By now there are a lot of different options to publish your short scientific work Open Access. However, possibilities and resources are still limited for books. Nevertheless, the aim is to make as many books as possible available in Open Access.
Plan S makes Open Access mandatory for books, but also acknowledges that the possibilities are still limited. The major European science funders follow the guidelines of Plan S. The NWO stipulates that Open Access for books, bundles and chapters that are the result of NWO funding, are mandatory.
Opportunities for Open Access
A growing number of established publishers offer authors the possibility to publish Open Access, but this often involves high costs (approx. €7.000 to €15.000 per book). In addition, there are more and more new, small-scale Open Access publishers – often run by academics or set up in a library context – that publish Open Access books at lower costs. See the various publishers under ScholarLed. Find Open Access books and their publishers via: OAPEN and DOAB.
The Open Access Books Toolkit is a platform that covers specific topics related to publishing Open Access books.
Finally, Green Open Access (self-archiving) is also an option for books. Address this with your publisher at an early stage; ask about the possibilities of making the manuscript available Open Access in the institutional repository, Pure (after an embargo period if necessary).
Financing
The Erasmus Open Access Fund 2024 can be used to partially finance the open access publication of monographs and edited collections if the book processing charges are not covered through other funding sources. Please see the Erasmus Open Access Fund page for more information.
In addition, NWO has a fund available for the funding of Open Access books. Project leaders or co-applicants of awarded NWO research projects can apply for funding of academic books that result from NWO funding. For more information please go to the Call Open Access Books.
For further reading visit the Open Access Book Network.