Open access is a publishing model that makes research freely available online for anyone to read, share and reuse. Research published open access can reach a wider audience, gaining more citations and impact.
The landscape for open access books is less mature than for journal articles but is increasing in importance as research funders include requirements for books in their open access policies (including UKRI, Wellcome and European funders), and there are a growing number of options available for making your monograph open access.
Benefits of publishing your monograph open access:
- there's
- reach a
- compliance with funder open access policies
- retain copyright with CC licence
How to publish your monograph open access
ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ encourages authors to deposit their monographs and book chapters in (ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳RO). Check with your publisher if they will permit you to deposit, or “self-archive”, the accepted version of your manuscript in ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳RO, whether you can apply a Creative Commons licence to the manuscript and if the publisher requires an embargo.
For help understanding publisher policies and depositing your manuscript, contact the Open Access team.
Authors are asked to pay a Book Processing Charge (BPC) or a Chapter Processing Charge (CPC) to publish their book or chapter Gold open access under a creative commons licence. BPCs can range from £3,000 to £15,000; CPCs are usually upwards of £1,000.
We do not currently have any funds available to pay BPCs or CPCs.
Some research funders allow you to build open access charges for monographs into your grant application as eligible, directly incurred costs. Check individual funder’s information to see if they will permit you to do this.
When budgeting for open access monographs/chapters in your grant application, consider the following:
- Which publishers are you considering for your proposal?
- Do they offer a no-cost, Green or “self-archiving” route for open access?
- What are their costs for Gold open access?
Check your publisher’s open access policies using and make sure their titles are listed in the
Contact the Publishing Advice Service for guidance on author rights, signing a publishing agreement and choosing a book publisher.
Complying with funder open access requirements for monographs and chapters
Most research funder’s open access policies now include a mandate for books and chapters to be made open access.
For detailed information on how to comply, see our REF and funder requirements page
Further resources
Follow these links for further information