University Press of Colorado, University of Alaska Press, Utah State University Press, and University of Wyoming Press are deeply invested in building a strong future for scholarly publishing and scholarly communications that shares knowledge broadly and bridges spaces between communities. We are working toward a future in which the contributions of all knowledge holders, including scholars of color, LGBTQIA+ scholars, Indigenous scholars, disabled scholars, first-generation scholars, and immigrant scholars, are supported within disciplinary bodies of knowledge and larger conversations.
To make the ways that we are working to bring about this future transparent, we are sharing our commitments publicly.
- Commit to hiring and training 3–5 interns per calendar year and actively supporting all interested interns in their pursuit of full-time publishing careers after their time with us.
- Provide access to externally facing documentation that makes our publishing processes transparent to all parties.
- Meet the Association of University Presses best practices for accessibility with our website, social media, and all our publications.
- Deliver annual workshops on publishing for junior scholars and the wider public.
Our commitment to a strong and sustainable future for scholarly knowledge production is firm, and we will be revisiting, revising, and reporting on these goals annually to reflect current needs, as well as evolving standards and practices within our organization and beyond. We invite critiques on ways in which these goals could be improved and acknowledge that, as a publisher, we have long participated in systems and structures that have not always welcomed scholars outside traditional academic frameworks or pathways or made publication accessible to them. Please find an anonymous survey here where we welcome you to share your feedback and critiques with us.
As part of our commitment to transparent peer review and publication processes, we have included guidance for current and prospective authors regarding those processes and our publication timelines on our website here.
As a member of the Association of University Presses, we fully support the Joint Statement of Principles developed by the Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Publishing and the Statement on Equity & Anti-Racism ratified by the Equity, Justice, and Inclusion Committee and the AUPresses Board of Directors.
