Guide to Publishing Resources at the University of Michigan
From MPublishing
The following information has been brought together by MPublishing to provide a helpful and comprehensive resource for understanding the publishing options available at the University of Michigan. Our goal is as follows: We envision a resource that can accommodate a wide variety of questions and needs loosely grouped under the heading of “publishing.” This resource would provide insightful answers to questions such as:
- I’m a graduate student who wants to publish something online but I’m not sure it’s OK to do so.
- I want to learn how to use InDesign.
- My tenure portfolio includes web publishing and I’m looking for examples of best-practices for presenting this information to my tenure and promotion
committee.
- I’m an ESL grad student who needs someone to proofread my dissertation with an eye to language issues. Can you recommend anyone?
- Can you help me locate a good (editor/designer/indexer) for my book that is under contract with the University of Nebraska Press?
- All of the textbook options in my field are exceptionally expensive. My colleagues and I want to pull together some of our own writings on this topic and create an affordable, scaled-back book for our students. We want it to be available for reading devices and in print.
- I’ve heard a lot about Creative Commons licensing – should I use this for my journal article?
- I’m interested in alternatives to commercial publishing but my department colleagues don’t really get it. Can someone come to my department’s faculty meeting to explain these alternatives?
- I need help clearing rights on images for my forthcoming book from Duke University Press.
- Can someone help me with my publishing contract?
- My creative writing class wants to publish an anthology. Can we use the Espresso Book Machine for that?
- I don’t understand the Google Book Settlement. How is it going to affect my published books? Should I opt in?
- My journal needs a peer review management system. Can you recommend one that we could use?
- I need help getting my first book published – can you connect me with a good university press?
- I have a box with a bunch of research notes and ideas and I want to put them online in some way. Can you help?
- We’re a small publishing unit on campus and need [fill in the blank].
Such a web portal could begin simply as bringing together links to and information about existing resources; new or extended features could be added as staff, finances, and University strategic initiatives dictate. Ideally, this centralized point of information and services would encompass the following areas: consulting and in-depth assistance with project planning, referrals to campus services that can assist with project realization, and the promotion of these services. A side benefit of project planning assistance and consulting could be the identification of new publishing projects appropriate for SPO or the UM Press. The existing entities brought together via the portal would also benefit from increased visibility and promotion resulting from an additional point of discovery and access.
Service: Consulting and in-depth assistance with electronic or print publishing project planning
MPublishing Formerly: Scholarly Publishing Office (SPO)
Overview: MPublishing is the primary academic publishing division of the University of Michigan. It creates, promotes, distributes and preserves scholarly, educational and regional materials in digital and print formats. By bringing together the talents and resources of the University of Michigan Press, the Scholarly Publishing Office, Deep Blue (the University’s institutional repository service), the Copyright Office, and the Text Creation Partnership, MPublishing builds upon the traditional publishing strengths of the University of Michigan while creating and shaping sustainable publishing models for the future. MPublishing focusses on the best application of technology to the world of scholarly publishing. It is committed to improving the copyright climate for scholarship. It develops services for areas of publishing growth otherwise underserved within the University community.
Overview: This service, supported by the Office of the Provost, is “devoted to aiding faculty members in their effort to publish their work. Focusing on tenure-track faculty, the Author-Publisher Liaison (APL) will help to demystify the publication process and provide assistance navigating it from proposal preparation to publication. The APL will provide publishing-related services and guidance on such aspects as approaching acquisitions editors, manuscript submissions, identifying the market, and understanding subventions, permissions, and contract terms. The APL will work with authors to reduce the time from submission to publication and, importantly, free-up precious time of faculty for teaching, writing, and research.”
University Library Copyright Office
Overview: offers one-on-one support for a range of publishing and copyright questions. The Library’s copyright specialist can help clients understand publishing agreements, and assist with negotiations to retain the rights in their scholarly works, including the right to make their work freely available online.
Many campus units that can assist in the nuts-and-bolts tasks required to take a publishing project from idea to reality already exist. These cover a wide array of services, from instruction and consultation to digital reformatting to hosting and printing. There is likely some overlap among these units, which may be brought to light during the referatory implementation.
Service: Project implementation components
Overview: “The University of Michigan’s institutional repository, an online service that provides open access to published and previously unpublished work by University of Michigan faculty and students.”
Overview: The EBM is a book-making machine that automatically prints, binds, and trims - on demand - library-quality paperback books with 4-color covers indistinguishable from their factory made versions. Uses for the machine include printing and binding theses and dissertations, faculty-authored books and other materials, and books produced by classes such as anthologies of creative writing.
The University of Michigan Press
Overview: “The mission of the University of Michigan Press is to publish books that incorporate the best of scholarly research in a wide range of humanities and social science disciplines; to publish related educational texts for student audiences—with special emphasis in the area of English language teaching; to publish in as well as about the emerging digital world; to publish books for nonacademic audiences that advance public understanding of the many vexed political, social, and cultural issues faced by a global, multicultural society; to publish books that enrich the general culture in fiction and the arts; and to publish books that highlight the human history, natural history, and changing environment of Michigan and the Great Lakes.”
Overview: “a web-based program, originated at the University of Michigan, that lets non-technical people make highly customized websites and web-databases … UM.SiteMaker is specifically designed to distribute administrative control and responsibility to people in Schools, Colleges, Departments, Centers, etc., in contrast to many other systems that are administered centrally.”
