Our shared purpose
University presses are mission-led parts of the knowledge ecosystem, rooted in universities and scholarly communities.
We are a diverse community, working across different disciplines, languages, regions, scales and publishing models. What connects us is a shared commitment to scholarship and to the institutions and communities that create, use and sustain it.
We publish and steward trusted knowledge, working with authors, editors, reviewers, libraries, learned societies, universities and others to develop scholarship and connect it with readers around the world.
Together, our work forms part of the critical infrastructure of scholarship.
Why University Presses matter
- We uphold quality, integrity and trust.
University presses create, identify and authenticate trusted content; we are a critical part of the research infrastructure through which scholarly communities establish authority, trust and accountability. In an environment increasingly shaped by misinformation and disinformation, platform dependency and fragmented discovery, trusted stewardship is increasing in importance. - We connect universities, scholarship and society.
University presses serve the wider scholarly ecosystem – across researchers, editors, reviewers, learned societies, universities, funders, policymakers, practitioners and professionals, students and readers and libraries. Many of these are increasingly becoming partners in open research through their own institutional and library publishing programmes, as well as through partnerships with practice across a range of disciplines. University presses also help scholarship reach wider audiences and markets outside academia. Our value goes far beyond direct services to authors or outputs, supporting the functioning of the research and knowledge system as a whole. - We champion the full diversity of scholarship, sustaining knowledge and ideas whose value extends far beyond their commercial returns.
University presses support a diversity of disciplines, formats, languages, communities and long-term scholarly projects. We often sustain work that has significant intellectual, cultural, or public value, but limited immediate commercial return. This includes monographs, publications in specialist fields, regional scholarship, multilingual work, works in emerging disciplines and research intended for relatively small but important audiences. - We keep value within the knowledge ecosystem.
University presses keep mission and value close to scholarship. We are accountable to academic, educational and public purposes. We retain and reinvest resources in scholarship, publishing capability and their wider institutional purposes, rather than extracting returns for external shareholders. - We can help shape what comes next.
University presses can bridge policy and practice. Our position within the university ecosystem gives university presses a distinctive opportunity to connect publishing practice with research strategy, academic reward and recognition, impact and civic engagement policies, library policy, funder requirements, technological change and institutional governance.
Our commitments
As signatories to this Charter, we commit to:
- Put quality and integrity first.
Prioritising rigorous peer review, strong academic and editorial oversight, integrity and public value over volume. - Create transparency about value, services and choices.
Making the work we do and the value we deliver, and the decisions and trade-offs that shape our publishing more visible, including editorial and peer review, the services and trade-offs behind different publishing models, and how resources and surpluses are reinvested. Being open about the choices involved in balancing access, quality, equity, service and sustainability. - Keep human judgement at the center of AI in publishing.
Developing responsible approaches to AI that preserve scholarly accountability and human judgement, while ensuring copyright compliance in licensing, responsibly managing licensed content used by AI, supporting attribution wherever possible, and keeping people connected to how scholarly work is used. - Expand participation in knowledge, and make all our work equity first.
Committing to expanding global access to knowledge, including routes to openness where possible, and addressing barriers faced by researchers in low- and middle-income countries and less well-funded institutions - Support fair reward and recognition for scholarly contributions.
Championing responsible research assessment and supporting appropriate recognition, training and credit for the contributions of reviewers, editors and others involved in scholarly publishing processes. - Work with our communities to improve the system.
Continuing to prioritise collaborations and conversations with researchers, libraries, universities, funders and other partners; collaborating where shared action can make a difference; and using our distinctive position within the knowledge ecosystem not simply to preserve existing systems, but to help shape better ones.
A shared commitment
There is no single model for a university press, nor a single route to a better scholarly communication system.
By signing this Charter, we affirm what we all share: a commitment to trustworthy scholarship, the advancement of knowledge and responsible stewardship of the scholarly ecosystem.
We also commit to working, with each other and with partners across the communities of which we are a part, to ensure that university publishing continues to evolve for the global public good.