Please submit two sample chapters with the Author Proposal Form when making a submission to Cork University Press. We will no longer accept the Author Proposal Form alone. This will help us to speed up the evaluation process. The editorial committee will look at this material and if they think the proposal is of interest they will send these two chapters to two external readers who are knowledgeable in the field for peer review. Readers are asked to present their reports within twelve weeks of receipt. If the reports are positive then the author is sent the reports and is asked to send an engaged response to them, to be further considered by the committee. If the committee is satisfied with the response, then the full manuscript is requested for full peer review. At this point, we usually send the author an interim contract, subject to the review of the full text. The committee will subsequently discuss these final two readers' reports and decide if the project should proceed.

If the manuscript is declined by the committee at either stage of the peer review process, the Press will not engage in ongoing communication with the author, due to limited resources. Please note that even if two positive reports are received it is entirely up to the editorial committee to decide if a contract is to be offered or not. Cork University Press is limited in the number of books it can publish in a year.

Important: We do not publish PhD theses as they stand, so please follow the link below for guidelines on how to turn a thesis into a book. Cork University Press has well-developed marketing channels to ensure that your book receives the exposure that it deserves. We have excellent trade representation to service our bookshop customers worldwide. An integral part of this is our distributor network in Ireland, UK and North America. In addition, we also sell direct from this online bookshop. Publicity and promotion are other tools that we use to give your book's exposure and we have excellent contacts within the Irish and UK media. Please note that Cork University Press cannot accept proposals that have been submitted to other publishers.

Cork University Press is a name trusted by students and scholars worldwide as an indication of the best scholarly content and best quality production. We are always on the lookout for academically rigorous monographs. If you have an idea for a monograph then please email the Editor, [email protected], for an informal discussion.

The peer review and commissioning process

We pride ourselves on publishing high quality, scholarly works, and in order to maintain a high standard of publications, all book proposals and manuscripts undergo a rigorous process of assessment by peer review.

How long will the peer review process take?

We ask reports to be returned within eight to twelve weeks. However, this review process can take longer due to the need to find a suitable and available reviewer, the length of the submission and the workload of the reviewer. We always aim to ask the best academics in the field to review submissions. On average the review process takes about eight weeks.

How many reports are required?

At least two positive reports are required for every work commissioned.

What happens when the reports come in?

Once the reports are positive and the Editorial Committee consider that the project is worth possibly pursuing, the reports are sent to the author for their comments and feedback. This is an important part of the review process as it gives the author a chance to defend or agree with any criticisms or suggestions made and, if necessary, make revisions to the original submission. It is our policy to protect the identity of reviewers by making all reports anonymous. If the reports are negative then the submission would be declined for publication at this stage. We do not send out the peer reviewers' reports to authors whose work has been rejected.


Why are Book Proposals Rejected by Cork University Press?

Academic publishing is highly selective. Cork University Press publishes Ireland-related books that contain high-quality content written by leading experts, established or early career, in their scholarly field. Your proposal may be rejected for reasons relating to scope, quality or logistics, including, for example, the below:

Scope

Not Ireland-related

Not academic (the Press does not publish creative writing, ie. fiction and poetry)

Overly personal (in general, the Press does not publish memoirs)

Quality

Monograph that is insufficiently adapted from a PhD thesis

Monograph that is based on an MA thesis

Edited collection that arises from a conference and is insufficiently adapted for publication

Lacks a scholarly apparatus

Author is not an expert (established or early career) in the scholarly field

Content is outdated

References are not up-to-date and/or include a high proportion of self-citations

Content doesn't advance the scholarly field

Plagiarism is identified

Quality or style of writing is inappropriate for publication by an academic publishing house

Logistics

Book is under review by another publisher

Book proposal is incomplete

Copyright content not properly acknowledged, cleared or documented

Too expensive to produce

Insufficient market

When will a contract be offered?

Once the reports and the author's response have been received by us, then the editorial committee will decide whether a contract will be considered at the next editorial committee meeting. If the Editorial Committee think the text is ready to be sent to contract then the final decision is made by the Publications Committee of Cork University Press.

However, if the Editorial Committee think the material should be contracted yet still needs some work before production can begin, then the author is asked to present a final version of the text with the changes made that were suggested by the peer reviewers. When the final manuscript is submitted it will be sent out to one of the original reviewers for a final short report, to ensure that the changes and suggestions were taken onboard. This usually takes between six and eight weeks, depending on the availability of the reviewer and the length of time it takes them to read the manuscript and write their report. One positive report is needed at this stage. Once the report is in, it is forwarded to the Editorial Committee and if the report is positive it is then sent to the author and any last changes are to be made. If substantial changes are required then the manuscript is likely to be reviewed again once the revisions have been made. The final decision on whether this text is to be contracted is then taken by the Publications Committee of Cork University Press.

This decision is based not just on the strength of the reports and the response but also on the potential saleability of the book, the market and competition, and the working out of provisional production costs to make sure the submission is financially viable. This financial viability is, of course, helped if there is funding of some sort coming with the project and we are more than happy to acknowledge funders in a prominent location in any of our books. Once the Board agree to contract the book, then terms are negotiated with the author by our Publications Director, Mike Collins.

What is the Editorial Committee?

The Editorial Committee is made up of distinguished academics at University College Cork. These academics are drawn from within the Humanities and are experts in the field of Irish Studies, the area in which we publish. All communications for the Editorial Committee should go through Maria O'Donovan [email protected]

What happens after the book is contracted?

Once a work is under contract, the author is left to finalise the text, collate all images required (including the clearing of copyright on those images and on lengthy quotations used in the text), and possibly also suggest an image or concept for the jacket design. The author is then asked to submit the completed manuscript and other materials before or on the agreed delivery date. The Editor will be in touch regularly to check on the author's progress and will be there to answer any questions or queries the author may have. If an author thinks that they may not be able to operate within the agreed contract terms (e.g. the agreed delivery date, or the contracted word length, or number of illustrations) then they should contact the Editor as soon as possible.

What happens when I submit the complete manuscript?

Before submitting the final manuscript please refer to our "Typescript Delivery Checklist" which is available in the section called "Information for Authors" on the home page of our website to ensure that all necessary materials are being submitted.

Once the final manuscript is submitted to the Editor, the material is checked carefully to ensure that all copyright is cleared, where necessary, all images are supplied with captions and location indicated, etc. If working on a text that will require extensive design work then it may be necessary for the author to meet with the Editor to decide on how best to layout the material in the book. This is not always necessary but can be valuable if the author has specific expectations on the layout of the text that need to be taken onboard before production begins.

Once these matters are decided, then the production proper will begin. The text will be sent to a copy editor who will copy edit the text. This process takes a number of weeks and there are normally a list of queries to be sorted by the author as a result of the copy editor's work. Once the copy editor's corrections are made by the typesetter and the answers are received from the author, then the typesetter sets the text, paging it into book form. Once this is completed then the proofs are created and sent to a proofreader and also to the author for proofreading. At this point only minor changes should be noted. The author's and proofreader's corrections will then be sent to the typesetter who will create a final proof to be sent to the indexer. Once the index is put together, then this is sent to the typesetter for setting and a final proof is created incorporating the index. This final proof is then sent to the author for a last look over, this should only take a day or so, to ensure there are no delays with sending the book to print.

If you have any questions about the review process of your manuscript then please do not hesitate to contact Maria O' Donovan [email protected] about your submission.