Let’s Talk About Open Access Policies for Academic Books

The PALOMERA (Policy Alignment of Open Access Monographs in the European Research Area) project, a European-funded project that ran from 2023–2024, sought to expand the focus of open access (OA) policymakers beyond journals to include academic books. As its scientific coordinator, I have had the opportunity to present the PALOMERA project multiple times and in different geographical contexts. It’s clear that each region or country faces its own set of challenges related to funder and institutional policies on open access—for example political, economic, social/cultural, and legal issues. Presenting the PALOMERA policy recommendations—a key outcome of the project—in different regional contexts has sparked many discussions and opened new perspectives on the topic.

While the PALOMERA project investigates the European landscape, which in itself is very diverse, we have aimed to make our recommendations globally applicable. We absolutely acknowledge that this is an ambition too large for most projects, but we think it is important to consider policies globally simply because research is global. We are very much aware, however, that our evidence is based on research in Europe. Therefore, we invite all stakeholders in OA book publishing and policymaking to engage with our findings and recommendations, to share their views and feedback, and to describe the situation in their region, country, or local community. I’ve included details in the conclusion to this article about how to contribute.

To kick off the conversation, I will describe our findings and recommendations.

Why are open access policies for academic books important?

Books continue to play an important role in scholarly production and research communication, particularly in the social sciences and humanities (SSH). Developing an open science/research culture within the SSH disciplines therefore must include scholarly books in open access.

But the adoption of OA publishing for books has been slower and more challenging than for journal articles. Several factors have been blamed, including the research culture in many social sciences and humanities (SSH) disciplines, the lengthy editorial process, and the multilingual nature of book publishing. Additionally, industry-specific issues such as royalties and print copy sales also play a role.

Funder and institutional policies are key drivers of change. Therefore, implementing OA policies for academic books—alongside other initiatives—is essential to ensure that researchers, particularly in SSH disciplines, are not left behind in the advancement of open science.

PALOMERA Project Findings

The PALOMERA project group consisted of 16 partners (representing key stakeholder groups). Together we researched the OA policy landscape for books in 39 countries in Europe. For the purpose of our project, we defined “books” as scholarly peer-reviewed books, including monographs, book chapters, edited collections, critical editions, and other long-form scholarly works.

From our comprehensive study of over 650 OA policy and policy-related documents, along with interviews and surveys that elicited in-depth responses, we gained a thorough understanding of the OA book policy landscape, identifying its strengths, gaps, and possibilities for change. We also identified a set of key policy elements that are essential for ensuring the efficiency of any policy.

We captured this extensive evidence in an open knowledge base; our analysis enabled us to develop overarching recommendations and conclusions regarding OA book policies in Europe that could also be extended beyond Europe.

From our examination of the landscape across the 39 countries, it became evident that a standardized, internationally uniform approach to establishing OA book policies is not feasible. But significant progress can be made through cross-stakeholder collaboration—sharing experiences and best practices in a collaborative environment—both nationally and internationally.

Moreover, studying many institutional and funder policies from different countries revealed patterns that could help inform the design of future policies. It became clear that several specific elements are needed to make strong and efficient policies. Such elements include clear statements concerning policy scope, the OA models that the policy encourages, rights and licensing terms, deposit requirements, funding availability, compliance requirements, policy review scheduling, and more. Based on our research, we argue that these elements must be addressed by any given policy to make it efficient, but we don’t specify how they should be addressed. The specific details of the policy depend on the local context and the goals and means of each issuing body.

Our research also enabled us to map a number of important policy parameters by country and to perform a PESTLE analysis—that is, an evaluation of the impact of political, economic, social, technical, legal, and environmental factors—across the data. Based on our analysis of policies and interviews with policymakers we also came up with what we call the “policy life cycle,” which describes six stages of policymaking, highlighting that it should be an iterative, consultative, and ongoing process responsive to changes internally and externally, rather than an irregular set-and-forget task.

All the research that we performed is thoroughly described in an extensive report of analysis findings openly available on Zenodo.

PALOMERA Project Recommendations

After completing our research, we developed evidence-based recommendations for policies targeted to each stakeholder.

