Publishing with Purpose
Shorts
Our Shorts are between 20-50,000 words and are available as e-books and in print with a shorter production schedule.
We publish two types of Shorts under both Bristol University Press and Policy Press:
Research: books providing the latest cutting-edge or topical research findings (longer than an article but shorter than a monograph) publishing in hardback for an international market with a lower priced eBook which allows for individual purchase;
Insights: books covering issues of wide interest and where a timely intervention is likely to attract substantial media coverage and reach a broad non-specialist audience, these accessibly-written Shorts enable authors to join the debate authoritatively and quickly and are published as low-price paperbacks and eBooks.
Policy Press also publish the following Shorts:
Policy and practice: as part of our commitment to impact and engaging with a wider audience, we also publish ‘policy and practice’ Shorts where there is support with dissemination through Open Access, organisational links, course buy-in or other direct routes to the policy and practice audience.
Written by experts in their fields, these formats provide high quality, peer reviewed content quickly and are available for both personal purchase and for libraries and institutions through the usual channels.
Download a Shorts proposal form, including detailed guidelines, here.
Basic Income Experiments
Theory, Practice and Politics
This book offers a detailed review of completed, ongoing and planned basic income experiments in order to examine the value of and complications inherent in conducting such experiments and to provide best-practice guidelines for future social experimentation and policy development.

- ForthcomingPaperback
- Currently not availablePDF
- Currently not availableEPUB
Minority Ethnic Prisoners and the COVID-19 Lockdown
Issues, Impacts and Implications
This insightful book identifies the risks posed by prison lockdowns to minority ethnic prisoners, foreign national prisoners and prisoners from Traveller and Roma communities who are disproportionately represented in prisons across the UK and Ireland.

- ForthcomingHardback
- Currently not availableEPUB
The Politics of Ailment
A New Approach to Care
Challenging the ethics of care as a tradeable commodity, this book introduces the concept of ailment as a framework for understanding social care. Providing examples from Britain and Finland, it demonstrates how ailment shapes all societies, and by addressing the marketisation of care, the authors bring to light increasing inequalities in care.

- ForthcomingHardback
- Currently not availableEPUB
Public Service Motivation?
Rethinking What Motivates Public Actors
Christopher O’Leary provides a fresh perspective on prosocial working choices in this first substantive critique of Public Service Motivation. The book reviews concepts of PSM and research to date and explores the rationales and aims of public and third sector workers before proposing alternative theories for people’s motivations to serve.

- ForthcomingHardback
- Currently not availableEPUB
Experiments in Automating Immigration Systems
Identifying a pattern of risky experimentation with automated systems in the Home Office, this book outlines precautionary measures that are essential to ensure that society benefits from government automation without exposing individuals to unacceptable risks.

- ForthcomingHardback
- Currently not availableEPUB
Policing the Pandemic
How Public Health Becomes Public Order
Written in the context of the #Blacklivesmatter protests, this book explores why law enforcement responses to a public health emergency are prioritised over welfare provision and what this tells us about the state’s criminal justice institutions.

- ForthcomingPaperback
- Currently not availableEPUB
Transformational Moments in Social Welfare
What Role for Voluntary Action?
During the consolidation of the Welfare State in the 1940s, and its reshaping in the 2010s, the boundaries between the state, voluntary action, the family and the market were called into question. This book explores the impact of these ‘transformational moments’ on the role, position and contribution of voluntary action to social welfare.

- ForthcomingHardback
- Currently not availableEPUB
Reforming the UK’s Citizenship Test
Building Bridges, Not Barriers
Thom Brooks draws on first-hand experience and interviews with key figures including past Home Secretaries to expose the UK's Citizenship test as ineffective and a barrier to citizenship. This accessible guide offers recommendations for transforming the citizenship test into a ‘bridge to citizenship’ which fosters greater inclusion and integration.

- ForthcomingHardback
- Currently not availableEPUB
Deliberative Mini-Publics
Core Design Features
Bringing together ten leading researchers in the field of deliberative democracy, this important book examines the features of a Deliberative Mini-Public (DMP) and considers the contributions that DMPs can make not only to the policy process, but also to the broader agenda of revitalising democracy in contemporary times.

- ForthcomingHardback
- Currently not availableEPUB