Understanding a books policy

Policy records contain information on how monographs/edited collection/chapters can be made open access for the published, accepted and submitted versions of these formats.

Open access book policies are stored as a set of options, each option presenting a way in which a document can become open access.

Authors can refer to these options to understand how to make their monograph/edited collection/chapters open access.

If a publisher does not have an expressed policy for a specific output type or version this will be marked as ‘publisher does not have policy for x version’.

Understanding options

Each version of either a monograph/edited collection/chapter may contain one or more options via which they can be made open access.

Clicking on any option will expand the textbox and display the full details for that option.

Typically, publishers offer a direct open access route with a book processing charge payable to the publisher (sometimes referred to as gold open access), or through diamond open access models. These are displayed as ‘standard open access policy’ routes in the results.

Publishers also often offer a self-archiving policy (sometimes referred to as green open access) with some restrictions such as an embargo period and a limited number of permitted repositories. These are displayed as ‘self-archiving’ in the results.

Please check with your institution regarding funding for open access - many publishers will have agreements with universities that will enable authors to publish open access.

Understanding what elements of the policy mean

• What can I archive:

  • This means: What proportion of the manuscript the author is permitted to publish or archive under the policy (complete manuscript, portion of the manuscript, one chapter only etc).

• What licence can I apply:

  • This means: The licence that the publisher permits. Funders sometimes mandate a specific licence for sharing the version of work, so please also check their policy.

• Where can I archive:

  • This means: The permitted archiving locations where the author may deposit their work.

• Where will publisher deposit:

  • This means: The places where the publisher will automatically deposit the work upon publication. We only list platforms that are required by funder policies. In addition to this, the publisher will usually publish the work on their own platform and a number of other open access platforms.

• If funded by, If subject is...:

  • This means: The scope of the policy (specific to funder, subject area etc).