Open Access Monographs : Self-archiving (Green OA)

If your monograph, edited collection or book chapter has been published in a traditional non-open access way, then it may still be possible to make your work open access through the Green Open Access route i.e. the type of open access where the Author Accepted version of work is made available, via an institutional repository such as Goldsmiths Research Online (GRO), either immediately on publication or after an embargo period. 

Goldsmiths encourages all authors of monographs, edited collections and book chapters to make their work open access in Goldsmiths Research Online (GRO) as a way to increase the accessibility and visibility of research that may go out of print.

Many publishers will allow authors to deposit a version of their monographs, or parts of their monographs, to the GRO repository in the same way as they do for journal articles. Before signing a contract for a monograph or agreeing to write a chapter in an edited book, we advise checking whether the publisher's standard terms and conditions allow you to deposit all or part of your work in an institutional open access repository. 

Self-archiving policies for books and chapters are often not as easy to find as those for journals but OAPEN maintain a useful list of publishers with links to their Green Open Access policy. Authors wishing to explore the Green Open Access route for their publication, can also email gro@gold.ac.uk for help and advice.

Typical conditions attached to self-archiving can include:

• The archiving of a maximum of one chapter from an edited work, or 10% of a monograph.
• The version uploaded to GRO should be the author's accepted manuscript i.e. the final agreed text before the publisher's typesetting is applied.
• An embargo period should be applied, to protect the market for the published work. Deposit is often subject to a longer embargo than the 12-24 month average for a journal article and may be longer than the maximum embargo permitted by your funder.

It is rare for a publisher to allow the complete manuscript to be uploaded to repository such as GRO but several do allow this following an embargo period:

• Edinburgh University Press (36 month embargo)
• Liverpool University Press (24 month embargo)
• Manchester University Press (36 month embargo)
• Bristol University Press and Policy Press (36 month embargo)
• Amsterdam University Press (no embargo)
• Central European (CEU) Press (24 month embargo)
• Peter Lang (12 month embargo)