Open Access Books

The benefits of Open Access Books

Making your research monograph available Open Access can have many benefits:

It can increase the reach of your research and help to boost the number of citations it receives, potentially leading to greater research impact. A report from Springer Nature found that Open Access books were downloaded on average ten times more than non-Open Access books and were cited 2.4 times more. Additionally, the readership for Open Access books is more international.
Publishing a monograph Open Access will not necessarily decrease the number of sales. Conversely, the Open Access copy can help attract more readers and actually increase the number of print sales.
When you publish your monograph Open Access you as the author retain the copyright, not the publisher - giving you more control over how your book is used by others.

Key principals for publishing open access books

Contact the Library’s Open Access team before a book contract is signed

Think about open access before you submit a book proposal to a publisher. Check your funder’s open access policy as they may have specific requirements for publishing books open access. If you’re a UKRI-funded author see guidance on the UKRI Open Access policy page for requirements. Contact the Library Open Access team to discuss potential funding options available at liverpool before a book contract is signed.

Financial Support for open access books

There is limited funding available. We may be able to support publications that are with fully open access publishers only. We cannot financially support book-related costs such as the copyright clearance of images/material, figures etc.

Supporting different publications models

University of Liverpool will support diamond open access platforms such as Open Book Publishers.

Other routes to open access

Green Open Access (institutional repository route)

Check with your publisher if they offer a green open access option as early in the process as possible
Check the publisher contract and send it to the Open Access Team (openaccess@liverpool.ac.uk) to review for the green open access option
Deposit the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) into the University Repository via Elements if appropriate and possible
Sometimes, it is not possible to deposit the AAM due to things such as high-definitlion photographs or third-party copyright materials
Check out this guide on third-party copyright for research publications