Country-Specific Guides
This section contains guidelines, reports and other resources, across a broad range of subjects, which pertain to specific geographic areas. These are roughly divided into the UK, the European Research Area (ERA), and the rest of the world.
The compilers of this resource acknowledge unreservedly that the disproportionate weighting given to the UK and the ERA throughout this entire resource are a reflection of our own experience, despite some attempts to mitigate this.
We are very happy to receive further suggestions if you have any, at info@copim.ac.uk.
European Research Area (ERA)
The European Research Area (ERA) is the ambition to create a single, borderless market for research, innovation and technology across the EU. Find out more on European Commission website.
How to flip your journal: A guide to more equitable publishing with Diamond Open Access
This guide, an output of the Strengthening Diamond OA in the Netherlands project, is a comprehensive guide to the rationale and logistics of flipping a journal to Diamond OA; what routes are available, how they work, the financial aspect, and case studies for implementation. While it is speaking primarily to the Dutch context, the suggestions are more widely applicable.
PALOMERA Knowledge Base
The Knowledge Base is a collection of documents, such as reports, policies, survey results and statistics, relevant to Open Access (OA) policies regarding OA books in the ERA. The collection was created as part of the PALOMERA project.
It is an unparalleled resource in terms of providing a centralised hub for OA documents from across the ERA in a range of languages, varying greatly in scope from individual publisher guidelines to national mandates.
Rest of World
Around the World with the Open Access Books Network (OABN)
A series of blog posts from the OABN which focus on OA books in a different country around the world, highlighting their regional experiences, problems and successes. This is an ongoing series that is still being updated, and unlike many OA resources provides perspectives from beyond the ERA.
Canadian Library Journal Publishing: A Primer
This primer, produced by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) in 2024, on library publishing in Canada. It has a focus on journal publishing. As well as providing a brief summary of the support available to journals at CARL libraries, it also summarises some of the core principles of library journal publishing more widely to do with commerciality and fees, diversity, and discovery/preservation.
CARL have also produced further reports, some of which are region-specific, such as copyright for Crown-published works, and on OER policy and infrastructure.
EIFL Report on 'Landscape of no-fee open access publishing in Africa'
A landscape study on Diamond OA journals in Africa which provides detailed reports for several countries and thorough general conclusions about the state of Diamond OA journals in the region, their current challenges, and suggestions for the future. It also provides the survey data which provides a large amount of granular data.
Open Access Australasia
This association, Open Access Australasia, advocates for and supports practical initiatives on open access in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. It is a large community, with several written resources, groups, directories, and others.
OA Book Stakeholders (African Context)
This relational diagram is an unparalleled resource in a very under-described region for OA books. While the EIFL report on OA in Africa is very detailed and informative it only deals with journals, while this focuses on books. The relationships are not always clear, and since this is a relational diagram it is not very descriptive, but it is a very useful starting point.
View the PDF of the relational diagram and the accompanying mission statement
Open Science resources (Latin America)
A visual / interactive dashboard and an example of a multilingual, regional / Rest of the World resource.
Report from a workshop on sustainable open access book publishing in East Africa
In October 2024, a collaborative online-session for publishers from East Africa was co-organised by the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB), OAPEN, the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA) and French research institutes in Africa, Les Afriques dans le monde (LAM) and the French Institute for Research in Africa (IFRA), supported by the National Centre for Scientific Research in France (CNRS). The session covered approaches towards equitable and sustainable open access for scholarly books.
UK Guidance
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.
Guidance on managing copyright under UKRI open access policy
UKRI's report from 2023 provides guidance and explanations on third party copyright in the UK context when dealing with open access. It is aimed at researchers (and research organisations). who are seeking clarity on copyright for their open access publications.