Navigating open access book publishing with the OAPEN Toolkit

Author: Christabell Ndive & Jovial Toh

Understanding the landscape of OA publishing, and having a trusted resource to rely on for navigating it, is essential for researchers. When you publish your work as an OA book, it amplifies its visibility and impact, enabling it to contribute more effectively to scientific progress and to addressing global challenges. To ensure your work reaches its widest potential, the OAPEN Open Access Books Toolkit is an invaluable resource. Learn more.

Publishing research open access (OA) is becoming increasingly central in academic publishing. Scholarly findings become freely available to a global audience when paywalls are removed, supporting equitable access to knowledge. For authors, OA offers a powerful avenue to enhance the visibility, accessibility, and impact of their work.

Publishing an OA book: More impact for your work

A book offers you breadth and depth to explore and develop complex arguments and to holistically address your research topic. And when you publish your book OA, it benefits from increased visibility and accessibility.

OA books have 2.4 times more citations, 10 times more downloads, and 10 times more online mentions than non-OA books on average. An OA book is made available immediately on publication, and is accessible to anyone, anywhere to find, read, and share. OA publishing will broaden and diversify your readership, and give your work more impact.

To publish your book OA, your payment for book processing charges (BPCs) covers the costs of commissioning, copyediting and proofreading, production, dissemination and promotion, and online hosting and indexing.

You may be able to access funding from your institution or a grant-making organisation to fund the BPCs. Review the list of funders, arranged by country, to get an idea of what funding options exist. You can also check whether your institution is part of an OA books agreement that could cover OA publishing costs.

“My advice to authors as far as OA goes is to figure out your goals and your budget. There is an OA fee upfront, but if your goal is to try to get the information disseminated as quickly as possible and as widely as possible, OA gives a really great path to that.” 

- Eric Haines, Distinguished Engineer, Nvidia

Your resource for navigating OA book publishing: The OAPEN Toolkit

OA publishing, also of books, has been around for a couple of decades. Authors’ awareness of this option is growing, and a majority of them think that the future of scholarly work should be OA. But many researchers are still in the process of understanding its models and implications, as well as how to fit it into their publishing strategies. There is significant variation across disciplines in the prominence of OA publishing, due to more limited funding in certain fields and diverse publishing norms.

The OAPEN Open Access Books Toolkit, a free online resource, available to authors anywhere, supports researchers from all disciplines and career stages in navigating the OA book publishing landscape. With the Toolkit, you can get the information you need to make informed choices and unlock the full potential of the OA book format for your research and impact.

OAPEN is a not-for-profit organisation that works with publishers worldwide to build a quality-controlled collection of OA books. In collaboration with Springer Nature and the University of Glasgow, OAPEN launched the Open Access Books Toolkit to equip academic book authors with knowledge to confidently engage with OA book publishing and to increase trust in OA books.

The Open Access Books Toolkit includes a set of 45 articles addressing various topics related to OA books such as:

• What is OA?
• Common misconceptions about OA
• Copywriting and licensing
• Funding
• Quality assurance
• Publishing options
• Discoverability and impact

Each article offers a clear and thorough explanation of the topic, giving you the essential information you need and helping to resolve any uncertainties.

Using the Toolkit: How to get the information you need

There are several navigation options, that allow you to choose your entry point into the Toolkit and support you in finding the information you need quickly and efficiently:

• Type a word in the search box to find articles containing that word.
• Choose one of the Toolkit’s sections for authors in the menu bar (OA for books, publishing OA books, business models) to access articles relating to each section (the additional sections on OA book policies and on funding policies are for policymakers).
• Try the glossary for a list of terms related to OA books. When you click on a term, you’ll get its definition as well as links to articles that mention it.
• Go further with related articles: When an article in the Toolkit has additional articles related to it, you’ll find those linked at the bottom in the Related Articles section.
• Explore the site map for a detailed, structured overview of all your possible routes through the Toolkit.
• Walk through the research life cycle for an overview from planning, through considering publishing options, to dissemination (and everything in between), with links for Toolkit articles relevant for every stage.

“With regard to OA books, I would advise authors to do it if you can. There are benefits to it, and one is obviously that you get it out much more effectively and efficiently. And of course, there’s also an environmental dimension to it, because you don’t have to print these hard covered books and you don’t have to ship them around.”  

- Dr. Juha Uitto, Director, Independent Evaluation Office, Global Environment Facility

Publishing your book OA will enhance its readership, usage, and citation. This will open up more opportunities for your work to be read and further shared, which means more impact for your research.

The OAPEN Open Access Books Toolkit offers a wealth of information to give you clarity and depth on OA books publishing. With this invaluable resource, you’ll be ready to publish your OA book and enjoy the benefits this will bring to your work.

Explore the OAPEN Open Access Books Toolkit today.