Frequently-Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is Open Access?

A work is considered to be Open Access when it is available to read and reuse for free in its entirety, without any restriction on who can access it. For more information, see our Guide to Open Access blog series.

Why is Open Access a good thing?

Academic books are expensive. In the UK, they currently retail at prices between £50-120, meaning that, for the most part, only well-endowed university libraries can afford to buy them. A great deal of valuable research is therefore unavailable to most readers, with students in developing countries being particularly disadvantaged. Open Access means that everyone, everywhere can have the same access to quality educational material. Each of our titles is read by an average of 400 readers each month.

Doesn't Open Access leave authors without an income?

Unlike novelists or other professional writers, the vast majority of academics do not write books to make money. Academics' funding comes from their university and research grants, and royalties on academic books are usually negligible. Most scholars publish books so that people can read and engage with their ideas; Open Access means that more people will be able to do just that.

Does being an Open Access publisher mean that you will publish anything?

No! We only publish books that make it through our rigorous peer review process. All our books are read and assessed by at least two experts in the field at both the proposal and manuscript stage, and we only publish research that has been carefully peer-reviewed.

If my book is published as Open Access does that mean it can be more easily plagiarised?

No. All the usual rules about plagiarism apply to Open Access books.

Does an Open Access book count towards the RAE/REF assessments for UK research?

Yes. A book published by us is seen as exactly the same as a non-Open Access book: in fact it is likely that the next REF will mandate that monographs must be published via an Open Access route.

Will you publish my book?

We publish academic monographs, edited volumes, textbooks and reports in all disciplines: Humanities, Social Sciences and the Sciences. If your manuscript passes our rigorous peer review process, we will almost certainly publish it. If you are unsure of whether your book is right for us, please email Alessandra Tosi (a.tosi@openbookpublishers.com). Find out more information for authors, including our downloadable book submission guidelines.

Will you charge a fee (also known as a Book Processing Charge or BPC) to publish my book?

No. We cover our costs via three main revenue streams: sales, our Library Membership Programme, and grant funding. If you are able to apply for funding to defray the costs of publication, we ask that you do so -- but publication is not dependent on you securing grant funding, and many of our books have no funding attached.

Can I include images, maps, sound or video files? Do you publish color images?

Yes, our books extend well beyond the printed page. We create interactive books, and works that incorporate moving images, links and sound directly into the text. The print version is equipped with links and QR codes that readers can easily use to access the material, while the digital editions allow readers to engage immediately with it. More traditional titles are equipped with digital resources freely available on our website, including extra chapters, reviews, links and image galleries. We publish books in color at a minimal extra cost.

Are your books preserved in any way?

In order to ensure that our titles are preserved into the future, all our titles are archived via the Thoth Open Archiving Network at the Internet Archive and Zenodo. All our works are archived in Portico, one of the main digital archiving services, via OAPEN. In addition, we participate in the digital upload of titles by the British Library where our content is also stored in perpetuity. Because our books are Open Access and under Creative Commons licences they will be available to all in the future through the above organizations and elsewhere, even if OBP should cease to exist.

Do you provide authors with stats about the number and location of readers?

We carefully collect readership statistics which are regularly updated on our website. Title-specific stats and a map of the book's geographical reach (as far as we can track these) is provided on all our title pages. The readership stats are calculated based on the number of readers accessing our free editions. This includes viewers accessing our books on certain other platforms that provide the free-to-read book (Google Books, OpenEdition, DOAB). However in some cases (for example, Google Books) we are not provided with geographic information, hence the partial data used on the readership maps. The stats are updated daily, at the end of the UK working day. Read more information about how we collect our readership statistics.

Are you books provided with a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number?

Yes, all our books, and each chapter within a book, is provided with a unique and permanent DOI.

How do you keep the prices of your paperbacks and hardbacks so low?

The internet has revolutionised the way publishers can operate. We use print-on-demand technology, which means we have no wasted print runs. We have also been assisted along the way by donations from individuals and grant-giving bodies who support our Open Access mission. More information on our business model is available on our website.

Your prices are displayed in British pounds. Can I make purchases from your site if I reside outside the UK?

Yes. Our books can also be purchased in USD, Euros, Can$ and AU$ via the scroll down currency option available on every title page. Within any currency zone you can make purchases through our payments provider with any major credit or debit card. Your credit card provider will convert the charge into your local currency for you.

Are your digital book accessible to print-impaired readers?

Accessibility information about our books can be found on this page.

As with all PDF documents, it is possible to use Acrobat Reader's Read Out Loud function on any of our downloadable PDF files. Read Out Loud uses the Text-to-Speech engine installed on your system to make text contained within a PDF more accessible. Find out more about Acrobat Reader's accessibility features.

Also, text can easily be resized in our HTML reader by clicking on the buttons situated in the top right corner of the browser window. You can find out more about how you change the text size, text and background colors, and other display options through standard browser settings.

All our digital editions are free from DRM (Digital Rights Management) software.

What does the future hold for Open Book Publishers?

We envisage a world in which all research is freely available to all readers. As well as continuing to publish our high-quality academic books and textbooks, we help institutions, academic groups, other publishers and journals move to an Open Access model through mentoring, consultancy and participation in the Copim community. As part of Copim, and as a founder member of the ScholarLed consortium of academic-led Open Access presses and a co-ordinator of the Open Access Books Network, we are actively engaged in knowledge-sharing and developing open source infrastructure to enable other Open Access publishers to grow and flourish. For more about our current activities and future plans, see Our Vision and Our Communities.