Leuven University Press has over 50 years of publishing experience in the sector, and has built up a strong book collection in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Another of its revered areas is in the publishing of art and artists' books. This publishing speciality is cultivated through collaborative ventures with international museums and galleries.

As a full member of the Association of University Presses and a founding member of the Association of European University Presses, the Press remains steadfast in its commitment to advancing scholarly discourse and collaboration on a global scale. It is a press whose new titles are already majority open access, with plans to grow this proportion with the support of OBC and our supporters.

Mission and Values

• High-quality: the high-quality standard of our publications is guaranteed by rigorous peer review, and the watchful eye of LUP’s independent editorial board and the different editorial boards coordinating our longstanding and upcoming book series.
• Inclusiveness: we promote low-threshold access to academic content on the one hand and to publishing on the other. We (aspire to) remove as many barriers as possible in terms of geography, age, career stage, gender, ethnicity, and financial means. Currently, LUP is on board to get ready for the European Accessibility Act, learning how to accommodate our digital publications to the accessibility requirements of persons with disabilities.
• Transparency: we advocate transparency. Exemplary are the ways of our peer review process (default single-blind peer review, open upon consent of the referee), the breakdown of book processing charges in open access publishing, and our communication to authors what to expect from a collaboration with LUP.
• Care and professionalism: our authors and book titles, whether closed or open access, are guided, promoted and distributed with a high level of care and professionalism.
• Democratisation of knowledge: by fostering an open access publishing culture and entering into particular partnerships we support the worldwide democratisation of knowledge.

Governance

Leuven University Press is affiliated with KU Leuven. LUP’s governance includes a board of directors and an editorial advisory board.

The board of directors is composed of the managing director of KU Leuven, the vice rector of Research Policy, the head of KU Leuven libraries, the academic chair of LUP, the chair of LUP’s editorial board, and four professors from different faculties. At an annual meeting the board discusses the state of affairs of the past year and looks ahead to the next one.

The editorial advisory board is composed of KU Leuven affiliated and non-affiliated academics, and serves as the arbiter and gatekeeper for the acceptance of book proposals. The editorial board assembles five times per year to discuss the new book proposals.