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 publications, such as scholarly monographs and edited collections.
Below you will find details of what some publishers offer in terms of gold open access (making your final, published version open access from the publisher's website from publication) and green open access/self-archiving (making the accepted manuscript open access via a repository such as Pure).
It is important to note that where a publisher offers gold open access there is likely to be a Book Processing Charge (BPC) or Chapter Processing Charge to pay (CPC) (plus VAT). These costs may be covered by an external funder. If you are acknowledging Wellcome funding, please see the information on their webpages. Long-form publications published from 1st January 2024 will be in-scope for the new UKRI policy and funds will be available for eligible authors.
If you would like to make your book or book chapter open access via Pure repository or garner more information on open access monographs please contact the Open Research Team with any questions you might have.
Books and book chapters were not included in the open-access requirements for REF 2021.
However, it was anticipated that future research evaluation exercises would mandate open access for books and book chapters.
The four UK higher education funding bodies recently consulted the university sector on possibly incorporating open-access monographs into the next REF exercise, REF 2029. You can read Queen's University Belfast’s response to this consultation here.
After a review of this consultation, the REF Steering Group decided not to mandate open access for long-form outputs for REF 2029. Full details can be found here. The steering group did, however, state that an open-access requirement for long-form outputs will be implemented from 1 January 2029 for the subsequent assessment exercise.
The Open Research Team will continue to support our academic colleagues in adopting best practices for open access for long-form outputs. For any queries, please contact the Open Research Team.
SUP is a fully open-access publishing press coordinated by SCURL and managed by member libraries on a not-for-profit basis. SUP provides a clear and cost-effective route for researchers at Scottish HEIs to make their work freely available to a global audience, responding to changes in the policy landscape around open-access books. SUP delivers a full-service publishing experience with open communication and transparent processes from peer review through to promotion.
The leading independent Open Access publisher in the Humanities and Social Sciences in the UK: we're award-winning, not-for-profit, run by scholars and committed to making high-quality research freely available to readers worldwide. Access all our books online or download them for free, with no Book Processing Charges (BPCs) for authors. For further details, see the website.
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.
Punctum Books is a scholar-led, peer-reviewed, open-access (OA) book publisher devoted to cultivating trans-disciplinary academic work. Punctum Books publishes high-quality OA books in the Humanities, Social Sciences, Fine Arts, and Architecture and design, with no publication fees ever imposed upon authors. For further details, see the website.
D2O harnesses the collective power of libraries to support open and equitable access to vital, leading scholarship. Participating libraries also receive substantial discounts on the MIT Press Trade books collection on the Direct platform. Direct to Open allows authors to publish open access regardless of their institutional affiliation or funding. For further details, see the website.
DOAB is a community-driven discovery service that indexes and provides access to more than 50,000 scholarly, peer-reviewed open-access books and helps users find trusted open-access book publishers. DOAB services are free of charge, and all data is freely available. The service's primary aim is to increase the discoverability of OA books to reach a broader audience. For further details, see the website.
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.
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 is 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 helpfull materials via the network.
Open Access book Publishers with no BPC's
Funding opportunities for OA books
Open Access book publisher for early career authors Limited to History monographs
No Cost to authors
Open access monograph publishing: a guide
This new training session for staff will give an overview of open-access monograph publishing.
It will detail the costs involved with commercial publishers and advise authors on how to approach publishers regarding open access for this output type. The session will detail Diamond Open Access initiatives that we at QUB support and advise how our authors can access these. The session will also look at funder policies and how these will affect monographs in the future, with a particular focus on the UKRI’s current open access policy and future REF open access requirements.
Training dates and times are all available on our training tab
Below you will find a brief synopsis of some publisher's open-access options for monographs.
For more publishers, please see the maintained list
Also, see Sherpa Services' new tool Open Access for Books; this tool is still in development and currently holds information on 20 publishers.
| Publisher | Gold OA option (open access from the publisher's website, immediately upon publication). | Green OA option (open access through a repository such as Pure) |
| Bloomsbury Academic | Available for short monographs, monographs, handbooks and edited collections. | Single book chapter or author’s own chapter Accepted manuscript/publisher version, 6 month embargo. |
| Brill | Available for books and individual book chapters. More details here. | Part of book/monograph Permission must be requested |
| Cambridge University Press | Available for monographs | Single book chapter Accepted manuscript/publisher version, 6 month embargo |
| Edinburgh University Press | Available for monographs and individual book chapters. | Whole monograph PDF proof on institutional repository. 36 month embargo. |
| Edward Elgar Publishing | Available for books | Single book chapter Submitted manuscript, 6 month embargo |
| Elsevier | Scope currently under investigation with publisher. |
Elsevier's most recent update: Authors wishing to self-archive book chapters can continue to reach out to Global Rights to seek the relevant permissions. The Global Rights team may be contacted using this link. |
| Liverpool University Press | Available for books and individual book chapters | Whole monograph Original manuscript, 24 month embargo to non-commercial, non-profit platform (e.g. Pure ) |
| Manchester University Press | Available for monographs, edited volumes and individual book chapters. | Single book chapter Accepted manuscript, 18 month embargo |
| Oxford University Press | Available for monographs | Single book chapter Accepted manuscript - embargo length varies by subject/output type |
| Palgrave Macmillan | Available for academic books and individual book chapters. | |
| Sage | Available for monographs. | Accepted manuscript Details and embargoes vary by output type. |
| Taylor & Francis / Routledge | Available for books and individual book chapters. | Single book chapter Accepted Manuscript, 18 month embargo for Humanities and Social Sciences (12 months for STEM). |
| UCL Press | Available for monographs, short monographs, edited volumes, and textbooks. | N/A – Open Access Publisher |
| White Rose University Press | Available for monographs. | N/A – Open Access Publisher |