Supporting open access publishing for books: Collective funding models event summary

The UKRI open access policy for monographs, book chapters and edited collections goes live on 1 January 2024, and UKRI have confirmed that their ring-fenced fund of approximately £3.5 million can be used to support a range of open access models, including Diamond agreements (such as Purchase to Open or collective models) as well as the more traditional book processing charge and book chapter processing charges.

In preparation for policy implementation, Jisc and the Open Access Books Network came together to hold a series of online events which focused on different publishing models for open access books. We held three 90-minute webinars with panel speakers including publishers, librarians, and open access infrastructure providers.

Each webinar was chaired by an expert in the field of open access and included a Q&A session, with the chair inviting questions from attendees and some from the chair to the presenters.

Webinar 1. Publishers.

In our opening webinar, three publishers from across the publishing landscape gave presentations about how they have implemented different types of collective funding model for their open access books, rather than relying on a BPC model. The key focus of this session was to hear from publishers how they have been able to implement collective funding models to benefit their authors.

“Great speakers, the speakers kept to the topic, and it was focused on the subject area I am interested in. It was practical, straightforward and in plain English. Very helpful, and great to have some insight into what’s going on in other presses and into developments in the funding landscape.”

“It was very useful to hear from diverse publishing service providers about their business models which will help my institution plan future partnerships.”

Webinar 2. Libraries.

The second webinar involved library colleagues discussing how their libraries are adapting policies and practices to meet the challenges of supporting open monographs. One of the key messages of this session was to establish how libraries have been able to support open access books already but also cover the struggles they face, alongside potential needs or support moving forward.

“Brilliant webinar. Answered a lot of questions about funding models and gave a hugely valuable insight into librarians’ perspectives. Good length for such an important subject, the speakers were able to go into detail. Excellent hosting too.”

“A really useful session, particularly getting the perspectives from three very different libraries.”

Webinar 3. Infrastructure.

In our final webinar, infrastructure providers and librarians discussed why not-for-profit, community-led open infrastructure is so important for open access books and how it can best be supported by funders, publishers, and libraries.

This session focused on the importance of not only monetary support for these models, but also the opportunities they provide to join a community and share knowledge of open access best practice. It also covered the importance of infrastructure in terms of metadata support and what is already in place that can be utilised for open access monographs.

“Very relevant to my area of interest, lots of practical information. Data backed up by case studies and examples. All very real-world and applicable to current publishing issues.”

Conclusion

We would like to thank all of our chairs and speakers for their engagement, as well as the 1000+ participants over the three sessions for their thought provoking questions and comments. Webinar attendance was well over the sector average and we are proud to be using our platform to discuss the key issues in open access book publishing.

Lucy Barnes, Senior Editor and Outreach Coordinator at Open Book Publishers, who chaired the first webinar, said,

“Co-organising these webinars with Jisc has been fantastic – huge thanks to … Jisc team for taking on such a lot of the organisational labour! .. Promoting the webinars via both Jisc and the OABN resulted in large audiences, and it was an enormous opportunity to bring expert perspectives to bear on some crucial questions about open access books today.”

Further information

For more information about these events, or our work supporting open access for books, please get in touch by emailing help.digitalresources@jisc.ac.uk

Why not join the Open Access Books Network – a space where researchers, publishers, librarians, research funders, infrastructure providers — indeed, anyone who is interested — can engage in discussions around OA books.