Open Access books
Would you like to have your monograph published Open Access? This is becoming ever so attractive. Authors and publishers are increasingly discovering that online publication stimulates higher sales numbers of paper books.
People use the internet to discover book, not to read them. When a book is publicly available, every potential reader can find out about it. This leads to an increased willingness to buy it.
Visibility is essential. Several studies have so far shown that the prevalent argument "An Open Access book does not sell" does not come true. On the contrary, sales tend to rise or at least stay the same.
How to publish an Open Access Book?
Ask your publisher in an early stage. For instance, you can ask to make the manuscript immediately available, and the final book Open Access after a set period of time. When your publisher gives permission, you can make the digital version publicly available via LUCRIS and Scholarly Publications. If necessary, an embargo period can be applied.
More and more publishers are willing to publish books immediately Open Access. The costs for this service may vary from 7.000 tot 15.000 euros per book. Knowledge Unlatched may also be an option for this way of Open Access publishing. In that businessmodel, libraries share the costs.
Funding for Open Access Books
- NWO
Project leaders or co-applicants of awarded NWO research projects can apply for funding of the costs of Open Access publishing of academic books that result from NWO funding.
You can read more about this on the dedicated NWO webpage.
- Other funding sources
The OAPEN Foundation provides an overview of funding sources for Open Access Books
How to find Open Access books and publishers?
You can find Open Access books and OA publishers uitgevers via:
Open access publications are also integrated in the Library Catalogue (search by title and/or author), OpenAIRE and Google Books.
Would you like to know more?
Contact us at openaccess@library.leidenuniv.nl
Further reading
The Influence of Open Access on Monograph Sales by Ronald Snijder
Logos, Volume 25, Issue 3, pages 13 – 23 Publication Year : 2014 DOI: 10.1163/1878-4712-11112047
The frontlist sales are affected by a combination of commercial potential and language; Open Access publishing has no effect in this situation.
The impact of open access on scientific monographs in Switzerland: A project conducted by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) – Eelco Ferwerda, Ronald Snijder, Brigitte Arpagaus, Regula Graf, Daniel Krämer and Eva Moser (April 2018)
OA did not have a negative influence on the sales figures for printed books. OA also did not result in a positive impact on sales figures. OA had a statistically positive influence on the tracking and visibility of monographs on the online platforms used (these were the Swiss National Library, an institutional repository, OAPEN Library and Google Books).
Snijder, R. (2013). A higher impact for open access monographs: disseminating through OAPEN and DOAB at AUP.
Insights, 26(1), 55–59. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1629/2048-7754.26.1.55
While the online usage of OA books is rising, AUP has not found evidence that open access harms sales of printed editions
Does publishing a book as Open Access affect print sales? Speicher, L. In: TXT Issue: 1 (2016) p. 124-127
This publication shows some very interesting examples.