Humanities scholars warn over UKRI’s plan for open-access books | Times Higher Education (THE)

"Proposals that would require academic monographs to be made freely available within 12 months of publication could harm the careers of UK arts and humanities scholars by stopping them from publishing, critics have warned.

Under proposals published on 13 February, UK Research and Innovation will require all scholarly monographs, book chapters and edited collections by authors who are supported by its funds to be made open access from January 2024, unless a contract has been signed before this date that prevents adherence to the policy....

Without extra research funds to pay for the book processing charges associated with open access publishing, many scholars might be denied the opportunity to publish, warned Marilyn Deegan, professor of digital humanities at King’s College London. “In arts and humanities, without monographs you are unlikely to progress in your career,” said Professor Deegan, who added that she had recently been told by a publisher that it would cost almost £10,000 to publish an academic book in an open access format...."