This webpage outlines some of the funder open access policies that exist for books and book chapters. Books are a nascent area of policymaking and we expect to see increasing amounts of open access books policies in the coming years. For example, Coalition S seeks to ‘make progress’ towards open access books as part of their Plan S framework, although they currently do not mandate it as part of Plan S. Many policies also permit embargoes in recognition of the fact that models for open access books are not yet well developed and will take time to mature. The library will continue to update this page as the landscape evolves.
UKRI
From 2024, books funded by any of the UKRI research councils will be subject to an open access requirement. Any monograph, book chapter or edited collection under contract from 01 January 2024 will need to be made available with a creative commons licence within one year of publication via self-archiving the accepted manuscript, or by publishing open access. UKRI supports open access publishing through the traditional Book Processing Charge (BPC) model, as well as other approaches, such as Diamond Open Access initiatives.
UKRI will provide a centrally administered fund of £3.5 million per year to facilitate open access for UKRI funded monographs, book chapters or edited collections. There is a maximum of £10,000 for a monograph book processing charge, £1000 for a book chapter and up to £6000 for a non-BPC approach, such as a library consortia scheme (all including VAT). Researchers can also claim £2000 from this open access fund for third-party rights clearance (within the maximum levels of funding).
There is a two-stage application process, which will both be managed by the Open Access Team:
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Stage 1: Research organisations (not researchers) makes an application for an in-principle approval for funding from UKRI. A publishing contract does not need to be signed for a stage 1 application. UKRI will then either approve or reject the application.
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Stage 2: Research organisations (not researchers) apply to UKRI to have the open access costs reimbursed.
There are exemptions to the policy, specifically:
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Where the only appropriate publisher for the publication, after liaison and consideration, is unable to offer open access option
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Where permissions for third-party materials cannot be obtained and there is no suitable alternative option available to enable open access publication
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Monographs, book chapters and edited collections arising from UKRI training grants are exempt from UKRI’s open access requirements where the training grant is the only UKRI funding source acknowledged
Additionally, the policy does not apply to trade books, scholarly editions and PhD theses arising from UKRI training grants.
Details of the Policy can be found here. There is also further information about the different models for supporting open access for long-form scholarship on our website.
Researchers who would like more information about the policy or would like to request support for the funding application process should contact the Open Access Team.
Wellcome Trust
All original scholarly monographs and book chapters authored or co-authored by Wellcome grantholders as part of their grant-funded research, must be:
- made freely available through NCBI Bookshelf PubMed Central (PMC) and Europe PMC as soon as possible and no later than within 6 months of the official final publication date
and
- be published under a Creative Commons licence where a fee has been paid to the publisher to make the work open access. Our preference is for a Creative Commons attribution licence (CC BY), however, researchers may choose to publish their work under any of the Creative Commons licences including non-commercial and non-derivative licences (CC BY-NC or CC BY-NC-ND).
Funding is available to cover publishers' open access monograph and book chapter processing charges.
Horizon Europe
While open access books were not a requirement for Horizon 2020, the Horizon Europe policy applies to all research outputs including monographs, edited volumes and book chapters. ERC encourages funded researchers to use the OAPEN Library repository for monographs, book chapters and other long-form publications. The ERC policy permits an embargo period of up to 6 months (12 months for the social sciences and humanities). Creative Commons licences are encouraged, but not mandated. Open access fees are eligible costs if incurred during the lifetime of the project and they are in line with the funder's eligibility criteria.