Open access for books

There are a growing number of options for making monographs, edited collections, textbooks and book chapters open access. Open access books benefit from increased visibility and impact, provide access for researchers, students, practitioners and the public around the world, and are easier to use and adapt for learning and teaching. They can also support innovative forms of publishing, such as the inclusion of audiovisual material, interactive elements or supplementary teaching resources.

Books and chapters can be published open access on a website or platform under a creative commons licence or (depending on the publisher’s self-archiving policy) an earlier version of the manuscript can be shared via our repository, White Rose Research Online.

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Publishing an open access monograph or edited collection

Many publishers now publish open access monographs and edited collections. The Directory of Open Access Books indexes and provides access to scholarly, peer reviewed open access books from over 600 publishers.

Increasingly, publishers are developing business models for publishing open access books where the author does not have to pay an open access charge. These are sometimes known as ‘diamond’ publishing models and include library or consortial membership schemes, print sales, institutional subsidies or using subscription access to a press’s backlist to fund new open access titles. For example, publishers such as MIT Press, punctum books, Open Humanities Press, Open Book Publishers, Liverpool University Press and CEU Press all offer at least some of their authors the chance to publish open access without paying a fee. The University of Sheffield is committed to encouraging diversity in open access monograph publishing models and financially supports diamond OA initiatives.

Other publishers charge a book processing charge (BPC) to publish an open access monograph or edited collection. BPCs can range from £6000–17000 (+ VAT) depending on the publisher and length of book.

For authors who wish to explore different publishing options, we have put together a non-exhaustive list of open access monograph publishers that you may wish to consider. This list includes fully open access presses (some which charge BPCs and others which do not) and hybrid presses experimenting with innovative ways to make their titles open access.

For more information about publishing an open access monograph, watch our short video [created October 2022].

To read about the experiences of University of Sheffield colleagues who have recently published an OA book, see our Open Access Monograph Case Studies page.

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White Rose University Press and the Sheffield Doctoral Publishing Prize

White Rose University Press is a non-profit, fully open access press established in 2016 and owned by the Universities of Sheffield, Leeds and York. So far, it has published ten peer-reviewed open access books, which can be downloaded from WRUP's website, as well as being discoverable through services such as the Directory of Open Access Books, OAPEN, JSTOR and library catalogues such as StarPlus. It accepts applications for both monographs and textbooks.

White Rose University Press charges Book Processing Charges starting at £6000 for an 80,000 word monograph. A waiver fund is available to support University of Sheffield researchers with some or all of the open access costs. The fund is limited and applications are considered as they are received. More information is available on the WRUP website. 

In 2022, the University of Sheffield Library held the inaugural Sheffield Thesis Publishing Prize in collaboration with White Rose University Press, encouraging PhD graduates to turn their thesis into an open access book. There were five winners from across three faculties, several of which have now been commissioned by White Rose University Press.

Applications for the Sheffield Doctoral Publishing Prize 2024 are now closed.

Learn more about White Rose University Press here.

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Funding for open access monographs

Institutional Open Access Fund 

Although we support the development of non-BPC models of open access monograph publishing, we also recognise that authors without access to funding can currently be excluded from making their books open access with many publishers. We therefore have established an Institutional Open Access Fund to support University of Sheffield researchers who do not have access to funds to cover the cost of publishing an open access monograph.

Current staff members and PGRs are welcome to apply to the fund to cover reasonable Book Processing Charges (BPCs) for monographs and book chapters. From 1st December 2023 the fund will be restricted to monographs published with fully open access presses.

More information about the fund, including eligibility criteria and application forms

Funder open access requirements for monographs

Monographs, chapters and edited collections published on or after 1st January 2024 and acknowledging funding from UKRI must be made open access with a creative commons licence within 12 months of publication. Please see our UKRI policy guidance for more information, including how to access funding and a list of exemptions to the policy. 

It is expected that the open access policy for the next REF will also include monographs, edited collections and book chapters in scope, and researchers who will submit their outputs to the REF are advised to start exploring possible open access options. The policy is currently under consultation, and details can be found here.

Wellcome, ERC, FWF, SNSF and NWO have open access policies which include longform publications. A summary of these requirements can be found on the following webpage.

Open access books and author royalties

As open access books are made freely available under a creative commons licence, authors will normally not receive any royalties from sales of the digital version. Some publishers may pay author royalties on any sales of the print-on-demand version. You can discuss this with your publisher, and check your contract for more details.

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Open textbooks

Open textbooks fall under the umbrella of Open Educational Resources - learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open licence, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others (UNESCO Recommendation on OER, 2019).

Open textbooks can be published by some hybrid or open access presses (eg. Open Book Publishers), either via the payment of a book processing charge or using a diamond funding model. They can also be created and disseminated without a publisher via a digital platform such as Pressbooks. The Open Textbook Library indexes over 1300 open textbooks across a range of disciplines, all licensed to be freely used and adapted.

The Library’s pages on Open Educational Resources outlines the support available for staff interested in using, creating and sharing open material for learning and teaching.

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Self-archiving monographs and chapters

Some publishers will allow authors to deposit a version of the chapter, book (whole or in part), into WRRO through myPublications in the same way as they do for journal articles.

This version (usually the Author Accepted Manuscript) is made available through the repository after any required embargo period.

Self-archiving policies for books and chapters are often not as easy to find as those for journals, so authors may have to check the details with their publisher. 

Librarians in the UK and USA have developed the Open Book Environment (OBE) Dashboard which aims to aggregate publisher self-archiving policies for books and chapters, as well as information about open access charges.

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Copyright and Licensing

Open access books are published under a range of creative commons licences. Open textbooks are often licensed in a way that allows for maximum reuse and adaptation (eg. CC BY, CC BY-SA), whereas some monograph authors prefer to choose a licence that prohibits commercial reuse (CC BY-NC) or the creation of derivative works (CC BY-ND). It is important to think about which licence best fits your book and its intended uses. Funders such as UKRI and the Wellcome Trust who mandate open access for monographs and chapters express a preference for a CC BY licence, but (unlike for journal articles) allow monograph authors to use any of the creative commons licences.

Authors of open access books must ensure they manage the inclusion of third party material where they do not own the copyright. UKRI have released an open access guide to help authors with this. It includes clearing permissions, attribution requirements, and using third-party owned content under permitted exceptions. More information about copyright can be found on our copyright webpages, and you can email copyright@sheffield.ac.uk with any questions about your own work.