Business models
This section provides links to information about OA business models. These largely focus on the different types available, how they work, their pros and cons, and some other relevant information about funding such as UKRI's OA policy and implementation of OA book funding. Other resources, such as Jisc's Open policy finder (formerly know as the Sherpa suite of resources) and the Open Book Environment, collate publisher policies around OA and BPC costs.
While our focus remains on OA books in particular, we have included a couple of more journal-focussed resources where they take a holistic view of a publisher rather than focus solely on their journal output.
- An introduction to UKRI’s fund for longform outputs
- Business Models for Open Access Books
- Classifying open access business models
- Consider your options: explore the different funding streams for Diamond Open Access
- Cookbook for Open Access books
- Open Book Environment (OBE) Dashboard
- Open policy finder (Jisc)
- Plan S: New tool to assess equity in scholarly communication models
- Toolkit to foster Open Access Agreements for Smaller Independent Publishers (cOAlition S)
An introduction to UKRI’s fund for longform outputs
This is a guide for UKRI-funded authors on how to use the UKRI research fund to make their longform works immediately available open access (mandatory since early 2024).
It sets out the available funding limits for BPCs, CPCs and for OA subscription funds. It also sets out the application process.
Business Models for Open Access Books
This collection of case studies was brought together by Lucy Barnes of Open Book Publishers and François van Schalkwyk of African Minds.
It showcases the business models of a range of open access (OA) academic book presses, and is intended to document the diverse ways that presses in different parts of the world have set up and now maintain their open access operations.
While the case studies are extremely detailed, they have not been updated since 2022 and are therefore a little out of date. However, they still help to illustrate the reasons behind the choices made by the presses, as well as detailing the models themselves.
Classifying open access business models
This opinion piece by Tasha Mellins-Cohen (founder at Mellins-Cohen Consulting and Executive Director at COUNTER Metrics) is an article offering a comprehensive classification system for OA models, categorising them into five core types, each with distinct characteristics and implications for funding, equity, and implementation:
- Transactional
- Bundled
- Cooperative
- Sponsored
- Alternative
This classification aims to clarify the myriad labels and terminologies used, addressing the inconsistencies and gaps in previous attempts to categorize OA models. By providing descriptions and analyses of different business models, the article seeks to enhance transparency around and understanding of OA options, ultimately supporting informed decision-making in the evolving landscape of academic publishing.
Consider your options: explore the different funding streams for Diamond Open Access
This guide (an output from the DIAMAS project) lists different funding streams for Diamond OA publishing and service provision. It also appears as part of the toolsuite of sustainability resources on the European Diamond Capacity Hub (ECDH).
While it is mostly focussed on journals, there are elements of it relevant to books. It goes through a range of models, some of which are only relevant to journals (e.g. subscriptions to print copies) and some of which are more broadly applicable (e.g. collective supporter programmes), describes each model, sets out who the funder is and what exactly is funded, and provides examples. It gives pros and cons for each model. In our opinion, the pros and cons provided are realistic and reasonable.
Cookbook for Open Access books
This book describes the experiences of setting up a community-based publisher, Language Science Press.
It discusses the main principles of community-based publishing and gives a very granular breakdown of the different tasks. The discussion of the different tasks is complemented by readings, time lines, and a list of time sinks.
The book is also complemented by the business model, open business data, and a spreadsheet for drafting and calculating own business models.
Open Book Environment (OBE) Dashboard
Open Book Environment (OBE) Dashboard is a joint initiative from the Universities of Derby and Vermont, designed as a response to the myriad challenges faced by the scholarly community at large. It is a transparency dashboard about publishers, aimed at authors (and their funders) focussing on author fees, licensing, their policies on self-archiving, waiver and discount information, and any stated price justification.
OBE is intended to help reduce researcher burden and to bring about more transparency around open book publishing practices. It also aims to fill a gap by providing information on a range of different publishers categorized by how transparent the information is on OA books on their websites relating to pricing for BPCs, clarity on editorial quality, retrospective OA options, fee waivers and more.
Although a recent resource (2023), its longevity is unclear because it is a Google sheet maintained by two volunteer contributors (Publication Practice Librarian, Holly Limbert, University of Derby and Library Associate Professor Dan DeSanto, University of Vermont). However, OBE is designed to be a living resource and inventory which will grow. Amendments and additions can be suggested by submitting a request via this form.
Open policy finder (Jisc)
'Open Access for Books' is a new addition to Jisc’s well established Sherpa toolsuite of resources for journals. Now known as open policy finder, the Open Access for Books feature offers an overview of publishers' book policies to help authors and research organisations make informed and confident decisions in open access publishing and meeting funders' guidelines.
Developed to support the UKRI OA policy for longform, it is still relatively new (released in beta early 2024) and a limited number of publisher data sets included. It has since moved to live release and is under active development with the number of publisher policies increasing.
Plan S: New tool to assess equity in scholarly communication models
This online assessment tool, launched in 2024, enables self-assessment of financial models by funders, publishers and others about access to read, access to publish (with or without fee), reuse rights, fee transparency, and promoting open data and code, and preprints and open peer review.
While this is, at least currently, explicitly for journals, and implicitly more relevant to STEM subjects (e.g. open code) much of it is applicable to books and to AHSS subjects.
Toolkit to foster Open Access Agreements for Smaller Independent Publishers (cOAlition S)
The toolkit was developed by Information Power, working together with librarians, publishers and library consortia in the framework of the third phase of the Society Publishers Accelerating Open Access (SPA OPS 3.0) project, commissioned by cOAlitionS and the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP).
It provides concise guidance, example licences and data templates for smaller publishers to use while negotiating agreements with libraries. While it is journal-focussed, there is a complementary Information Power report which focuses on books.