This subsection covers the whole life cycle of policy development for open access books. There are articles about the overall landscape of open access book policies, including a review of available literature and articles about attitudes, needs and challenges regarding open access policies. Other articles cover key policy elements and policy implementation.
The articles in this section explore the current attitudes and challenges surrounding open access books within the European Research Area (ERA), based on findings from the PALOMERA project.
Through stakeholder interviews and surveys, key issues emerge, such as the unclear regulatory landscape, the perceived lack of prestige associated with open access publications and concerns over multilingualism.
The articles also outline essential elements for effective open access book policies, highlighting the importance of stakeholder involvement, financial resources and technical infrastructure. Ultimately, addressing these challenges is vital for enhancing the visibility and impact of open access books in the scholarly communications landscape.
This article is based on interviews with stakeholders conducted for the PALOMERA project. Interviewees highlighted three aspects of open access scholarly book publishing within Humanities and Social Sciences. First, unclear regulations create legal and technological challenges for actors despite their commitment to open access publishing. Second, the focus of open access on English can threaten multilingualism and bibliodiversity. Third, open access books struggle with a perceived lack of prestige compared to printed formats, impacting author incentives and trust in open access systems.
Open access has changed the way we share and access scholarly research, but its impact on different types of publications varies. While policies for journal publications have been widely adopted and discussed, similar policies for books have received comparatively less attention. Books, particularly monographs, play a crucial role in scholarly communication, especially in the humanities and social sciences. However, their transition to open access has been slower than journals due to their longer format, higher production costs, and different publishing models.
In this article, we explore the general status of open access book policies and compare them to journal policies by examining policy documents from policymakers, research funders, and research performing organisations across 33 countries in the European Research Area. By content-analysing these documents, we identified several notable differences between open access book and journal publications:
The open access books policy life cycle, as proposed by the PALOMERA project, outlines a structured six-stage process for developing and refining open access book policies. This framework guides policymakers from initial research and formulation through to implementation, monitoring and evaluation, ensuring that each stage is comprehensively addressed.
By emphasising the importance of stakeholder engagement and iterative consultation, the life cycle aims to create effective policies that adapt to the evolving landscape of open access publishing. Overall, it serves as a valuable tool for fostering transparency and enhancing the accessibility of scholarly works.
The open access books policy life cycle refers to a six-stage life cycle put forward by the PALOMERA project as a means to support funders in their policy development process by providing a structured approach to the creation of a particular open access books policy.
The six stages are: 1. Research 2. Policy formulation 3. Public consultation 4. Implementation 5. Monitoring and impact 6. Evaluation and review
The open access books policy should be a continuing cycle of development. The policy section of the Toolkit is designed to support all aspects of the policy.
In 2023, PALOMERA devised a list of policymaking elements for academic books to identify gaps and good policy practices among institutional, regional, national and international open access-related policies. These elements also serve as a framework to help policymakers more precisely pinpoint their expectations, which has the potential to ensure better policy compliance.
Based on input from national research funders in the European Research Area, this article provides insights into the reality of policymaking for open access books. All interviews have been anonymised, but the identities of the interviewees are known to the authors.