Publishing Books through KU Libraries

Are you a KU faculty or staff member and have an idea for a scholarly book that can be made freely available to all readers?  KU Libraries Digital Publishing Services can help.  KU faculty and staff are encouraged to submit proposals for open access scholarly ebooks such as biographies, monographs, collected works, bibliographies, histories, and more.  The ebooks published by KU Libraries are made openly available to a global audience through KU ScholarWorks, KU's online institutional repository of work by KU faculty, staff and students.

If you are interested in publishing an openly-licensed textbook, please contact Heather MacBean, Open Education Librarian, at heather-macbean@ku.edu.

If you are interested in publishing a scholarly ebook, please read the information below and contact Marianne Reed, Digital Publishing & Repository Manager at mreed@ku.edu.

Eligibility

  1. The author must be a current or emeritus KU faculty or staff member.
  2. All materials must be able to be shared openly in KU ScholarWorks, so that anyone in the world can read them.  Books that need to be restricted to a certain audience are not suitable for this service.
  3. The material must be provided in digital form, preferably Microsoft Word documents or accessible PDFs.  Materials that are only available in paper form will not be accepted. 
  4. Any supplementary material such as photographs, audio clips, and videos can be added to the KU ScholarWorks record as long as the author has the rights to share the material.
  5. Copyright and Intellectual Property
    • Copyright in the work remains with the author.  Authors are fully responsible for the content of the work that they publish with KU Libraries and agree to hold KU harmless from any claims, losses, damages or legal actions arising from our dissemination of the work.
    • Authors must have permission from the copyright holder for uses of materials from other sources beyond those allowed by Fair Use as provided in U.S. copyright law.   For more information about copyright and Fair Use in scholarship, please see Copyright Resources: Using Copyrighted Works in Scholarship

Please note:  KU Libraries reserves the right to refuse to publish any book for any reason by notifying the author. 

Our Services

All services are offered free of charge by KU Libraries Digital Publishing Services. 

  1. Make the book available free of charge to readers through KU ScholarWorks, KU's online institutional repository. 
  2. Consult with authors about best practices in publishing, including copyright and licensing, and obtaining peer review, graphic design, and copyediting from other providers.
  3. Advise authors about the best ways to promote their books
  4. Provide an ISBN for the book.  
  5. Format the finished work for publication and provide a simple cover, if requested.
  6. Print-on-Demand:  If the author contracts with Jayhawk Ink, a service of the Kansas Union Bookstore, or any other service to print paper copies of the work, a digital copy of the work formatted to that services' specifications will be provided to the author for delivery to the service.  One Print-on-Demand link can be added to the KU ScholarWorks record so that interested readers can purchase a print copy of the work. 
  7. Provide a DOI for the book in KU ScholarWorks on request.

Getting Started

Authors interested in publishing a scholarly book through KU Libraries Digital Publishing Services should first review the Eligibility requirements on this page, then contact Marianne Reed, Digital Publishing & Services Manager at mreed@ku.edu for a consultation to see if our publishing services are a good fit for your book.

Selected Books Published by KU Libraries

Digital Publishing & Repository Contact

Marianne Reed
Digital Publishing & Repository Manager
mreed@ku.edu
785-864-8913

 

KU Libraries Digital Publishing & Repository programs in the news

Book published by KU Libraries:
Re-creations of 1870s railway photos reveal profound change to Kansas, Colorado plains