Open access monographs
Open access is no longer confined to journal articles and conference papers. There is now a range of options for making academic books and chapters open-access, as well as other types of long-form publication such as scholarly monographs and edited collections.
If you have any questions about this list, please contact open.research@london.ac.uk
Open Access for Books
Open Access for Books offers an overview of publishers' book policies to help authors and research organisations make informed and confident decisions in open access publishing and meeting funders' guidelines.
The new feature has been launched with 20 publishers, with more to be added in the Spring 2024 following further refinement based on user feedback.
Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)
DOAB lists academic, peer-reviewed books that are available under an open licence. Publishers that apply to have their books listed here are screened for their peer review process and licensing policy.
DOAB provides the option to browse by publisher, which results in an alphabetical list of around 400 publishers, followed by the number of open access books which they have listed in DOAB. You can also browse by subject, to find publishers who work with authors in your field. If you are interested in a particular publisher, click on the link, and you will find the URL of their website and, in many cases, tabs with more information: ‘about’, ‘peer review’ and ‘licence’. If you are looking for publishers in your language area, start by searching for a subject and then select the language area of your choice on the results page.
Online library of open access books (OAPEN)
OAPEN maintains a list of publishers that comply with the open access requirements of European research funders, currently the European Research Council (ERC), Wellcome, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). The list aims to inform authors about compliant publishers. Listed publishers need to confirm their compliance to be included (OAPEN n.d.).
Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association
Many book publishers are members of OASPA, the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association, which means they fulfil OASPA membership criteria.
Maintained list of OA publishers:
- The University of Sheffield Library Open access monograph publishers, and open access initiatives from hybrid publishers.
- Open Book Environment (OBE) Dashboard
As a response to the myriad challenges faced by the scholarly community at large, Publication Practice Librarian, Holly Limbert, University of Derby and Library Associate Professor Dan DeSanto, University of Vermont created the Open Book Environment (OBE) Dashboard. The dashboard is intended to help reduce researcher burden and to bring about more transparency around open book publishing practices. It also aims to fill a gap by providing information on a range of different publishers categorised by how transparent the information is on Open Access (OA) books on their websites relating to pricing for BPCs, clarity on editorial quality, retrospective OA options, fee waivers and more. The dashboard is designed to be a living resource and inventory which will grow. Amendments and additions can be suggested by submitting a request via this form.
Trusted Publisher
The Think, Check, Submit website offer a comprehensive checklist tool to help you discover if you are submitting your research to a trusted publisher. Their Books & Chapters tool also permits you to download the checklist results.
Open Library of Humanities
- The Open Library of Humanities (OLH) is a not-for-profit, open-access publisher for the humanities. OLH implements a collaborative and collective funding model and facilitates open access through institutional membership. For further details, see the website.
Useful tools
- Directory of Open Access Books - DOAB is a community-driven discovery service that indexes and provides access to scholarly, peer-reviewed open access books and helps users to find trusted open access book publishers. All DOAB services are free of charge and all data is freely available.
- OAPEN's Books Toolkit - This toolkit aims to help book authors to better understand open access book publishing and to increase trust in open access books. You will be able to find relevant articles on open access book publishing following the research lifecycle, by browsing frequently asked questions or by searching with keywords.
- The Open Access Books Network - A space for passionate conversations about OA books. Researchers, publishers, librarians, research funders, infrastructure providers - indeed, anyone who is interested - can engage in discussions, events and find helpful materials via the network.
If you have any questions about this list, please contact open.research@london.ac.uk
Some funding bodies may cover the costs of publishing a monograph as open access. Please contact research@london.ac.uk for details.
- Wellcome Trust - The open access policy includes monographs and book chapters and they have funds designated for the cost of making these open access. Wellcome Trust funded monograph authors should apply directly to the Wellcome Trust for reimbursement of the costs (see FAQ 6).
- UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) - Has an open access (OA) fund for monographs, book chapters and edited collections. This is a national fund which supports the payment of book and chapter processing charges for publications in scope of the long-form part of their OA policy. Applications to the fund must be made by the Research Services on behalf of the author. UKRI will not permit authors to make applications directly.
- The Leverhulme Trust - The Leverhulme Trust also considers open access charges to be a permissible expense, although they must be incurred during the lifecycle of the grant. If the costs are not incurred during the life of the grant, funds allocated for Open Access must be returned to the Trust.
- Horizon Open Access Policy - Under Horizon 2020, beneficiaries of ERC grants must ensure Open Access (free of charge, online access for any user) to all peer-reviewed scientific publications relating to its results. The detailed requirements on Open Access to publications are contained in the Horizon 2020 ERC Model Grant Agreement (Article 29.2).