This article provides a brief description of the landscape of open access book policies in the European Research Area (ERA), that include funding mechanisms to cover the costs of publishing. The main institutions providing funding are ministries, research funding organisations (RFOs) and research performing organisations (RPOs). The article also includes a brief overview of national open access policies and gives examples of the different ways these policies are organised in different countries.
The PALOMERA project identified 182 open access policy documents that include books. Several of these policy documents address the funding of publication costs for open access books. These include:
- 5 national level policies: Belgium, France, Germany, Serbia, Slovenia;
- 11 RFOs: these are outlined in a related article on RFOs in this section;
- 22 RPOs: 10 from Germany, 5 from Switzerland, 3 from the Netherlands and one from: Austria, UK, Norway, Latvia.
In most countries with policies for open access books, the main institutions providing funding are ministries, RFOs and RPOs. In some countries there are also charitable organisations that support open access books (e.g. Volkswagenstiftung). How funding is organised depends on national circumstances (i.e. historical, political, economic).
France has a National Plan for Open Science, co-ordinated by the Committee for Open Science with the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research. Funding for open access books resulting from publicly funded research can be obtained through the national Open Science fund.
Germany has national guidelines in a decentralised policy landscape, with state level policies that include funding mechanisms for open access books (e.g. Berlin and Brandenburg). The Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany covers a portion of the project-associated indirect costs through lump sums which can also be used to cover publication costs, even beyond the duration of the project. The German Research Foundation (DFG) has an open access publishing programme which provides grants to cover costs of open access books. In addition, DFG indirectly supports the publication of research results in open access by contributing to publication funds at universities. As mentioned above, 10 RPOs in Germany provide funding for open access books.
Slovenia adopted a national policy for open science that included open access to academic books and also mentioned funding. Based on that legislation, the national funder ARIS introduced their policy on open research, explicitly mentioning open access books and funding.
Switzerland has a national Open Access Strategy in which both an RFO (SNSF) and RPOs (Swissuniversities) collaborate to jointly and sustainably promote open access to scientific knowledge. This includes support for open access for scholarly longform publications and additional publication formats, and it explains why there are several (5) RPOs in Switzerland that provide funding for open access books. These are further detailed in the related article on RPOs in this section.
The European Commission (EC) implements its open access policy through the Model Grant Agreement for grantees within its Framework Programme for Research. The EC has adopted the guidelines that were first introduced by the European Research Council (ERC) to explicitly include ‘monographs and other longform publications’ in its open access mandate. It therefore concerns all researchers within the European Research Area that are involved in research projects within the EU Horizon Europe Framework Programme.
In a number of countries without ministerial or government open access policies, or with open access strategies that do not mention books or funding, the national research funder can take the lead to develop a policy and a funding mechanism for open access books. Examples are UKRI (United Kingdom), NWO (Netherlands), FWF (Austria), the Research Council of Norway and the Research Council of Lithuania. Further details can be found in Funding mechanisms for open access books: RFOs.
In countries with open access book policies and funding mechanisms based on a national strategy or from a national research funder, there will also be RPOs with open access policies that provide funding to cover publishing costs for open access books. These are generally managed by their libraries. See Funding mechanisms for open access books: RPOs for more details (to be published).
Both funders and libraries often collaborate to align on how funding is being provided. For funders, the important initiative is Coalition S, which has provided guidance for both open access journals and books. Coalition S, which is supported by several RFOs, recommends that funders mandate open access for books and that they provide funding to cover open access publication costs, but leaves it to the funders to decide how this should be done.
Libraries generally already collaborate through library consortia to negotiate agreements with publishers. These consortia can be on a national level, a regional or state level, or in some cases they are formed by a group of similar RPOs. As RPOs become engaged in supporting open access, this effort may also be taken up by consortia.
This article is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.