Open Access has become established practice for academic articles, but is not yet the case for academic books. Recently, NWO launched a funding instrument especially for NWO researchers who wish to publish their books in Open Access.
More readers, greater reach
The advantages of Open Access for academic books are essentially no different to those for articles. It has been widely known for a while that Open Access books are downloaded more often, quoted up to 50% more and are more easily found and more visible online. A recent study furthermore found that Open Access books have a greater reach and are read in a larger number of countries.
Call
NWO would like to give more impetus to the availability -through Open Access-of academic books which emerge from its funding. To do so, NWO launched a special funding instrument earlier this year. Researchers who wish to publish a book or edited collection in Open Access can apply for this funding, on condition that their research was also funded by NWO. A maximum of 10,000 euros is available for each project to pay the Book Publishing Charge (BPC). Applications can be made on a continuous basis.
First publication from EUR
The first applications have already been funded. The first title from Erasmus University is “Locating Imagination in Popular Culture”, a collection edited by prof. dr. Stijn Reijnders and PhD-student Nicky van Es which has emerged from the NWO project “Locating Imagination: An Interdisciplinary Perspective on Literary, Film and Music Tourism”. The edited collection was published by Routlegde.
Source: NWO
- More information
For more information on the funding instrument for Open Access books, visit the website of NWO. If you have any questions about Open Access, please contact Joy Dijksman via: openaccess.library@eur.nl
