Pressing ahead

This month Dundee University Press Ltd quietly celebrated the publication of its 23rd title by adding another book jacket to the wall of its dedicated office on the fifth floor of the Tower Building. By the end of the academic year that number is expected to rise to over 30 enhancing the academic reputation of the University, taking its name to students, libraries, bookshops and wider abroad… and covering another wall of the Tower in book jackets.

Three years since its launch, DUP is still Scotland's youngest - and possibly boldest - university press. In that time it has successfully colonised a niche in the market, developing a reputation for student law books and steadily building a range of other titles including history, professional and science related topics.

The core of the DUP list is a popular series of Scots Law Essentials titles giving a fast track concise study guide to topics such as Criminal, Revenue, Evidence, Contract, Family - and most recently - Medical law. Priced around £13.50 and each in a colourful contemporary cover, the books are popular with students and have been adopted by Scotland's law schools as recommended reading. Practitioners too have found them useful refreshers in an ever changing environment. But DUP's best selling law book is Introduction to Law and Legal Obligations - a multi author title delivering the basics in law, which has sold nearly 2,000 copies and made the top four in the best sellers list in John Smiths bookshops throughout Scotland. DUP's law publisher is Carole Dalgleish, a graduate of Aberdeen and Cambridge based at Stirling and an energetic commissioner. She has recently been joined by Edinburgh based Jenny Blair who is developing the practitioner list. Karen Howatson based in Selkirk completes the law editorial team.

So far Glasgow based authors have dominated the DUP law list but a number of titles by authors from Dundee's own School of Law are now in the pipeline and DUP looks forward to developing more. In addition to student texts, DUP is also building its list for practising lawyers - a market which it breached with the first published text on the new Family Law Scotland Act in 2006. The title, authored by Professor Kenneth Norrie Head of the School of Law at Strathclyde University sold well and has been followed by several more including Childhood and Crime by Dr Claire McDiarmid and DUP's most recent title, Oil and Gas Law: Current Practice and Emerging Trends - a 500 page "must have" volume for specialists in this area, in a stunningly designed cover. Another for this market, coming soon, is Philip Andrew Speed's International Competition for Resources: The Role of Law, the State and of Markets.

History is another key area for DUP and its series of five volumes - Scotland the Making and Unmaking of the Nation - constitute a statement about Dundee's strength and commitment in this area. The books, edited by Professor Bob Harris and Dr Alan MacDonald, are companion volumes to the distance learning course on Scottish History run by the University of Dundee and the Open University and have also proved popular with the wider public who have taken good advantage of series discount available only online through the dup website www.dup.dundee.ac.uk Gilfillan of Dundee, by Dundee history researcher Aileen Black explores the life of this maverick Victorian clergyman and a number of other history titles including Patrick Geddes: A Democratic Intellect by Professor Murdo Macdonald, will be published over the coming two years.

One of the more unexpected successes is a book which derived from an early competition for Best Book Proposals. Shut up and Listen by Cathy Jackson at the Medical School with cartoons by Professor Geoff Gadd at Life Sciences, has sold steadily since its launch and been widely adopted by medical schools and health bodies.

Another University of Dundee authored book is Circles: Science, Sense and Symbol by Psychology's Professor of Visual Psychology Nick Wade - an intriguing exploration of the significance of circles to mankind, it has been described as "a bit like Longitude but with more grey matter". The September launch was accompanied by a striking exhibition in the Queen Mother Building.

When Professor Sue Black tendered for the UK's first Disaster Victim Identification course one of the key features of her bid was the University's ability to publish the accompanying handbook through DUP. As a result Disaster Victim Identification - the Practitioners' Guide will appear early in 2008 and is expected to be the reference tome for all DVI practitioners.

In a loosely related area, DUP will next year publish titles on Municipal Policing by one of Scotland's leading experts Daniel Donnelly and a Guide to the Vulnerable Witnesses Scotland Act. Also in the pipeline is Matters of Life and Death by writer and broadcaster Sue Armstrong - a title developed in association with the British Pathological Society and based on a series of fascinating interviews with leading pathologists throughout the world.

"We are always on the look out for good proposals, especially in academic areas where there is a clear need to fill a gap and where there is an assured market," said Carol Pope DUP Publishing Manager. "DUP is already strong in law and history but we are also keen to develop in other areas particularly relating to professions including energy, policing, accountancy."

Proposals are considered by the Editorial Board, chaired by Professor Chris Whatley and passed for approval to the Board of Directors which has recently appointed a new chairman -University Court member Eric Sanderson

Chris Whatley: "Publishing is a long game and DUP has made remarkable progress in a relatively short period of time. The outlook is a positive one with a growing list of strong titles developing good sales, a reputation for sound and accessible academic books, a hard working team and a well grounded sense of where we are going and where we want to be."