An open-access monograph is a scholarly
monograph which is made openly available online with
open license.
Concept
Open access is when academic research is made freely available online for anyone to read and re-use. As with
open access journals, there are different
business models
A business model describes how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value,''Business Model Generation'', Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Alan Smith, and 470 practitioners from 45 countries, self-published, 2010 in economic, socia ...
for funding open-access books, including
publication charges, institutional support,
library publishing
Library publishing, also known as campus-based publishing, is the practice of an academic library providing publishing services.
Concept
A library publishing service usually publishes academic journals and often provides a broader range of publish ...
, and consortium models.
Some publishers, like OECD Publishing, uses a
freemium model where the
ebook version is made available for free, but readers have the option to purchase a print copy. Sales of the print version subsidise the cost of producing the book.
There is some evidence that making electronic editions of books open access can increase sales of the print edition.
History
While open access to journal articles has become very common, with 50% of articles published in 2011 available as open access, open access to books has not yet seen as much uptake. However, there are dedicated open-access book publishers such as
Open Book Publishers
Open Book Publishers (OBP) is an open access academic book publisher based in the United Kingdom. It is a non-profit social enterprise and community interest company (CIC) that promotes open access for academic monographs, edited collections, cr ...
,
punctum books, and others who publish both books and journals, such as
Open Humanities Press
Open Humanities Press is an international open access publishing initiative in the humanities, specializing in critical and cultural theory. OHP's editorial board includes scholars like Alain Badiou, Jonathan Culler, Stephen Greenblatt, Jean-Cl ...
. A report released in 2015 by the UK's main funding body for research, the
Higher Education Funding Council for England, states the importance of open access monographs: "Monographs are a vitally important and distinctive vehicle for research communication, and must be sustained in any moves to open access."
The OAPEN (Open Access Publishing in European Networks) online library and publication platform provides access to thousands of peer-reviewed academic books, mainly in the humanities and social sciences. The OAPEN Foundation
also provides a directory of open access works via Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB).
See also
*
Open content
*
Openness
Openness is an overarching concept or philosophy that is characterized by an emphasis on transparency and collaboration. That is, openness refers to "accessibility of knowledge, technology and other resources; the transparency of action; the per ...
*
Open Educational Resources
Open educational resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials intentionally created and licensed to be free for the end user to own, share, and in most cases, modify. The term "OER" describes publicly accessible materials and ...
*
re.press
*
Open Library of Humanities
*
COPIM
References
Further reading
* "Monographs", p. 112 in
Martin Paul Eve, ''Open Access and the Humanities'',
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer.
Cambridge University Pre ...
, 2014.
* "Open-access monographs", p. 419 in Peggy Johnson, ''Fundamentals of Collection Development and Management'',
American Library Association
The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members ...
, 2014.
External links
OAPEN Online library and publication platformDirectory of Open Access Books
* Open Access Directory
List of publishers of OA books
* Open Access Directory
List of OA book business modelsOpen Access Scholarly Information Sourcebook - Open Access Monographs
{{Open access navbox
Monograph
Book publishing