Open access book publishing without author payments? (part of the Open Research at Cambridge Conference series)

Special

Open access long-form scholarship is an increasingly important area of scholarly communication. New business models have been devised to support the publication of open access monographs, while funders continue to implement OA policies for the books that they fund (such as the recently announced UKRI policy). Yet one possible roadblock to a sustainable open access future is the book processing charge. As open access books require significant up-front investment for publishers, BPCs have rapidly become one of the dominant models for funding open access book publication. In the humanities, where funding is limited, BPCs have the potential to make open access a preserve of only those that can afford to pay, potentially excluding junior scholars, unfunded researchers and colleagues from universities outside the Global North. Alternative models are therefore needed for any wholesale move to open access for books.

In light of the recent UKRI policy requirement for open access books, this session will discuss the challenges around open access book publishing and the alternatives to the book processing charge that publishers have developed, highlighting experiments in funding no-fee open access book publishing. It will feature leading experts and practitioners in open access book publishing and a discussion with members of the Cambridge community.

Number of sessions: 1

This panel will be moderated by Samuel A. Moore, Scholarly Communication Specialist at Cambridge University Libraries.

Rachel Bruce is Head of Open Research at UK Research & Innovation and has recently led the development of the new UKRI Open Access policy that includes, for the first time, an OA requirement for monographs. She leads a wide portfolio on open research at UKRI working with UK stakeholders, advising Government and internationally.

Ben Denne is Director of Publishing for Academic Books (Editorial) at Cambridge University Press, and will be talking about their recently launched Flip it Open OA books project.

Dr. Rupert Gatti is a Lecturer in Economics and Fellow at Trinity College (Cambridge), co-founder of the non-profit, open access press Open Book Publishers https://www.openbookpublishers.com, and a member of the Research England and Arcadia Trust funded Community Owned Publishing Infrastructures for Monographs (COPIM) https://copim.ac.uk/ project.