Published 21 June 2023

How to find open access book publishers

The Directory of Open Access Books is the largest resource to find open access book publishers, with around 400 publishers listed. Other ways to find open access book publishers include the OAPEN list of compliant publishers, the list of OASPA members and various platforms that host open access books.

The most extensive resource to find open access book publishers is the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB). DOAB lists academic, peer-reviewed books that are available under an open licence. Publishers that apply to have their books listed here are screened for their peer review process and licensing policy.

DOAB provides the option to browse by publisher, which results in an alphabetical list of around 400 publishers, followed by the number of open access books which they have listed in DOAB. You can also browse by subject, to find publishers who work with authors in your field. If you are interested in a particular publisher, click on the link, and you will find the URL of their website and, in many cases, tabs with more information: ‘about’, ‘peer review’ and ‘licence’. If you are looking for publishers in your language area, start by searching for a subject and then select the language area of your choice on the results page.

OAPEN maintains a list of publishers that comply with the open access requirements of European research funders, currently the European Research Council (ERC), Wellcome, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). The list aims to inform authors about compliant publishers. Listed publishers need to confirm their compliance to be included (OAPEN n.d.).

Many book publishers are members of OASPA, the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association, which means they fulfil OASPA membership criteria.

Another way to find publishers is to search for open access books and book publishers on hosting platforms, such as OAPEN, OpenEdition, Project Muse, JSTOR and ORL. A more extensive list is curated by Open Book Publishers and can be found here.

Once you have found one or more potential publishers find out if they answer your specific needs (See How to choose a publisher).

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Last edited on 21 June 2023, at 08:58 (+0000)