In many disciplines in the arts and humanities and some disciplines in the social sciences, the printed monograph remains the preferred format to communicate substantial research results. If open access (OA) is to succeed in these disciplines, OA models need to be developed for monographs. Book publishers have on the whole been slow to explore a transition to OA models, but in the last couple of years there has been an increase and there are now many examples of OA monograph publishing. This move to OA has been partly motivated by the declining position of the conventional monograph. Although we lack clear data, there is no disputing the fact that monograph sales have dropped considerably in the last three or four decades. The rising cost of books compounded by the reduction in library budgets have undermined the traditional system of distribution through libraries and the availability of publication outlets for scholars. There is some evidence that open access will improve availability and usage of monographs, but in order to be successful, OA models for monographs also need to improve the sustainability of monograph publishing. This article attempts to give a brief overview of the main business models that are being explored.

Hybrid models

In contrast to OA journal publishers, almost all OA book publishers use some sort of hybrid model for their books, providing free access to an OA edition (online or as a PDF) and offering other editions for sale. Recent evidence suggests that most people still prefer print for reading longer texts such as monographs. Consequently, e-books do not substitute printed books in the same way as e-journals are substituting printed journals, and most publishers will offer a printed edition for sale alongside the OA edition. Often the printed edition is provided as a print-on-demand service and some publishers also offer an e-book version for sale.

“… most people still prefer print for reading longer texts such as monographs.”

A few publishers use this hybrid model as their primary strategy to recover their costs. It was first developed by National Academies Press as early as 1994. Bloomsbury Academic also launched with this model, but OECD Publishing is probably the best example. OECD makes all its publications freely available online in HTML, and customers can buy other editions or subscribe to all content. OECD calls this a ‘freemium’ model, providing free versions of publications and selling premium editions and services, and is able to recover almost all of its costs through this model.

Institutional support

Many other open access publishers are able to publish OA books through financial support from a range of bodies, rather than by charging OA publication fees to the author. This is comparable to OA journals, where only around 30% of OA journals charge article processing charges (APCs) and the majority of OA journals receive some sort of support to maintain their activities.

The model is most common among university presses and library-based publishing departments. Support comes in many different forms, such as direct financial support through grants, indirect support through subsidies from the parent institute, ‘in kind’ support for e-publishing activities by making available the infrastructure or staff of the parent institute, or by embedding the publishing activities within the university library.

Early examples of dedicated OA book publishers using a hybrid publishing model in combination with institutional support are Athabasca University Press in Canada, MPublishing in the USA (which also supports Open Humanities Press), ANU Press (formerly ANU E Press) in Australia and Göttingen University Press in Germany.

Author-side publication charges

This model is derived from the APC model for OA journals and has emerged in the last few years, one might say in anticipation of a gold OA model for monographs.

In this model the publisher charges a publication fee or book processing charge to make a book available in open access. The fee is usually paid by the funder of the original research, which can be a funding agency or the author's university. The first research council to fund OA monographs through this model was The Austrian Science Fund (FWF). Other funders, including a number of universities, have extended their OA publication funds to include books: examples include UCL, TU Delft and Lund University. In November 2013, Palgrave Macmillan published the first OA monograph funded by the Wellcome Trust,.

Examples of book publishers using this model (and an indication of the OA charges) include: SpringerOpen (€15,000), Palgrave Macmillan (£11,000), Manchester University Press (£5,900 – £7,700, depending on length), Brill (€5,000 for 350 pages, and €11/page above 350 pages), Open Book Publishers (OBP) (under £4,000, although OBP does not charge authors if there is no funding to support the OA publication), Ubiquity Press (£150/chapter).

Library-side models

Some recent models have been developed with the current acquisition system in mind, looking at existing library budgets to support open access for publications. This approach is particularly relevant for the humanities and social sciences, where research grants are often smaller:

  • Consortium-based acquisition: Knowledge Unlatched aims to create a financially sustainable route to open access for monographs through a globally co-ordinated model. The model is based on the idea that libraries can use their existing acquisitions budgets to ‘unlatch’ monographs by making them available in open access.
  • Open access licensing for libraries: OpenEdition developed a freemium model for libraries. Although the content is available in open access through its platform, OpenEdition charges libraries a fee for premium content and services. Libraries can thereby get access to the PDF or e-books for students.
  • Library subsidy: Open Library for Humanities is proposing a model which it calls Library Partnership Subsidy, in which libraries pay a relatively small annual suscription fee to secure open access to works. The model is being developed for its new journal initiative aimed at HSS, but it will be extended to monographs in the form of a pilot.

Crowdfunding

An example of crowdfunding for books is Gluejar, with its website, unglue.it, where visitors have the opportunity to contribute payments towards ‘ungluing’ a book. In this model the publisher sets a target price for funding, at which point the title is released in open access. The model is mostly being used to release back-list titles, although Open Book Publishers worked with Gluejar to publish two front-list monographs. De Gruyter is also trying out the model with 100 selected back-list titles.

Green OA for books

Although the green model is quite prominent for open access to articles, there are few examples of this model for books. As book publishers adopt a hybrid approach to OA, with the need to recover the costs of the printed edition in a number of years following publication, they will be reluctant to allow a free version of the book to be made available without compensation. There is, however, an interesting example: AGORA, an EU co-funded project. The project explored delayed and hybrid OA models in collaboration with Ontos Verlag, by making 27 monographs available in open access. Results showed a significant increase in usage, without loss of revenue.