On 30 September 2023, three European Research Council (ERC) grantees spoke with OABN co-coordinator Lucy Barnes about their experiences of publishing Open Access books, at an event that the OABN hosted with the support of the ERC. (The speakers’ OA books are all listed and linked at the end of this post if you’d like to browse their research.)

Over 100 participants joined the discussion, which is summarised in this post. You can also view the recording:

Kristien Hens (Philosophy, University of Antwerp) discussed her experience publishing two OA monographs and one OA edited volume during her ERC Starting Grant project NeuroEpigenEthics: two with Open Book Publishers and the other with Bloomsbury. She has also published an OA textbook with Open Book Publishers outside of her ERC project. She reflected on how much she learned because of the OA publication mandate of the ERC: until receiving her grant, she had not realised that books, including edited volumes, could be published OA without significant cost, depending on the publisher you choose. She also reflected on structural challenges to OA book publication in the humanities. For early-career researchers, publishing their first books, OA can be risky in a research culture that still rewards publication with high-profile publishers. She strongly urged senior scholars to change the research culture by choosing OA for their book publications.

For Daniel Miller (Anthropology, University College London), who has published two OA book series with UCL Press, OA publishing helps anthropologists fulfil their ethical obligation to make their findings accessible to the communities whom they study. As his books are written for both academic and general audiences, OA publication with UCL Press ensures that the books can reach a range of readers. While OA book publication can mean sacrificing some traditional prestige, Miller noted the benefits of visibility through download numbers, views, and, particularly importantly for academics, increased citations. Both Kristien and Daniel commented that they were impressed with the service they received from their publishers, which compared favourably to their experiences with more traditional publishers.

Ioana Feodorov (South-East Asian Studies, Romanian Academy) shared her experience publishing a series of OA books with De Gruyter, which will also be on the Open Research Europe (ORE) platform. She lauded ORE for offering a lower-cost OA alternative to Gold OA that still enables peer review and assigns DOIs to publications. Because her research was conducted in Syria and Lebanon, regions affected by political instability, she felt a strong responsibility to publish OA speedily, so the ERC’s OA publication mandate suited the needs of her research well. She noted that publishing books OA allows her team to track which topics attract the most reader interest through download and viewing numbers. This usage data can guide researchers to choose topics for future funding proposals.

Challenges and tips

In the discussion, the panellists addressed how they overcame the most important challenges to OA book publication that researchers perceive. 

  • When the options for authors are perceived as either to choose a prestigious publishing house or to publish their books OA, then choosing the latter can seem risky. Senior scholars can lead by example to publish their books OA. 
  • There is a misconception that publishing books OA is expensive, but in the authors’ experience the cost of OA book publication was always less than budgeted. The outlets they chose helped to reduce these costs, including an institutional OA publisher (UCL Press) and a scholar-led diamond OA press (Open Book Publishers).
  • Since many authors have limited understanding of licensing options for OA books, guidance from publishing houses and specialist librarians is critical. There is also sound information available from resources such as the OAPEN OA Books Toolkit.
  • If there is a lack of visibility through traditional academic channels such as reviews for OA books in comparison with closed books, the panellists agreed that there are other ways to ensure that OA books reach their readerships: in their experience, active promotion through online events, listservs, and social media has always been effective.

Panellists also shared their tips for authors seeking to publish their books OA:

  • Include OA-related costs, such as Book Processing Charges (BPCs) and image rights, in the initial project budget.
  • Consult funder guidance and resources on OA books early in the proposal stage to plan effectively for OA book publishing. Resources include the OAPEN OA Books Toolkit and many others listed on the OABN website.

Please add more tips in the comments below.

The speakers’ OA books and series

Kristien Hens, PI of the project NeuroEpigenEthics:

Kristien also contributed to an edited volume that was edited by three of her team members (Kristien co-authored the introduction and contributed two chapters as (co-)author):

At the event, Kristien also mentioned an OA book she has published outside her ERC project:

Daniel Miller, PI of the project SmartPhoneSmartAging: 

Daniel’s previous ERC project, SOCNET, also resulted in an OA book series:

  • Why We Post, edited by Daniel Miller, also published by UCL Press.

Ioana Feodorov, PI of the project TYPARABIC (Early Arabic Printing for the Arab Christians. Cultural Transfers between Eastern Europe and the Ottoman Near-East in the 18th century):

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