Planning and Funding
When planning your research and preparing a proposal for a research grant, you should check whether the research funder has requirements concerning the publication of your work. If there is a requirement to make the work open access, you will need to consider the costs of open access publishing and how these costs can be covered. But even regardless of requirements, you may want to explore your options of publishing open access. There are several articles that can help you during this initial phase of planning and funding: checking requirements from research funders or your institution; getting help from your institution; understanding the different open access models for books and book publishers; getting support to cover publication costs.
- Landscape of open access book policies and funding mechanisms.
- Eligibility criteria for grant applications.
- Research institutions.
- Business models for OA book publishing.
- Green, gold, diamond – different models for open access books.
- Finding funding for your OA book.
Conduct Research
As you conduct your research, you will make use of the work of fellow researchers. It is important to be aware of the conditions for using their work. If you expect to re-use a part of the work (i.e. research data, tables, illustrations or pictures) in your own manuscript, you may need to obtain permission from the rights holder.
Consider publishing options
As you prepare to write your manuscript, you need to consider your publishing options. This includes understanding which licences you can use, which requirements apply to your work, the benefits of open access and how to find an open access publisher that meets your needs.
- Choosing a Creative Commons licence.
- Research institutions.
- Self-publishing your open access book.
- The difference between open access and non-open access books.
- Why publish an open access book?.
- Metrics.
- Benefits of open access book publishing for early career researchers
- How to find open access book publishers.
Write and submit the manuscript
While working on your manuscript, you should be thinking about the process of choosing a publisher and negotiating a publishing agreement.
- Contracting and copyright.
- How to find a publisher for your open access book.
- Types of publishers and publishing services.
Peer review
When selecting a publisher and preparing to submit your manuscript, you should consider the review process that the manuscript will undergo.
Book contract and license
When you are ready to reach an agreement with a publisher of your work, you should understand the legal context of the author−publisher relationship and of publishing your book under an open access licence. Your institution may be able to help with this process.
- Choosing a Creative Commons licence.
- Contracting and copyright.
- Third-party permissions.
- Research institutions.
The book is published and disseminated
Once the book is published open access, you have a role in how it will be used and how the book will be promoted and disseminated to reach its intended audience.
- Digital and print publication.
- Dissemination and discoverability.
- How will researchers use, re-use and build upon my research?.
- Marketing.
- Metadata.
- Self-promotion.
- Self-publishing your open access book.
Research is re-used
A central goal of your work is to allow it to be re-used by fellow researchers. You should be aware of how re-use is determined by the type of licence that applies to your work and of the importance of correct metadata for the discovery of your open access book.