Publish a book or book chapter open access - test

You can publish long-form research outputs open access, including monographs, edited collections and book chapters.

You should expect your manuscript to be peer reviewed and receive the same level of publishing service as you would for a non-open access book.

Publish long-form research for free

Oxford University supports a range of routes to publish your long-form research for free – a diamond model.

These schemes do not charge the authors to make their work open access, and have gone through a rigorous selection process to confirm that they follow best practice for both academic publication and open access.

Scheme supported Scheme description
African Minds A small fully open access press with a focus on social sciences about and by African authors.
Bloomsbury Open Collections An open access scheme from a traditional publisher primarily focused on the social sciences.
Mattering Press A small fully open access press with a focus on science, technology and society.
MIT Press Direct to Open An open access book scheme, focused on offerings in humanities and social sciences, and STEAM (STEM plus art and design)
New Historical Perspectives – University of London Press A collection of History monographs focused on supporting early career researchers in their initial publications.
Open Book Publishers A prolific fully open access press in the humanities and social sciences.

Publish long-form research for a charge

Some publishers require a fee to be paid by the author’s funder or institution to make a book open access. These are called book processing charges (BPC). They are much higher than the charges for journal articles.The fees charged for making a chapter open access are called Chapter Processing Charges (CPCs).

Some funders will provide funding for open monographs. Check your funder's policy for any requirements and whether funding is available.

Other publishing models

There are many other business models that support open access book publishing, including:

  • Crowdfunding: individuals pledge money to cover a book processing charge.
  • Flip to open: the book is initially sold under a traditional – closed – publishing model, but once it meets target sales figures it is made open access.

Find out more about different publishing models on the OA Books Toolkit.

Deposit long-form research in the Oxford Research Archive (ORA)

If you have published using a traditional model, you are still encouraged to deposit your work in ORA. 

Many publishers allow you to make a single chapter (or 10%) of a book open access by depositing it in a repository like ORA. Always check the publisher’s policy first, and note the following:  

  • Which version can I deposit? Some publishers allow you to deposit the author accepted manuscript; others only allow the submitted version (before peer review).  
  • Is there an embargo period? Some publishers require an embargo period after publication before you can deposit, while others allow immediate deposit.  

You should also check your funder’s policy: you may be required to deposit long-form research outputs in a public repository. 

Contact us

If you have questions about publishing long form research open access, please contact: openaccess@bodleian.ox.ac.uk