If your research has been externally funded, you should always check your funder’s open access requirements. The policies of funders with open access monograph requirements are outlined below.
UKRI funded authors
There is a new requirement for monographs, book chapters and edited collections published from 1 January 2024 (unless a contract has been signed between the author and the publisher before this date that prevents adherence to the policy) which acknowledge funding from UKRI to be made open access.
There are two routes to compliance:
The open access versions of monographs, book chapters and edited collections must be published under a Creative Commons licence. UKRI has expressed a preference for a CC BY licence but other Creative Commons licences are permitted.
Funding to support the policy will be provided through a centralised fund of £3.5 million per year held by UKRI that research organisations will apply for. Successful applications for funding will need to demonstrate a substantial link between the publication and UKRI funding.
Further information about complying with the policy and the funding process is available here.
Wellcome Trust funded authors
The Wellcome Trust policy on monographs and book chapters requires that books and book chapters authored or co-authored by Wellcome Trust grant holders be:
The Wellcome Trust will provide funding for Gold open access fees associated with monographs and book chapters. See their webpage on on how to request open access funding for books and book chapters.
OAPEN maintain a list of book publishers publishers that comply with the requirements of the Wellcome open access requirements.
Horizon Europe/ERC funded authors
The Horizon Europe Open Science policy requires that long-text publications such as books authored or co-authored by Horizon Europe grant holders be made open access with no embargo. The book must be published under a Creative Commons licence, although the license applied can exclude commercial uses and/or derivative works so books that are licenced CC BY-NC or CC BY-ND are compliant.
Compliance can be achieved by making the Author’s Accepted Manuscript (AAM) free to view and download on a repository such as Goldsmiths Research Online (GRO) without an embargo. Alternatively, authors can make the final published version of their book open access with no embargo. However, authors will need to pay any open access fees from their grant.
OAPEN maintain a list of book publishers that comply with the requirements of the Horizon Europe/ERC open science policy.
Leverhulme Trust
The Leverhulme Trust considers open access publishing charges to be a permissible expense that can be costed in as part of a grant proposal, although they must be incurred during the lifecycle of the grant (rather than after the award has finished). Further guidance is available here.
Other funders
Before selecting a publisher, you should always check to see if your funder has an open access policy for books. You can contact gro@gold.ac.uk for advice about your funder’s requirements.
Authors with no funding grant
There are no requirements for authors without specific funder grants to make monographs, edited collections and book chapters open access. However, it may still be possible to do so if you select a publisher that allows their work to be uploaded to a repository such as GRO or that does not charge a fee for open access.