Open access monographs are free to access to researchers, students, practitioners and the public from around the world, increasing the visibility and impact of academic research. They are also easier to use and adapt for learning and teaching and can support innovative forms of publishing such as the inclusion of audio-visual material or supplementary teaching resources.
Although open access publication is most commonly associated with journal articles, there are a growing number of options for making monographs, edited collections and book chapters openly available.
Funder open access policies are starting to incorporate monographs, edited collections and book chapters, with UKRI joining the Wellcome Trust in bringing monographs into the scope of their open access policy from 2024.
At Goldsmiths there is no institutional fund to support the costs of publishing open access for unfunded researchers but authors who receive funding from UKRI, Wellcome Trust or Horizon Europe/ERC will be able to access funds to support the cost of open access publication. Further information is available in the ‘Funder requirements’ tab.
Although open access funding is limited at Goldsmiths, there are alternative open access publishing models that don’t require the payment of a fee to a publisher. In these models, publishers support the costs of making their books open access via alternative sources of funding such as sponsorship, membership or subscription schemes. More information about publishers and initiatives that publish open access monographs at no cost to the researcher or their institution is available in the ‘Publisher open access policies’ tab.