Advocacy Toolkit

This toolkit is aimed at academic staff at SUP member institutions. It suggests approaches for promoting SUP across academic networks and encouraging wider engagement with open access initiatives at Scottish HEIs. The toolkit covers key messages about SUP and includes advocacy actions for researchers to support positive change in the academic publishing landscape.

You can download a handy infographic covering the key points at the bottom of the page.

Key Messages

Fully Open Access

SUP titles will be freely available to a global audience via our online platform, complying with funder mandates and increasing the reach of research. We also offer a print-on-demand service at a fair price, and pay royalties to authors.

Not-for-profit

SUP is a community-led press that offers a cost-effective and ethical route to publishing. Any surpluses from our low-cost book production charge will be reinvested in the Press for the benefit of Scotland’s research community.

High Quality

SUP delivers a full publishing service, covering copy-editing, design and typesetting, and global dissemination. All proposals go through a rigorous peer review process managed by an Editorial Board drawn from member institutions.

Advocacy Actions

Peer review is central to our publication process. We depend on an extended network of peer reviewers offering their time and expertise to support our Editorial Board in reaching publication decisions. In recognition of the value we place on this input, SUP offers peer reviewers an honorarium for proposal and full manuscript reviews.
If you would like to join the SUP Peer Review Network then please complete this short form. Your details will be added to a list of potential peer reviewers and we will use your contact details to invite you to review suitable proposals.
- Encourage colleagues to sign up to the SUP Newsletter and visit our blog.
- Follow SUP on social media and share our updates:
  - X (Twitter)
  - LinkedIN
- Talk about SUP and open access publishing at departmental meetings
- Share SUP updates on relevant mailing lists
- Suggest/raise open access as a discussion topic
- Add details of SUP to notice boards or delegate dissemination channels at the event
- SUP staff are happy to take part in panel sessions or provide presentations
- We can provide print flyers and other materials. Please get in touch at info@sup.ac.uk
- Contact your local SUP Management Board representative to check on local open access initiatives or events. You can see the list of members here.
- Support your library in responding to publishers around contract negotiations for access to content - for example by signing letters of support.
- Check if your institution has a Rights Retention Strategy and share this with colleagues. If your institution does not, help your Library by advocating for one. See the SCURL Rights Retention Statement for more information.
- Submit an ‘Author success story’ to the Open Access Books Toolkit
- Discuss the benefits of publishing open access with your colleagues

Learn More

Get involved in the wider open access landscape! Join or support open access advocacy organisations and sign up to mailing lists to keep up to date. Below are a few useful resources and organisations to get you started:

SPARC - Open Access Impact Stories

Open Access, Open Data, and Open Education have already resulted in significant advancements in disease prevention, economic development, crisis management, improved education, researcher career development & more. You can view some case studies on the SPARC website.

SPARC is a non-profit advocacy organization that supports systems for research and education that are open by default and equitable by design. They believe everyone should be able to access and contribute to the knowledge that shapes our world.

OAPEN Open Access Books Toolkit

This toolkit aims to help book authors to better understand open access book publishing and to increase trust in open access books. It has many useful articles on OA book publishing and the OA books landscape.

OAPEN promotes and supports the transition to open access for academic books by providing open infrastructure services to stakeholders in scholarly communication. They have a useful page for researchers.

Open Institutional Publishing Association

The Open Institutional Publishing Association (OIPA) was founded to connect and encourage a diverse range of small to medium-sized university presses and university-affiliated publishing operations striving for open access. By bringing this group together, we are creating a new community of practice which will support open access publishing activities at UK universities.

Membership is open to all forms of institutional publishing that is open or striving for open, this includes university presses, library hosting services and departmental publishing among others.

Coalition S

cOAlition S is a a group of national research funding organisations aiming to make full and immediate Open Access to research publications a reality. They have developed Plan S, whereby research funders will mandate that access to research publications that are generated through research grants that they allocate, must be fully and immediately open and cannot be monetised in any way.

Open Access Books Network

The Open Access Books Network (OABN) is an open and free network for anyone interested in Open Access books. The OABN offers a dedicated space where the Open Access books community can come together to engage around how the future of open access book publishing is taking shape in the form of events, resources, discussion boards and more.

One particularly useful resource is the OA Mythbusters Series, aiming to dispel common myths about open access book publishing.

OABN is an OPERAS special interest group.

OASPA

OASPA is a diverse community of organisations engaged in open scholarship working to encourage and enable open access as the predominant model of communication for scholarly outputs.

They host a range of free webinars and you can sign up to the mailing list to keep up to date with the latest events and open scholarship news.