OUP launches book prize for early career researchers
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Oxford University Press (OUP) has announced a new annual prize for early career researchers in the humanities and social sciences who are looking to publish their first book.
The inaugural prize will open for submissions in January 2025, awarding up to ten applicants with the opportunity to publish their original and innovative work fully open access.
Early career researchers across the humanities and social sciences face steep challenges, such as navigating the current job market and securing funding for their projects. This is at a time when their research approaches are needed to help bring understanding to society’s biggest problems.
Books selected by the First Book Prize will be published fully open access (OA) on OUP’s Oxford Academic platform with a complete OA fee waiver, in addition to publication in hardback. By publishing this work open access, OUP aims to make this work available to as wide an audience as possible, both within and beyond academia, and unlock opportunity for those at the start of their careers.
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Sophie Goldsworthy, Director of Content Strategy & Acquisition, commented: ‘Our work with early career researchers often focuses on helping scholars ensure their work stands out and the demystification of the publishing process, but we know that open access fees remain a barrier to many and publishing openings are limited. The research monograph is of pivotal importance, allowing an author the space to make a sustained argument, and with the OUP First Book Prize we are creating an opportunity to help disseminate the best new work as widely as possible. We are excited to see the submissions.’
Nandini Das, Professor of Early Modern English Literature and Culture at the University of Oxford, is also an OUP Delegate and is acting as adviser on the prize. She added: ‘This is a thrilling new initiative that champions the transformative power of humanities and social science research, which enables us to understand our world and its complexities in fundamental ways. At a time when the higher education landscape and such research are both under ever-increasing pressure, the OUP First Book Prize will provide a global platform for excellent and original research from the next generation of scholars.’
Eligible early career researchers are those within six years of their first academic appointment, excluding career breaks, who wish to publish their first academic book. Applicants can be based anywhere globally. While all eligible applicants are encouraged, the First Book Prize particularly welcomes applications from aspiring authors from underrepresented backgrounds and those working on diverse subjects.