The current OA book policy landscape is marked by a lack of coordination among key stakeholders, as highlighted by stakeholder engagement events conducted throughout the project. To address this fragmentation, we present actionable recommendations in a structured framework, moving progressively from general recommendations to those tailored to specific stakeholders.

We begin with broad recommendations that apply to all stakeholders:

1. Address OA books specifically in OA policies.
2. Use simple language in OA book policies.
3. Raise awareness about OA books at all levels.
4. Consider funding mechanisms for OA books that do not involve book processing charges (BPCs).
5. Engage in collaboration with related stakeholders.

Secondly, we present a set of common recommendations for research-funding organizations (RFOs), research-performing organizations (RPOs), and national and regional policymakers:

1. Consider appropriate reward and recognition mechanisms for OA books.
2. Provide appropriate funding mechanisms for OA books.
3. Put in place mechanisms that monitor OA book policies.
4. Develop awareness about rights and licenses.
5. Contribute to improving the infrastructure for OA books.

The full report also contains recommendations specifically tailored to each of the following eight stakeholder groups: RPOs, RFOs, national policymakers, libraries, researchers, learned societies, open infrastructure providers, and publishers. For example, here is one of the recommendations for libraries:

“Recommendation #3 for libraries: Make OA books more visible.

Libraries should develop workflows to make OA books more visible and discoverable in the Library catalogue or discovery system and integrated into Digital Learning Environments. In particular, libraries can support the researchers at their institution to help make their books more visible and discoverable by encouraging them to call on their publishers to provide PIDs such as DOIs, ORCIDs and RORs. They need to provide rich metadata, including cited references, and increase discoverability through open infrastructures, such as the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB). Libraries can support lecturers to include OA books in teaching material and encourage OA books in reading lists. Libraries should ensure that the OA status and the OA licence are included in the metadata fields for OA books in their catalogues and systems, this is particularly essential for national and copyright/legal deposit libraries.

Time frame: Short Term” (Bandura- Morgan et al., 2024).

As this example shows, the recommendations are designed to be actionable, providing practical guidance, best-practice examples, time frames, and links to relevant contextual materials to support their implementation. Moreover, this recommendation also demonstrates how a recommendation for one stakeholder group (libraries) can involve other stakeholders (in this example researchers/teachers, infrastructures, and publishers).

While we acknowledge that national, cultural, economic, and social contexts vary, we hope these recommendations will help pave the way for stronger OA book policies. Ultimately, stronger policies could lead to an increase in the number of OA books published, greater funding opportunities, and the development of robust infrastructure services, fostering a more mature and resilient OA book ecosystem.

We hope that all stakeholders can take inspiration from these recommendations. As mentioned above, local and regional insights and discussions would enrich the findings of the PALOMERA project. To this end, we invite you to share your policy situation for OA books and to let us know whether and how you can use or have used the PALOMERA recommendations. For example, you could share your thoughts and activities in the comment section below, or you could submit a contribution to Katina as a response to this article. You can also share your thoughts and activities privately with the author and the former steering group of the PALOMERA project using this form.

Although the PALOMERA project has formally ended, our work on its outcomes continues. Science Europe, cOAlition S, and OAPEN have established a Policy Forum to sustain the momentum it created. OA policies for academic books—long overshadowed by journal policies—are now receiving growing attention. We want to build on this trend by encouraging more funders and policymakers to engage in discussions about how to design and implement effective open access policies for books, while ensuring that the perspectives of all relevant stakeholders are taken into account. This conversation is gaining traction in Europe, and we are eager to see how similar dialogues may develop in other regions. We stand ready to contribute and collaborate.

References

Bandura- Morgan, L., Bazeliuk, N., Davidson, A., Dreyer, M., Caliman Fontes, L., Fernandes Especiosa, M. O., Ferreira, N. H., Gatti, R., Gouzi, F., Iannace, D. E., Laakso, M., Leão, D., Manista, F., Manista, G., Maryl, M., Mounier, P., Paltineanu, S., Papp Le Roy, N., Proudman, V., Rabar, U., Redhead, C., Rooryck, J, Stern, N., Stone, G., Vrčon, A. (2024). PALOMERA Deliverable 4.2 - The PALOMERA Recommendations for Open Access Books, p. 33-34. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14330411