An open-access monograph (open-access book or OA book) is a scholarly publication usually made openly available online with an open license. These books are freely accessible to the public, typically via the internet. They are part of the open access movement.
Concept
Open access is when academic research is made freely available online for anyone to read and re-use. As with open access journals, there are different business models for funding open-access books, including publication charges, institutional support, library publishing, and consortium models. Some publishers, like OECD Publishing, uses a freemium model where the ebook version is made available for free, but readers have the option to purchase a print copy. Sales of the print version subsidise the cost of producing the book. There is some evidence that making electronic editions of books open access can increase sales of the print edition.
History
While open access to journal articles has become very common, with 50% of articles published in 2011 available as open access, open access to books has not yet seen as much uptake at this time. However, some dedicated open-access book publishers, such as Open Book Publishers, Punctum Books, and others who publish both books and journals like Open Humanities Press, have been launched.
Gradually, academic publishers and university presses have also adopted an open-access monograph approach, offering this publishing option alongside journal articles. Major publishers of open-access books include, for example, Taylor & Francis, MDPI, and MIT Press. The OAPEN (Open Access Publishing in European Networks) online library and publication platform provides access to thousands of peer-reviewed academic books, mainly in the humanities and social sciences. The OAPEN Foundation also provides a directory of open access works via Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB).
A report released in 2015 by the UK's main funding body for research, the Higher Education Funding Council for England, states the importance of open access monographs: "Monographs are a vitally important and distinctive vehicle for research communication, and must be sustained in any moves to open access." A 2019 survey has shown that a majority of authors agree that all future scholarly books should be made available via open access. A 2023 study found that, out of 396,995 open access books analyzed, only 19% were archived, raising concerns about the longevity and accessibility of many OA books distributed online.
See also
References
- OAPEN (14 December 2021). "The difference between open access and non-open access books". OAPEN Open Access Books Toolkit. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
- "Springer open access books | Springer — International Publisher". www.springer.com. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
- Suber, Peter (2012-07-20). "1: What Is Open Access?". Open Access. pp. 1–28. doi:10.7551/mitpress/9286.003.0003. ISBN 9780262301732.
- "Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities". Max Planck Open Access. Retrieved 4 June 2014.
- ^ Ferwerda, Eelco (2014). "Open access monograph business models". Insights. 27: 35–38. doi:10.1629/2048-7754.46. ISSN 2048-7754.
- Suber, Peter (2012). Open access. MIT Press. p. 107. ISBN 9780262517638. Retrieved 4 June 2014.
- Archambault, Eric; Amyot, Didier; Deschamps, Philippe; Nicol, Aurore; Rebout, Lise; Roberge, Guillaume (August 2013). "Proportion of Open Access Peer-Reviewed Papers at the European and World Levels—2004-2011" (PDF). Retrieved 4 June 2014.
- Collins, Ellen; Milloy, Caren (2012). "A snapshot of attitudes towards open access monograph publishing in the humanities and social sciences – part of the OAPEN-UK project". Insights. 25 (2): 192–197. doi:10.1629/2048-7754.25.2.192.
- Bonn, Maria. "Free exchange of ideas Experimenting with the open access monograph". College & Research Libraries News. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
- "Routledge & CRC Press Open Access Books - Taylor & Francis OA Books". www.routledge.com. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
- "MDPI Books | Publisher of Open Access Books & Book Series". www.mdpi.com. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
- "Open Access Books". MIT Press. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
- "Organisation". OAPEN. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
- "Directory of Open Access Books". www.doabooks.org. Retrieved 2023-12-07.
- "Monographs and open access: A report to HEFCE" (PDF). August 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 July 2015. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
- "Monographs and open access". August 2013. Archived from the original on 8 July 2015. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
- Pyne, Ros; Emery, Christina; Lucraft, Mithu; Pinck, Anna (2019-06-01). "THE FUTURE OF OPEN ACCESS BOOKS: FINDINGS FROM A GLOBAL SURVEY OF ACADEMIC BOOK AUTHORS". Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, Etc.
- Laakso, Mikael (2023-01-01). "Open access books through open data sources: assessing prevalence, providers, and preservation". Journal of Documentation. 79 (7): 157–177. doi:10.1108/JD-02-2023-0016. ISSN 0022-0418. S2CID 259300771.
Further reading
- Fathallah, J. (2022). Open Access Monographs: Myths, Truths and Implications in the Wake of UKRI Open Access Policy. LIBER Quarterly: The Journal of the Association of European Research Libraries, 32(1).
- Gatti, R., & Mierowsky, M. (2016). Funding open access monographs: A coalition of libraries and publishers. College & Research Libraries News, 77(9), 456-459.
- "Monographs", p. 112 in Martin Paul Eve, Open Access and the Humanities, Cambridge University Press, 2014. full text
- "Open-access monographs", p. 419 in Peggy Johnson, Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management, American Library Association, 2014.
External links
- OAPEN Online library and publication platform
- Directory of Open Access Books
- Open Access Directory - List of publishers of OA books. OCLC 757073363
- Open Access Directory - List of OA book business models
- Open Access Scholarly Information Sourcebook - Open Access Monographs
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