Funding mechanisms for open access books: Research funding organisations (RFOs)

Open access book policies from research funding organisations (RFOs) ideally include a funding mechanism to cover publication costs. This article looks at the various mechanisms that are used and highlights examples of funding mechanisms that address specific challenges relating to the publishing of open access books.

Several research funding organisations (RFOs) within the European Research Area either promote or require open access for books resulting from their funded research. To enable open access, they introduce a mechanism to cover the publication costs. Most of these mechanisms are directly related to the specific research projects that RFOs are funding. A further distinction can be made in how the publishing costs are covered. A common approach is to allow publication costs to be eligible costs within the research grant. Another approach is to establish an open access publication fund, either for books or for all types of publications. Such a fund can then be restricted to publications resulting from funded research, but it can also be open to publications resulting from research that is not funded by the RFO. The table below outlines the different mechanisms that RFOs have adopted.

Table 1: Funding mechanisms to cover publishing costs of open access books

Each of these funding mechanisms will include a set of criteria that address specific challenges relating to open access books.

Time frame in relation to project period: Writing and publishing a research monograph (or edited collection) generally requires more time than the research project period. RFOs therefore tend to extend the period to cover the costs of open access books. The period after the close of the research project ranges from three years (FNR) to seven (UKRI). There are also exceptions: SNSF does not have a time limitation; ERC accepts open access fees as eligible costs during the project, but asks host institutions to cover these costs after the end of the project.

Level of funding: The cost of publishing books varies considerably across countries, and − depending on the country and the type of publisher (commercial or non-profit) − so do the Book Processing Charges (BPCs) charged by publishers. RFOs frequently put a cap on reimbursement of BPCs. There is a wide range of caps among RFOs: from 4,000 EUR by FNR, up to 8,000 EUR by ARIS, 10,000 EUR by NWO, 10,000 GBP by UKRI, 15,000 CHF by SNSF, to up to 22,000 EUR (maximum per project) by FWF.

Additional funding: Several RFOs introduce additional funding to adjust for higher costs for certain types of books to encourage the use of certain publishing models, or to enable specific publishing services. Some examples:

• FWF allows a higher cap for open access books published under their preferred licence CC-BY (as opposed to CC-BY-NC).

• FWF and ARIS provide additional funding for specific services, such as costs associated with translation.

• SNSF and FWF provide additional funding for books that exceed a certain length.

• UKRI, FNR and the Swedish Research Council provide additional funds for diamond (non-BPC) open access models.

Eligibility criteria: RFOs also need to determine the eligibility criteria for their funding programme. These will include who can apply for funding, which type of books is eligible and which costs can be reimbursed. Some RFOs provide more detailed criteria, such as requirements for peer review or the type of publisher (i.e. academic publishers, or publishers based in the country of the RFO).

Regarding the type of books that are eligible for reimbursement, all RFOs supporting open access books include monographs, edited collections and chapters. FWF and FNR explicitly include conference proceedings. FWF and ARIS explicitly include translations and textbooks. On the other hand, SNSF explicitly excludes proceedings, textbooks and translated works. UKRI excludes textbooks, exhibition catalogues and trade books. Several RFOs also mention peer review as a requirement, or, as in the case of NWO, require that the book is published by an academic publisher.

With the exception of ARIS, most RFOs exclude print-related costs from their funding schemes.

The most detailed eligibility criteria are from ARIS, FNR and FWF.

Funding routes: RFOs use various routes through which the funding is provided: some provide the publishing-related funds to the authors (including co-authors or researchers involved in the research project), some provide the funds to the affiliated institution and in some cases (part of) the funding is provided directly to the publisher of the work.

Table 2: Funding levels and criteria