Open Access isn’t just for journal article and conference papers. The same principles can be applied to books and book chapters, increasing the profile of your work and ensuring that disadvantaged readers have access. 

Funder policies are starting to incorporate books and book chapters. This page provides a brief overview of funder requirements and the open access options available to you. For an in-depth look at open access books, you may find the OAPEN OA Books Toolkit useful.

Funder requirements 

UKRI funded authors  

UKRI's Open Access policy for Books and Book Chapters applies to works published from the 1st of January 2024. Monographs, Edited Collections and Book Chapters that acknowledge a UKRI grant must be made open access with a Creative Commons license (Preferably CC-BY, but other licenses are permitted) and with no more than a 12-month embargo.

UKRI have a fund to cover open access fees associated with this. They have set limits on the fees they are prepared to pay. They will pay for Book Processing Charges up to £10,000 including VAT, and Chapter Processing Charges up to £1,000 including VAT. To apply for this fund please fill out the UKRI open access monograph, book chapter and edited collection claim form, and the Open Access Team will contact you.  

UKRI open access monograph, book chapter and edited collection claim form

Please note: If you have signed an agreement with a publisher before 1/1/24 that prevents following this policy, UKRI have said that you do not need to follow their requirements.  

Wellcome Trust funded authors  

The Wellcome Trust will provide funding for gold open access fees associated with monographs and book chapters.  See their webpage on how to request open access funding for books and book chapters 

Horizon Europe/ERC funded authors

The Horizon Europe Open Science policy requires that books and book chapters authored or co-authored by Horizon Europe grant holders be made open access with a CC-BY licence.

This can be achieved by publishing with a publisher that permits green open access without an embargo. Alternatively you can publish with a gold open access publisher. However, you will need to pay any open access fees from your grant.

Other funders 

You should check with your funder before selecting a publisher to see if they have an Open Access policy for books.  

Authors with no funding grant 

There are no requirements for authors without specific funder grants to make books and, book chapters open access. However, it may still be possible to do so if you pick a publisher that allows their work to be uploaded to Pure or that does not charge for gold open access. 

Open Access book Publishers

The table below lists some examples of book publishers that offer Open Access options. The Gold OA column indicates if the publisher offers Open Access on their webpages. This often involves a fee, but some publishers have other methods of funding and do not charge authors to publish. The Green OA column indicates what can be uploaded to a repository such as Pure. A fee is not required for green open access.