The Wellcome Trust funds its first open access monograph, helping medical humanities reach wider audiences. | Impact of Social Sciences

"Aya Homei and I are the guinea pigs for the new Wellcome Trust policy on open access monographs.  Our book, Fungal Disease in Britain and America, 1850-2000: Mycoses and Modernity, published by Palgrave Macmillan this week, is the first new monograph published through the Trust’s scheme.  It is available free to download from Palgrave Connect, and from online retailers such as Amazon Kindle. We are delighted that our book is being published open access and feel that it will ensure that our subject, the history of fungal disease, will enjoy a much wider audience than would otherwise have been the case ... We have found the process of manuscript preparation, reviews, editing and production to be the same as with the normal hardback.  The only difference was the extra work needed to obtain permission to use images, in large part due to having to explain the principles and practice of open access to copyright holders, simply because of its novelty – none refused.  However, where copyright was not clear cut or written permission impossible to obtain, a few images were dropped, but none of these were critical.  We are certain that open access will give our book a wider readership and hopefully be assigned as a student reading text.  We were reminded many times at the recent International Congress for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at the University of Manchester, which attracted over 1,600 delegates from 64 countries, just how difficult it is for teachers and researchers in many countries to acquire books for their library and personal use.  We are pleased that open access publication is accompanied by affordable print on demand editions.  Lastly, and returning to our initial point about the neglect of fungal disease in medical history, we trust that open access publication will ensure that this important class of infections receives the scholarly attention it deserves and also reaches a wider public audience, not least through linkages to patient groups such as that at the Aspergillus/Aspergillosis website. Overall, we found the experience wholly positive."