UNISA Press

The University of South Africa Press has been publishing research work since 1956. Over the past fifty years, it has developed a strong publishing list, as well as specialised skills in academic and scholarly publishing. The Press has adapted well to changing circumstances and an evolving environment, and has built up a good reputation world-wide that bolsters the prestige and standing of the university.
Unisa Press has a vigorous journals publishing programme, with more than thirty journals – the only university press in South Africa to combine a books and journals publishing programme. This provides a unique platform for local researchers, while simultaneously ensuring visibility for African scholarship around the world. The journals section has been expanded, and successful partnerships are beginning to flourish, as with Taylor & Francis. While the potential is there to become the largest and most influential journal publisher in the region, we stand poised to become a publishing powerhouse for academic publications on the African continent.
Over the past fifty years, the University of South Africa Press has grown to become one of the largest and most influential university presses within Southern Africa, garnering international academic prestige with an excellent and competitive publishing list in terms of both scope and depth.
In recent years it has increasingly positioned itself in the international arena by fostering dynamic collaborative alliances with other international publishers such as Taylor & Francis, Brill, Rozenberg and the rapidly expanding SAVUSA Series, as well as with James Currey Publishers.
Unisa Press is the only university press in South Africa to combine a vigorous books and journals publishing programme with a wide range of subjects. Publishing focus areas are reviewed on a regular basis to tie in with contemporary issues significant to the country and the continent, whilst also being globally relevant.
The current focal point of Unisa Press is to become a leading university press on the African continent and to increase readership and an exchange of academic materials within Africa.
Whilst striving towards this mission, A-rated authors from across the continent are being actively recruited, and co-publication and co-distribution partnerships are being explored.
Unisa Press is committed to the promotion of scholarly communication by publishing outstanding research work, scholarly journals and books, as well as textbooks of high academic merit. There is a clear subject-specific focus on the publication of peer-reviewed original research within an African context. This provides a unique platform for local researchers, while simultaneously ensuring global visibility for African scholarship.
Professor Vusi S Mncube
Director: Unisa Press

Vision

• To publish and disseminate excellent research
• To find innovative solutions in an evolving publishing environment
• To deliver sustainable service

Mission

• Publish and disseminate research and knowledge development guided by integrity, quality, rigour and ethics;
• Cultivate and promote an institutional ethos, intellectual culture and research experiences that are conducive to critical discourse, intellectual curiosity, tolerance, and a diversity of views;
• Develop appropriate and efficient publication channels for research dissemination in the context of current global trends;Nurturing collaborative relationships with stakeholders in order to increase share and towards financial sustainability

Publishing model
Unisa Press functions within a classic university press model:

• The Senate Publications Committee oversees the acceptance of publications and the quality of peer review processes.
• Unisa Press publishes independent scholarly and academic books and has expanded into the broader specialist books arena.
• Unisa Press is also the publisher of accredited and non-accredited academic journals.

It publishes within diverse subject fields, from art history, architecture and psychology to sociology and African studies.
Unisa Press publishes within five focal areas

• knowledge generation and human capital development in response to the needs of South Africa and the African continent;
• the promotion of democracy, human rights and responsible citizenship;
• innovation and capacity building in science and technology;
• economic and environmental sustainability;
• open distance learning.

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