PALOMERA – Policy Alignment of Open Access Monographs in the European Research Area – is a two-year EU-funded project unifying 16 partners across Europe to investigate the current landscape of scholarly book publishing and in particular the bottlenecks in strategies and policies for their open access. Based on thorough analysis of this investigation, which was performed across 39 European Research Area countries, the project was called to support aligned funder and institutional policies for open access books by developing resources and evidence-based recommendations for the stakeholders
Delivering on its mission, PALOMERA has developed a rich Knowledge Base containing over 650 open access policy and related documents and a set of 40 stakeholder interviews. The Knowledge Base contains over 120 open access policies in which books are addressed. These form the basis of intense research, providing a unique overview of the open access books policy landscape in Europe. Some of this research has been distilled into short and well communicated articles published through the OAPEN OA Books Toolkit. Moreover, actionable recommendations based on this research and the Knowledge Base have been developed for eight stakeholder groups. To support the alignment of open access books policies, a Funder Forum has been established where research funders and policymakers benefit from knowledge exchange and mutual learning. Finally, an OA Books Policy Compass has been conceptualised to help funders and institutions navigate the process of policy formulation and implementation.
