Open Book Publishers Joins the Open Book Collective

Open Book Publishers (OBP) is delighted to announce that we have joined the Open Book Collective (OBC).

The Open Book Collective brings together

OA publishers, OA publishing service providers, libraries, and other research institutions to create a new, mutually supportive ecosystem for the thriving of OA book publishing. At the heart of the work of the Open Book Collective (OBC) is a new platform. This platform will make it far quicker and easier for libraries and others to financially support different OA publishers and service providers via membership offerings.

The Open Book Collective has been developed by the COPIM Project, an international partnership funded by Research England and Arcadia Fund. COPIM is building non-profit, community-owned infrastructure to support a resilient future for open access book publishing that enables smaller and more community-focused presses to thrive and multiply. Open Book Publishers is a leading member of the COPIM Project and has been involved in helping to build the Collective.

Read on to find out why we’re joining the Collective and what this will mean for libraries (including our current Library Members), our authors and our readers.

Why are we joining the OBC?

We are joining the OBC because we believe that the best future for academic book publishing lies in collectively funded, equitable open access for books. We believe in the value of non-profit, community-owned open infrastructures to underpin this shift, and we support collaborative ways of working to achieve our goals. The OBC reflects all these values.

The Collective realises the strength of collaboration and mutual effort in two ways: firstly, because it brings together a range of OA book initiatives that share core values and are seeking collective funding, forming a powerful collection of books and initiatives and making it easier for libraries to find, assess and support the OA books that these initiatives have to offer; secondly, because a proportion of the revenue a press receives from libraries via the OBC will go into a development fund to which any open access press or initiative can apply in order to strengthen their work.

Our collaboration as the Open Book Collective will therefore strengthen us all individually, as well as raising the profile of smaller-to-medium-sized open access academic publishers as a sector.

What does this mean for libraries?

Through the OBC platform, libraries can join and support publishers and service providers by signing up to their individual and/or collective membership packages. Those joining membership programmes via the Collective will be supporting funding models for OA books that don’t use book processing charges; they will be able to easily support a range of publishers and infrastructure providers according to the needs of their institution, discovering OA book authors associated with their university and titles relevant to their collection needs; and they will have access to a single point of reference for a diverse range of OA book providers that have submitted to the OBC selection process and successfully met its criteria. Library members will also have the opportunity to become involved in the governance of the Collective, which is designed to ensure that the OBC continues to serve the interests of the communities that use it.

Our subscriptions will soon be managed by the OBC so we would like to encourage prospective members of our Library Membership Programme to join our membership and current members to renew their membership via the Open Book Collective. We will soon contact current members with further information on how to renew via the OBC. However, for those who prefer to continue to do so directly through us, you don’t need to take any action and your renewal will proceed as usual.

If your institution is interested in renewing the membership through the Collective and have any questions, please contact Laura Rodriguez at laura@openbookpublishers.com or at libraries@openbookpublishers.com. We will coordinate with the Collective to ensure the transition runs as smoothly as possible. If your membership is handled by JISC or another library supplier, please get in touch and we will provide you with further information.

Advantages of joining or renewing via the OBC:

• Easier assessment of more OA book membership programmes, with consistent information about the different packages available and the publishers’ output, as well as clear standards that must be met by presses within the OBC providing a guarantee of quality to potential supporters;
• Easier procurement processes, since the OBC is a single host of many different OA book membership programmes;
• Easier integration of individual books into library catalogues, with high-quality metadata available from participating OBC publishers who use the Thoth database.

The price of our membership is the same whether you join or renew via the Collective or via Open Book Publishers. Our membership prices by country/region are as follows:

Open Book Publishers’ membership allows institutions to choose their pricing tier and support OBP in agreement with their individual funding and subscription capacities. Our tier system consists of recommended prices that align with each institution’s size and budget. We won’t impose a tier on any institution, but we encourage institutions that are able to sign up to their suggested tier or those that would like to join a higher tier to make their selection accordingly. Find out more information on pricing tiers.

See the Frequently Asked Questions below for more information. If you have any other questions, please do reach out to us and we can provide you with advice and support to make your decision, and the joining or renewal process itself, as smooth and easy as possible.

What does this mean for authors?

We will not change how we operate as a press or how we work with authors. We hope that authors will benefit from the increased visibility of their work on the OBC platform and its easier ingestion into library catalogues. We also hope that the OBC will be a trusted information source about open access books, so that authors will be introduced to other open access presses; they will also be able to share the OBC with their institution’s library, or with colleagues who are interested in publishing an open access book. Finally, we hope that we will see an increase in our Library Membership Programme via the OBC, which will support us in continuing to publish high-quality open access books without charging authors an open access fee or book processing charges.

What does this mean for readers?

We will continue to publish and share our books in the same way: they will all still be open access from the date of publication, and available on multiple platforms in multiple formats. The OBC will provide another platform where readers can discover our books, and will make it easier for libraries to integrate our output into their catalogues. Finally, we hope that we will see an increase in our Library Membership Programme via the OBC, which will support us in continuing to publish high-quality open access books far into the future.

Want to know more?

Please contact us if you want to know more or have any questions about our participation. Email Laura Rodriguez Pupo, Marketing and Library Relations Officer, at laura@openbookpublishers.com or libraries@openbookpublishers.com.

For more information about the OBC, go to info@openbookcollective.org.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are there any differences re: the membership package that you offer via the OBC and that offered via direct sign-up with OBP? No, you will enjoy the same membership package whether you sign up via the OBC or directly through OBP.

Does the OBC offer multi-year agreements with discounts? No, only through direct sign-up with OBP will you be able to enjoy these discounts.

I have a multi-year agreement that expires in 2025/2026 – can I transition to the OBC before that date? Current agreements will not be modified. Once your membership period expires we will coordinate with the OBC to ensure your membership is transitioned from OBP to the OBC.

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