Critical academic publishing

We are a different kind of academic publisher

Zed Books is an award-winning, critical, social science publisher specialising in internationally focused social science research and investigation. Our scholarly books and digital collections are tailor made for the academic market and are available to individuals and institutions across the globe.

Publishing excellence

We are academic publishing’s strongest advocate for diversity

We combine editorial expertise, proficiently managed peer review and exceptional publishing services with a commitment to increasing diversity and inclusion both within the academy and within academic publishing. Every aspect of our publishing is focused on excellence in the support of equality, diversity and social justice and our processes are designed to support critical social science research. This is where our expertise lies.

World leading, subject specialists

For over forty years our publishing has continuously broken new ground

We publish some of the world’s most identifiable and well-respected international politics, development and area studies subject lists. Our focus on both the Global North and South, as well as Western and Eastern hemispheres, has over the last four decades produced a vast catalogue of underrepresented and critical voices which, because of changes in global politics, are now coming to the fore.

Digital content and beautiful books

We get the right content, in the right way, to the right readers

Our product output spans a variety of different types of books and digital collections, all of which are available here, through Zed Scholar and through the Zed Books shop. We offer a variety of different publishing models, including Open Access, all of which are geared to getting crucial, critical social science research out into the right markets and across the right territories.

For academics
We publish some of the world’s most crucial and necessary voices

We are proud to publish the work of individuals who are driven not only by exceptional research and publication standards, but also by the desire to enhance diversity and internationalism within the academy and academic knowledge production.

For our publishing partners
We’re not afraid to partner with organisations that have explicit social and political missions

We partner with a range of organisations, including learned societies, institutes and social justice organisations. We provide support across every aspect of the publishing process, and create bespoke arrangements with all the organisations we partner with.

For librarians
We can’t succeed in our social mission without librarians

We’re on a journey to building great relationships with librarians. We consider librarians an important part of our community – centered around research and learning excellence – they are our allies in increasing access to academic and scientific knowledge and creating a more diverse academy for generations to come.