Pressbooks Electronic Publishing Platform

Pressbooks is a WordPress-based online platform for self-publishing books in multiple formats: e-books, textbooks, webbooks, and print-ready PDFs. The software, which is open source, makes significant changes to the WordPress interface, web presentation, and export routines. Although popular with monographs, edited collections, and open textbooks, its built-in interactive H5P plug-in also makes it a good choice for Open Educational Resources.

The University of West Florida Libraries currently supports Pressbooks involving an author agreement with the library and working on a publication timeline (the application is available below).

List Of Books Published By UWF

1. Medical Terminology for Healthcare Professionals by Andrea Nelson and Katherine Greene
2. Mental Health Is A Verb by Jake Bush and Jill Van Der Like
3. Leading Change in Health Systems: Strategies for RN-BSN Students by Kathy Andresen
4. Introduction to Environmental Science and Sustainability by Emily P. Harris
5. Exploring the U.S. Healthcare System by Karen Valaitis
6. Career Cornerstones: Establishing a Foundation for a Career in Healthcare by Andrea Nelson and Katherine Greene

Pressbooks Policy

The University of West Florida Libraries makes this platform available to you at no cost. In order to ensure the platform's stability, sustainability, and success, we request that users understand and adhere to the basic set of guidelines outlined below.

This policy is subject to change. Email us at pressbooks-group@uwf.edu if you have any questions. All faculty must have an active University of West Florida email address in order to begin a project.

1. All UWF faculty are eligible to apply for a Pressbooks. Because of our limited capacity, registration and account will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
2. All authors will be required to attend a Pressbooks and Copyright/Creative Commons Licensing Workshop or consultation.
3. All users should only upload and publish content owned by them, or third-party content that they have permission or a license to reuse or that falls under fair use. Read more about copyright.
4. Users are permitted to choose any Creative Commons License for their work. Read more about licensing. We highly encourage you to be as inclusive as possible and allow for derivatives.
5. The selection of featured works in our Pressbooks catalog is made at the Library's discretion. In order for a book to be featured on the site and be eligible for publishing-related services, it should be openly licensed, intended for use in the classroom and the spirit of OA and OER is to allow for derivative works. The Library retains discretion to feature works that are not openly licensed.
6. We expect users to stay within reasonable storage limits for uploaded content.
7. We encourage users to maximize the accessibility of their published works. Read more about accessibility.
8. All Pressbooks will be reviewed using the OER Review Standards and Approval Rubric: United States Edition. This review focuses on copyright, publishing, accessibility, cultural considerations, cost and Impact, resource/subject alignment, and ethical use of data.
9. If you need any of the following services, please contact us to request a consultation and assistance.
   • Assignment of an ISBN.
   • Creation of a MARC record.
   • Listing and/or indexing on the campus site and in the library catalog.
   • Editorial and production work, such as proofreading, copy editing, and formatting.
   • Web-related services, such as web development and website administration.
   • Listing the book in the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB).
10. All users will deposit a PDF or other appropriate copy Argo IRCommons Institutional Repository.
11. Users are responsible for managing their own Pressbooks accounts. Users who leave the University and wish to retain access to their accounts should make appropriate plans for transferring account ownership and files as necessary (read more about adding book collaborators and migrating files).

Pressbooks Guidelines

1. Use of the University of West Florida's Pressbooks is subject to the University's rules on Information Technology Policies, and the Pressbooks Terms of Service. All content placed on the service must comply with University of West Florida policies and local, state, and federal laws and may be subject to removal if it is found in violation. Content is the sole responsibility of its author(s).
2. University of West Florida faculty usually own the copyrights to their authored works, and can share them through Pressbooks (see more detail at Copyright @ UWF). The University of West Florida may own the copyrights to work created by some UWF staff (e.g. University specific guides). For questions about ownership, or about using existing works, contact mpackard@uwf.edu. Pressbooks also provides a mechanism for licensing the content of their blog with a Creative Commons license required). More information on Creative Commons licenses is available through the UWF Library Scholarly Communication Guide or through the Creative Commons website.
3. Make an effort to maximize the accessibility of any content you create on Pressbooks. The OER Accessibility Toolkit at the University of British Columbia provides several excellent suggestions on how to achieve accessibility.
4. The University Libraries reserves the right to change, at any time and at our sole discretion, the provisions of this service.

Pressbooks Application

You can use Pressbooks to publish textbooks, scholarly monographs, fiction and non-fiction books, and more in multiple formats, including EPUB and PDF. We currently accept applications from UWF Faculty who want to adopt, update/revise, or create a new online open-access book on this platform.

Please complete the Pressbooks Application, then compile and email these documents with the subject line Pressbook Application to pressbooks-group@uwf.edu.