Supporting open access monographs without the costs of book processing charges | Jisc Research

This is a blog post by Caroline Mackay, licensing manager. Unlike journals, funder support and models for publishing monographs open access (OA) have been slower to proliferate. However, the announcement of the new UKRI Open Access Policy on 6 August details requirements for in-scope monographs, book chapters and edited collections published on or after 1 January 2024. Jisc welcomes the policy as a significant driver in the delivery of open access (OA) research in the UK. While we wait for further information on the policy, one of the main challenges Jisc is working on is how to fund OA publishing in monographs without incurring high book processing charges (BPC) in access of £11,000. Jisc’s 2018 briefing paper on OA monographs in the UK suggests the over reliance on models that involve book processing charges is a weakness. Institutions need sustainable models that better reflect their budgets – we hope they can provide a cost effective and open alternative to BPC based models long term, and reflect the diversity of OA publishing for books.