FAQs

What is Open Access?

Open Access refers to content made freely available online under the terms of a Creative Commons license. This can apply to entire books, single chapters within books, and individual journal articles. 

The publishers organisation 'PLS' have provided a helpful introduction to Open Access which can be accessed here.

 

Why should I publish Open Access?

While there are many reason why an author will opt to have their work published Open Access, the following are the most common: 

  • Their research funder will have mandated it as part of their research grant
  • Their national research assessment exercise will have mandated any work to be submitted for assessment must be available Open Access
  • Authors want their work to have the maximum possible impact, through being freely accessible and distributable
  • Open Access work is more likely to be read and cited.


How do I submit a proposal?

Please contact the Commissioning Editor responsible for the subject area in question and send them a completed Publishing Proposal Form. Our full list of Commissioning Editors and downloadable copies of our proposal forms can be found here.


How much do you charge?

The fee for a book to be made Open Access varies according to the length of the manuscript, and a breakdown of this can be found here. 


Why might taxes be due on the OA fee?

If you pay for any service, including Open Access publishing, then sales taxes apply. We therefore charge VAT to customers in the UK, EU and South Africa.

We do not need to add VAT if you are outside of the UK and EU, or if we invoice your institution and you can supply your institution’s VAT registered number.

 

Where can I apply for funding?

If you have been awarded a research grant then your funder may either have included a specific portion of your grant for Open Access publication, or you may be able to apply to them for additional funding to support Open Access. Your university or other international, national or local research funding bodies may also be able to provide funding. 


What license agreement do you use?

The standard licence agreement we use for Open Access publications is the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Unported License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), the full text of which can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

The benefits of this agreement are that users are free to share and distribute the content so long as they give the appropriate credit, although they cannot use the content for commercial purposes, nor distribute adapted versions or alter your text without permission. 

 

Will you still produce a physical copy of my Open Access book?

Absolutely! A print book will still be sold and marketed through the usual channels. Naturally, print sales of any Open Access work will be lower given the cannibalising effect of the freely available digital version.