Introduction

Authors and/or book editors are encouraged to submit their book proposals online, for books which are not presently under consideration at another publisher, in a format defined by the author guidelines. Submitted proposals are pre-screened by plagiarism detection software both before and after internal peer review, prior to acceptance. We allow the author to track and participate in all activities related to the processing of the manuscript, such as the review process, copy editing, layout editing and proofreading of manuscripts, which are all managed online. The publisher utilises multiple communication channels such as email, text messaging and telephone calls, with the intent to provide status updates and action requests to authors. For this purpose, we ask that authors frequently visit their user profile and update it with the latest contact information.

Proposal and peer review process

Upon submitting your book proposal, the editorial staff will work towards assessing the form for completeness. The first stage involves pre-assessment by our internal editorial board to determine the suitability of the book proposal. If suitable, the funder will receive a quotation for the book processing charges for consideration and approval. The complete manuscript is submitted, and the publisher conducts external peer review for approval. After formal acceptance, the funder pays the books processing charges. The first stage involves language editing, after which the manuscript is returned to the corresponding author for review. This is the author’s final opportunity to make text changes to the manuscript and submit a revised version. At a final stage, the editorial staff will send the author one set of galley proofs, and the author will have the opportunity to mark any typographical errors. It may not be possible to incorporate author corrections in the printed version of the manuscript if the author fails to respond to proofreading requests. This will include the preparing of your index. Authors should visit their personalised homepage frequently to assess the location or stage of the manuscript. Finally, the open access book is assigned an appropriate CC-BY license and published as a PDF and EPUB and listed on DOAB.

Book types accepted

Book proposals are welcomed from all academic fields, in particular the Humanities and Social Sciences, such as Religious Studies, Business Science, Sociology, Education and Psychology. We publish the following types of scholarly books:

Monographs: A stand-alone work of original research or in-depth literature review by one or more authors.
Collected works: A stand-alone work assembled by one or more scholars in a field or related field, often as a supplement to a scholarly journal.
Collective works: A stand-alone work assembled by one or more scholars in several related fields and collectively reviewed.
Book series: A collection of volumes on a subject/field of study. Volumes can be monographs or collected/collective works. Book series usually produce one volume per year in an ongoing process.
PhD dissertations: A stand-alone work based on a recent PhD thesis, with evidence of substantial reworking (at least 50%) and additional (new) research additions.
Conference proceedings: A collection of shorter academic papers published in the context of an academic conference.

Timelines

A book proposed for publication in any given calendar year should be submitted no later than the end of October in the previous year. Peer review takes three (3) months from the date of receipt of the full manuscript, and if suitable publication takes another six (6) months.