my work on a larger platform. It was quite daunting at first, but I am really pleased I took this chance.
Locally we are looking to develop a range of options for us to support our authors from a range of disciplines and career stages to publish open access. For example, our Salford Authors initiative was established to collate and showcase Salford-authored works and we will be using this platform to promote our open access monographs. We regularly run a session for researchers called “Choosing a book publisher” in which we discuss the benefits of open access and talk about the different business models, and our principles and commitment to equitable and sustainable open access.
Salford are proud to be continuing with the scheme again this year and we will be working with our partners to continue to develop the model further. We have learnt a great deal about the complexities and timescales involved in publishing a quality, academic monograph. Publishing a book takes a long time! The Libraries have likewise provided insights for LUP into our own challenges and expectations. Trailblazers really is a fantastic example of libraries and publishers working together to form a mutually beneficial agreement that serves our authors and our readers well.