Publishing your book Open Access (OA) enables unrestricted access and dissemination to anyone interested in your research, removing the need for purchasing or borrowing copies. It facilitates a diverse and increased readership, enabling wide impact and increased public engagement, globally.
Funders such as UKRI and the Wellcome Trust have OA policies in place for long form publications including scholarly monographs, book chapters and edited collections. It is highly likely that there will be a requirement for long form output types for the REF2029 OA policy. The sector is currently undertaking a consultation on the proposed Open Access requirements for the next REF from Research England and at Derby, we will be seeking feedback from a wide range of invested stakeholders.
For more information on funder requirements for OA books, please see the Funder Open Access Requirements for Books tab of this guide.
The University is keen to support authors to make their monographs OA and to meet funder requirements. If you have questions about making your long form works OA please get in touch with the Repository and Open Access Librarian or a member of the Library Research Liaison Team.
Author Testomonies
Open Access Book Publishing: A Series Editor Writes- A blog post by Geoffrey Khan, Regius Professor of Hebrew at University of Cambridge, is the series editor of Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures, an open access book series published by Open Book Publishers. He first delivered this post as a talk at a seminar co-hosted by CRASSH and the University of Cambridge’s Research Culture Team on 28 November 2023: ‘Should I consider publishing my monograph open access?’
This collection of case studies features a group of authors who explain in their own words how OA publication has benefited their work. The authors come from different disciplinary and geographical backgrounds and have published with a range of publishers; they explore different reasons why OA was a successful choice for them.