Peer Review in Open Access Book Publishing: Interview with Jordy Findanis and Laura Bandura-Morgan from OAPEN/DOAB | MDPI Books Blog

The OAPEN Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that operates out of the Netherlands. Its aim is ‘to achieve a sustainable publication model for academic books in humanities and social sciences and to improve the visibility and usability of high-quality academic research in Europe.’ OAPEN also operates the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB), a discovery service indexing OA books. Before these books are published and indexed, however, they must be peer-reviewed. Peer review in open access book publishing is a crucial step, ensuring academic validity and accuracy.

But how do we make this process smoother and more beneficial to both authors and publishers? What are the current issues with peer review in open access book publishing, and what could possibly be done to resolve them? We sat down with Jordy Findanis and Laura Bandura-Morgan from OAPEN and DOAB to discuss what is being done to develop and strengthen peer review practices, respecting bibilodiversity by adopting flexible approaches to peer review, what authors should look for when choosing publishers, and how Generative AI may be utilised in the future to improve peer review in open access book publishing.

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