Website Publishing

AU Press is dedicated to open access and digital publishing in order to serve the needs of a global community of adult learners. With emerging technology, digital scholarly publishing is no longer limited to e-book and e-journal formats. Websites, various media formats, and interactive media are also means of disseminating high quality scholarly material and resources for academic research.

AU Press will publish websites under its imprint that have scholarly parameters and standards (e.g. primary sources in labour studies, Métis and gender studies, the environment, etc.). Each website published by AU Press will be research content-based and subjected to an initial editorial peer-review assessment and periodic reviews.

Evaluation Criteria for Scholarly Websites

To be eligible to bear the AU Press (Athabasca University Press) imprint, a scholarly website should:

• comply with the technical standards of AU Press and reside on AU Press servers;
• have as its main objective the accessibility of digital scholarly material for a readership of scholars or any other researchers;
• be re-evaluated regularly (annually);
• demonstrate excellence and significance in content. Objectives and content should be distinct and meet a scholarly need;
• follow a rigorous selection/editorial process;
• have academically credible founders/management;
• conform to industry standards for website design;
• include original material as often as possible;
• be easily searchable;
• have new material added regularly; and
• encourage interactivity with readers.

Scholarly websites being evaluated for the AU Press imprint may also be subject to a business assessment.

If you are interested in publishing a website with AU Press, please complete and submit a Scholarly Website Prospectus.