Publishing Prize supporting information

You can also download this supporting information (DOCX) if you prefer.

What is the Leeds Early Career Publishing Prize?

The Leeds Early Career Publishing Prize is a pilot initiative from the University of Leeds. It seeks to celebrate Early Career Researchers and support the prize winners as they explore publishing the research in their Doctoral thesis as a monograph.

In drafting the submission, authors will have to present an effective proposal for a monograph based on their thesis.

A shortlist of up to three prize-winners will be selected by a University of Leeds panel.

Prize winners will receive a £250 prize, and have their proposed monograph celebrated at the Early Career Prize event. The prize can also be listed on the prize winners’ academic CV.

The Leeds Early Career Publishing Prize is organised in conjunction with White Rose University Press (WRUP), the open access (OA) press supported by the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York. Prize winners will see their monograph proposal taken through the full WRUP commissioning process (including peer review), with the WRUP Editorial Board commissioning those monographs which meet their rigorous requirements. Part of the prize will see any publishing fees paid, and commissioned authors will be fully supported through the publishing process.

Monographs are published as open access using a Creative Commons Licence, making them free to access globally to everyone (further detail below). This maximises the potential reach of the research.

When is submission open?

The 2020 prize competition is open for submissions from 10 February–30 September 2020.

Who is eligible?

Leeds University PhD students whose Doctoral theses appeared on a pass list in 2017, 2018 or 2019, and meet at least one of the following criteria:

• Thesis awarded without corrections or subject to editorial and presentational corrections only.
• Candidate received a Letter of Excellence.
• Candidate received a strong recommendation to publish as a monograph in the examiners comments.

We can only consider theses in a format that would work as a stand-alone text-based monograph (ie not ones that are performance or practice based, or by publication). We do welcome proposals that include digital media to enhance the content eg use of audio, video, 3D modelling, etc. While the original thesis can be in a different language, the proposed monograph would need to be written in English.

We cannot accept submissions from those who have already published or have secured agreement to publish work based on their thesis.

What is needed to apply?

An application must include:

• a completed Early Career Publishing Prize application form (DOCX)
• a sample chapter from the proposed monograph.

The thesis supervisor must support the application. An academic mentor is also needed; this could also be the thesis supervisor.

What happens after submission closes?

When submission closes, the entries are sent to the School that awarded the PhD, where they will be reviewed to check they meet the criteria. The School then forwards its shortlist of submissions to a central panel of Leeds academics from across the range of disciplines. The panel will review the full range of submissions and finalise the list of prize winners based on the quality of the proposals. All those who have submitted a proposal will hear the outcome of their submission.

What happens to the prize winners?

Prize winners will be invited to a University of Leeds event to celebrate their success, and will receive a financial prize of £250.

The prize-winning proposals will be passed to WRUP who will contact the authors and talk them through the process in detail. This will follow the normal WRUP commissioning and publication process:

• Proposal peer review.
• Editorial Board review of proposal, peer review, and author response.
• Editorial Board give decision to commission, ask for revision, or reject the proposal.

If commissioned, the author works up a manuscript based on the commissioned proposal, and provides any other content (images, figures, and other multimedia content). All publication fees will be paid as part of the prize. When ready:

• Manuscript peer review confirms suitability for publication.
• Editorial Board review the manuscript peer reviews, and author response.
• Editorial Board communicate any required work before the sign off the project into production.
• The final manuscript is taken into production and goes through the normal processes (copyediting, typesetting, indexing etc.). WRUP will work with the author on the design of the volume and cover, and on marketing.

The monograph will be released in a range of formats and offered freely via the WRUP website. Print on demand copies can also be ordered for payment.

There will be a dedicated monograph launch event at the University of Leeds.

Who are White Rose University Press (WRUP)?

WRUP is a not-for-profit open access digital publisher of peer-reviewed academic journals and books, publishing across a wide range of academic disciplines. We are run jointly by the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York.

We are committed to open access dissemination of research and teaching materials, ensuring academic quality, and supporting innovation in digital publishing. We work closely with authors during the development and production stages, and in marketing and raising awareness of publications. Our monographs are published to a high standard, are indexed in OA indexes and in library catalogues, and are available through JSTOR.

WRUP opened in 2016 and in 2018 published its first monographs. In under 2 years on release, WRUPs first monographs – the archaeological volumes on Star Carr – have a combined view and downloads totals of over 20,000. This is due to the scale and visibility of the Star Carr project. Our volume of the diaries of Madeleine Blaess has been viewed and downloaded almost 3,000 times in just over 12 months.

As an open access digital publisher, White Rose University Press is committed to supporting the growing move to open scholarship.

What does open access mean?

Open access (OA) publications are primarily digital and are made available free of charge without the need for user authentication, meaning they can reach a global audience. One of the main benefits of open access is that this content is available to all, regardless of location, status or economic situation. It expands the potential audience beyond those who have access to expensive academic resources, meaning that practitioners and policy makers can be informed by current scholarship.

Open access publishing also removes barriers around the sharing and reuse of content, allowing academics to build on research published by others, maximising the value (academic and financial) from research projects. It opens up new opportunities to combine existing findings with new research to expand academic horizons, and enables interdisciplinary collaboration in a new way.

WRUP OA content is published under Creative Commons Licences which ensure that copyright remains with authors. You retain ownership of your work: how your work can be shared, used and reused depends on the Creative Commons Licence applied. Full attribution is required to accompany all reuse and dissemination. As WRUP is not-for-profit, and the aim is to disseminate content for free, authors do not receive royalties.