We are very pleased to welcome Deputy Vice Chancellor: Research and Innovation, Professor Nick Plant, and White Rose University Press Manager, Kate Petherbridge to launch the Leeds Early Career Publishing Prize 2025. We will also hear from Dr Alice Siberry who won the Sheffield Early Career Publishing Prize in 2023. Her debut book, “Diversity, Difference or Disorder: Neurodiversity in British Policing”, is currently in development with the White Rose University Press.

This University of Leeds initiative celebrates early career research and supports authors in developing an open access monograph. The prize will be open for submissions from 24 Feb - 30 Sept 2025. Entries will be welcome from University of Leeds PhD graduates whose doctoral degrees were awarded between Jan 2022 and the submission deadline. Entrants will submit a proposal showing how they would deliver their doctoral research as a monograph, and a sample chapter of the proposed book.

Prize-winners will each receive a £250 cash prize, and their proposals will be considered for publication by White Rose University Press (WRUP). WRUP will follow its normal quality-driven commissioning process, based on rigorous peer review, ensuring authors are supported throughout. If their book is commissioned, authors will be guided through each stage of the production process, and all publication costs will be paid for by the University of Leeds.

About Dr Alice Siberry

Alice received her PhD in Criminology and Law from the University of Sheffield in July 2021. With experience in the criminal justice and neurodiversity sector, she has worked with North and West Yorkshire Police, and the Independent Office of Police Conduct, and lectured at the University of Sheffield and York St John University.

As a Specialist Neurodiversity Consultant and the Academic Lead at Creased Puddle. Alice provides training, consultancy and Workplace Needs Assessments, as well as working on collaborative research projects.

Having received the Early Career Publishing Prize in 2023, Alice has thoroughly enjoyed the collaborative and enriching process of writing her first book with the White Rose University Press, which has been an invaluable opportunity to develop her ideas and share her research, via Open Access, with a broader audience.