In this post, Beth Tyrrell and Lai Ma of the NORF-funded project, “Cultivating Open Research Culture in the Humanities and Social Sciences” describe a webinar they hosted on Open Monograph Publishing in the Humanities and Social Sciences on the 26th April 2024. The webinar brought together international experts and Irish publishing pioneers for a discussion on Open Access Monographs grounded in practical working solutions by adapting the Diamond OA model.
In collaboration with the NORF-funded project, “Cultivating Open Research Culture in the Humanities and Social Sciences” led by Dr Lai Ma of University College Dublin, the Irish Open Access Publishers (IOAP) hosted a webinar on Open Monograph Publishing in the Humanities and Social Sciences on the 26th April 2024 (recordings available). The webinar brought together international experts and Irish publishing pioneers for a discussion on Open Access Monographs grounded in practical working solutions by adapting the Diamond OA model, i.e., open access books without book processing charges (BPCs).
The webinar was introduced by Professor Dan Carey, Chair of the Irish Research Council, who spoke about the National Action Plan for Open Research 2022-2030 that links open access with informed citizenship and democratisation of knowledge. “Monographs are field changing interventions, particularly in the humanities,” said Professor Carey, however, he raised concerns pertaining to lack of inclusion of monographs in the plan, as well as peer review, quality, and the global equity of knowledge production.
Fortunately, many of these issues have been addressed and tackled by the open access community in the past few decades. Lucy Barnes, Senior Editor and Outreach Coordinator at Open Book Publishers, said that their funding model does not require any author fees (or book processing charges) and their revenue comes from sales of print and ePub books, a library membership scheme, and research grants where possible. Open Book Publishers publish between 40 and 50 books every year; they are an award-winning, scholar-led, non-profit press. Technological innovations allow them to incorporate multimedia contents such as music pieces that can be accessed directly within a book.
Promoting open monograph publishing involves the mythbusting of misconceptions about open access. Ellen Breen who led the development of DCU Press, Ireland’s first open access university press, explained that physical copies can be ordered and are print-on-demand. The co-author, Dr Pauli Markus of their first publication, Statecraft and Foreign Policy: India, 1947-2023, was very impressed with the production process: “The process is more rigorous and more quality assuring than my colleague experienced with the most established presses in academia in the world.” He added that an important factor in his and his co-authors’ decision to publish OA was that open access books tend to have higher number of citations.
Broader engagement is certainly an advantageous aspect of open access books. Niels Stern, Managing Director of OAPEN Library and the Directory of Open Access Books, noted that OAPEN currently records over 1.6 million downloads per month and that publishers who share work on OAPEN have access to statistics on where and how often their books are used, as well as metrics on a title level. He acknowledged that one of the challenges that OAPEN are aware of is a global divide in OA book publishing and distribution and has been establishing relationships with publishers, platforms, and institutions in non-Western regions such as the African Platform for Open Scholarship launched by the University of Cape Town. Meanwhile, Open Book Publishers are involved in an initiative to develop and share open infrastructure to support establishment of small presses and encourage them to embrace a Diamond OA model.
While there are real challenges involved in Diamond OA monograph publishing, the people involved are practical, passionate, and solution oriented. One thing that came across strongly in the webinar was how the speakers had collaborative links with each other and were each involved in other global OA publishing communities and networks. Open Access Monograph Publishing in Ireland is in its infancy, but DCU Press has demonstrated that excellence is possible. Recently, another NORF-funded project, publishOA.ie, has published open access guidelines for authors and publishers, which will provide strong support for open access publishing in Ireland.
Open Monograph Publishing in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Date: 25 April 2024
Chair:
Dr Lai Ma, University College Dublin
Introduction/Welcome:
Professor Daniel Carey, Chair of Irish Research Council
Panellists:
Niels Stern, Managing Director of the Directory Open Access Books (DOAB) and Online Library of Open Access Books (OAPEN)
Lucy Barnes, Senior Editor and Outreach Coordinator at Open Book Publishers
Ellen Breen, Associate Director of Research and Teaching, Dublin City University Library
Dr Markus Pauli, Dublin City University, Co-author of India: Statecraft and Foreign Policy, published by Dublin City University Press
Special thanks to:
Jane Buggle and Dr Johanna Archbold at IOAP for organising the event.
