Open Access book publishing in a challenging funding landscape

UCL Press, the UK’s first fully open access university press, commissioned Research Consulting to undertake consultancy work to explore the current landscape and policy environment relating to open access monograph publication. The recent implementation of the UKRI mandate for open access monograph publication of outputs from UKRI-funded projects, announcements about the funding available to support this policy, and the REF 2029 consultation followed by early policy decisions about implementation of open access requirements for longform outputs from 1 January 2029 for the next assessment exercise, makes this a highly relevant topic of interest for many institutions.

The project involved a number of conversations with internal and external experts and stakeholders. A small-scale survey was also developed, which was circulated to members of the Association of Research Managers and Administrators (ARMA) special interest group mailing lists focussing on Open Research and on the Research Excellence Framework (REF). The survey results provided valuable insights into the perspectives of institutional research managers or administrators (typically based within the research office) and librarians on the transition to open access books within the UK higher education sector and echoed wider findings:

1. There is a general expectation of growth in OA books
2. There is a preference for repository-based compliance
3. Collaborative approaches are favoured over new in-house publishing services
4. Finding pathways to sustainable OA growth for monographs is challenging: Book Publication Charges (BPCs) offer a short term option, but longer term funding models remain unclear

Research Consulting provided a report for UCL Press and summarised findings from the survey in a blog post, which was shared with the wider community: ./index.htmlopen-access-book-publishing-in-a-challenging-funding-landscape/