How Open Access Works - Open Book Publishers Blog

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How Open Access Works

A collection of 12 posts

The cost of Open Access books: a publisher writes

The cost of Open Access books: a publisher writes

OBP lays out our costs and revenue for the last financial year (2018 - 2019), to add some numbers to discussions about funding OA books.

OBP to Take a Leading Role in £2.2 Million Project to Develop Open Access Book Publishing

Open Infrastructure Featured

OBP to Take a Leading Role in £2.2 Million Project to Develop Open Access Book Publishing

On 14th June, Research England announced the award of a £2.2 million grant to the COPIM (Community-led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs) project, which is designed to build much-needed community-controlled, open systems and infrastructures that will develop and strengthen open access book publishing. As a founder member of ScholarLed,

Open Book Publishers’ statement on Knowledge Unlatched and the Open Research Library

bad actors Featured

Open Book Publishers’ statement on Knowledge Unlatched and the Open Research Library

We have grave concerns about the approach and business model of the Open Research Library, and those of its creator Knowledge Unlatched, which we will set out in this post.

OBP's responses to the UUK Open Access Monographs project questionnaire

Academic Publishing

OBP's responses to the UUK Open Access Monographs project questionnaire

OBP has participated in the data-gathering exercise that is currently being carried out by Fullstopp Gmbh on behalf of the Universities UK Open Access Monographs working group. The questionnaire, which is available online, has been designed to collect information that will inform future OA policy decisions, and in the spirit

Further Reading

Academic Publishing

Further Reading

* An excellent Open Access quiz that covers many of the key issues https://www.lepublikateur.de/2018/08/27/open-access-quiz/ * A recently-released film about Open Access in academia, ‘Paywall: The Business of Scholarship’ https://paywallthemovie.com/ * An introduction to Open Access by Peter Suber [https://cyber.harvard.edu/~psuber/wiki/

Reputation, reputation, reputation – quality control and reward systems

Academic Publishing

Reputation, reputation, reputation – quality control and reward systems

In the past, Open Access publishing has been accused of being akin to vanity publishing or self-publishing, while the term ‘predatory publishing’ describes a phenomenon in which a publisher charges expensive fees for guaranteed publication while failing to provide peer review or even basic editing.[1] Reputable Open Access publishers

Copyright and licensing – what do I need to know?

Academic Publishing

Copyright and licensing – what do I need to know?

When you create original work, you possess the copyright.[1] When you wish to publish that work, some publishers might ask you to sign the copyright over to them as a condition of publication, so that they can disseminate the work exclusively and therefore maximise its profitability. However, you do

Green, Gold, Diamond, Black – what does it all mean?

Academic Publishing

Green, Gold, Diamond, Black – what does it all mean?

There’s a lot of jargon surrounding Open Access publication, and as with all jargon it can confuse and obfuscate. Here is a simple glossary: Diamond / PlatinumImmediate Open Access publication by the journal or book publisher without payment of a fee. Copyright may be retained by the author and permission

APCs, BPCs, can I have some money please – who pays for OA?

Academic Publishing

APCs, BPCs, can I have some money please – who pays for OA?

This is one of the most important questions for authors: if the reader doesn’t pay, who does? BPCs (Book Processing Charges) and APCs (Article Processing Charges) are fees levied on authors, their institutions or their funding bodies to pay for Open Access publishing (also known as author-side fees). It’

Why OBP is not participating in KU Open Funding: and why libraries should understand the reasons.

Academic Publishing Featured

Why OBP is not participating in KU Open Funding: and why libraries should understand the reasons.

Knowledge Unlatched has recently announced the launch of a new platform to fund Open Access (OA) books. In this post, we explain our concern with this platform and why we won't be participating.

Ten Years of OBP: An Interview with Alessandra Tosi and Rupert Gatti (Part Two)

Academic Publishing

Ten Years of OBP: An Interview with Alessandra Tosi and Rupert Gatti (Part Two)

The next ten years: “We need to show this can be different.” While Gatti and Tosi are fiercely proud of what they have built, they believe the future of OBP lies in enabling the growth of other Open Access publishers. Gatti sees this as the way to achieve significant and

Ten Years of OBP: An Interview with Alessandra Tosi and Rupert Gatti (Part One)

Academic Publishing

Ten Years of OBP: An Interview with Alessandra Tosi and Rupert Gatti (Part One)

Ten years ago today Open Book Publishers [https://www.openbookpublishers.com/section/14/1] was born. Non-profit, scholar-led and now the leading UK Open Access publisher in the Humanities and Social Sciences, OBP began as a small-scale experiment, a passion project for co-directors Alessandra Tosi and Rupert Gatti. They were