Open access with Palgrave Macmillan: a guide for early career researchers

Author: Christabell Ndive

Publishing your first book or article is a milestone. How you choose to publish it shapes who reads your work and how far it travels.

For early career researchers in the humanities, social sciences, and business, open access (OA) offers a powerful way to reach a global audience from day one. As part of Springer Nature, Palgrave Macmillan publishes world-class research across books and journals, championing innovative formats for more than a decade.

In this blog, we explore how Palgrave Macmillan supports early career researchers as future leaders in their fields, helping them reach wider audiences. It will also guide you through the funding options available.

Strength in the disciplines that shape society

Palgrave Macmillan has a longstanding tradition of excellence in journal publishing, with more than 40 journals across the humanities, social sciences and business, all underpinned by rigorous peer review. Most are hybrid, so you can choose to publish your article OA at the point of acceptance. 

OA is a powerful driver of reach and impact. By publishing OA, you remove the paywall between your ideas and the people who want to read them, wherever in the world they are. The Journal of International Business Studies recorded 2.1 million downloads in 2025 – clear evidence that rigorous social science research finds a wide and engaged readership. 

Pioneering open access book publishing

Many people still think of OA as something for journal articles alone. But, early on, Palgrave Macmillan took a broader view. Back in 2013, it launched an OA option for monographs and Palgrave Pivots – its distinctive short-form format that sits between a journal article and a full-length book.

It was also a pioneer: one of the first major publishers to offer OA in the humanities and social sciences, and the first to offer the open Creative Commons (CC) licence that many funders now require. That move gave book authors the same freedom journal authors already enjoyed, to make their work free to read for everyone, everywhere, the moment it publishes.

Palgrave Macmillan's influence reaches beyond publication into wider public and policy debate. Its dedication to the UN Sustainable Development Goals shapes research on challenges from climate action to inequality, while campaigns such as Social Science Matters champion the value of these disciplines in public life.

One early landmark was Fungal Disease in Britain and the United States 1850–2000, the first OA monograph funded by the Wellcome Trust. The reach of OA books has grown enormously since then. On average, open access books attract around 10 times more downloads and 2.4 times more citations than non-OA titles, and they reach roughly 61% more countries.

Palgrave Macmillan’s most downloaded OA book of 2025 was The Suez Canal: Past Lessons and Future Challenges, which has gathered 706,000 downloads since it was published in 2023. Few subscription titles reach an audience of that size.

What you can publish open access

Open access at Palgrave Macmillan is not limited to one format. A single book processing charge (BPC) covers a wide range of works:

• monographs
• edited volumes and collections
• textbooks
• proceedings
• protocols
• major reference works
• short-form books (Palgrave Pivots)
• individual OA chapters within an otherwise non-open-access book

Whether you are writing a focused Pivot or a comprehensive edited volume, there is an open access route for it.

If you are weighing up whether an OA book is right for you, start with the Guide to Open Access Books for Palgrave Macmillan Authors. It is a practical, free resource that walks you through the process step by step, from licensing and funding to how readers will find your work.

Funding your open access publication

For many early career researchers, the biggest question is a simple one: how do I pay for it? But support is often closer than you think.

“This was my first time publishing an OA book but there was support for OA funding from my (now former) institution, Yale-NUS in Singapore. Given the book’s topic, and that several of the chapters address issues distinctive to the context of my higher education institution, the Dean of Faculty’s Office and the Educational Resources and Technology team came together to support OA.”

- Nancy W. Gleason, Editor of Higher Education in the Era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Institutions often rally behind a project they believe in. A conversation with your faculty office, library, or research support team is often the best first step.

So how do the costs work? For journal articles, an article processing charge (APC) usually applies when you publish OA in a hybrid or OA journal. Most Palgrave Macmillan journals are hybrid, so you decide at the point of acceptance whether to publish OA or via subscription – the choice stays in your hands. For books, a book processing charge (BPC) works in much the same way. In both cases, the fee covers the services that turn your manuscript into a polished, discoverable, and permanent record, from peer review and production through to distribution and long-term accessibility.

In practice, you rarely pay this charge yourself. Many researchers benefit from agreements between their institution and Springer Nature. Depending on the agreement, these can cover the full charge, offer a percentage discount, or contribute a fixed amount towards the cost. Funders frequently cover OA fees too. To check what applies to you for a journal article, visit any journal’s ‘Fees and funding’ page and select your institution. For books, a free funding and policy support team can help you find and apply for funding, so you needn’t work it out alone.

When you are ready to dig into the detail, explore the funding options for books and articles and find out more about pricing for books and journals. Together these resources explain how to find an agreement, approach a funder, and secure the support you need before you submit.

Where ideas travel further
 

“Your ideas deserve the widest possible audience.”

Open access is one of the most effective ways to make sure your research is read, cited, and built upon, especially early in your career when reach matters most. With Palgrave Macmillan, you can publish open access across both books and journals, backed by rigorous peer review and decades of experience in the humanities, social sciences, and business - so wherever your research sits, there is a home for it.

Ready to take the next step? Find out more about OA funding options with Palgrave Macmillan.

Related content:

• Palgrave Macmillan Celebrates 25 Years: The Story of Why Social Science Matters
• Why the Social Sciences matter now more than ever
• Publishing an open access book: Q&A with Nancy W. Gleason
• Advancing knowledge: How open access is changing research
• Navigating open access book publishing with the OAPEN Toolkit
• Demystifying the publishing process: What value do open access book publishers add? Part 1
• Demystifying the publishing process: What value do open access book publishers add? Part 2
• Starting your career? Here’s how Springer can help you publish open access
• How to publish open access with BMC: Funding options explained
• Discover journals: Open access funding options for our authors
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