EU Funding

Supporting the development of aligned policies for open access books and monographs

Author: Niels Stern

Contributors: Françoise Gouzi, Graham Stone, Johan Rooryck, Malte Dreyer, Mikael Laakso, Nelson Henrique Silva Ferreira, Ursula Rabar, Vanessa Proudman

Reviewer: PALOMERA Advisory Board

Introduction

Monographs and other types of academic books continue to play an important role in scholarly production and research communication, particularly in the social sciences and humanities (SSH). Developing an Open Science culture within the European Research Area (ERA) that aligns with the European Council conclusions on high-quality, transparent, open, trustworthy, and equitable scholarly publishing (May 2023) therefore must include scholarly books in open access (OA). However, the uptake of OA to books – defined here as scholarly peer-reviewed books including monographs, book chapters, edited collections, critical editions, and other long-form scholarly works – has been much slower and more cumbersome than that of journal articles. Many reasons for this have been suggested, including the culture of research practices in many SSH disciplines, the extensive editorial process and the prevalence of multilingualism in book publishing, specific industry related issues, (like royalties and print copy sales) etc. Funder and institutional policies are key drivers of change. The adoption of OA policies for academic books is therefore important to ensure that researchers in SSH and other domains where books are an important medium of dissemination contribute to the Open Science culture change within the ERA. The PALOMERA project set out to understand the landscape of OA policies and books in Europe and to suggest ways to increase the uptake of books in these policies and to foster policy alignment. Approaching the end of this two-year project, extensive evidence has been acquired providing new guidance to policymakers on OA books across the ERA. In this policy brief, we share key insights and results, representing the collective efforts of 16 dedicated partners from across Europe, alongside numerous experts who have provided their comments and feedback through interviews, surveys, events and validation exercises.

Evidence and Analysis

We collected data covering 39 ERA countries and all key stakeholder groups to gain a comprehensive understanding of the OA book policy landscape, to identify its strengths, gaps and possibilities for change and to see where alignment was opportune. This work was fundamental to developing our evidence-based recommendations. In total we obtained 650 OA policy and policy-related documents, ran 42 interviews, and obtained 420 responses to a European-wide online survey among all stakeholders. We used the PESTLE factors (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental) as a basis to enable us to design, capture, and identify evidence that describes policy phenomena from several interrelated perspectives. Moreover, to evaluate the possibilities for ERA wide standardised metadata for open access books, we contacted national libraries via a survey. By individually deconstructing each OA policy into its core elements, we were able to obtain a comprehensive overview of differences and similarities between OA book policies. This analysis brought to light that many policies were vague and ambiguous about demands on OA books. A fundamental challenge was also that many OA policies explicitly did not include books, which indicates that there is a lot of work remaining to be done in launching and creating an initial foundation for such policies in many organisations. The interviews conducted during the project provided important contextual information about national situations, processes, ongoing efforts, challenges and work that is not visible in the existing OA policies themselves. We identified a range of barriers and enablers for OA book policy development. National coordination emerged as one of the most prominent enabling factors, where the presence of a functioning national coordination and alignment is significant to making progress with OA book policies. Our survey results also indicate that people are much more willing to get involved at the institutional level if a clear strategy is present at the national level. Another central theme from the interviews was funding, which – when lacking – forms a barrier to making progress in developing policies for OA books. The online survey indicated a strong desire among respondents to see more activity in the space of OA book policy development, not only from their own stakeholder group but also from all other stakeholder groups. The respondents signaled a need for improvement in most areas, including funding, infrastructures, and information on OA publications. The survey among national libraries showed that national differences dominate in the use of data, the extent to which licence information is collected and even about the definition of the “academic book”. This rich evidence allowed us to see and formulate overarching recommendations and conclusions about the direction and status of OA book policies in Europe in an informed way. Looking at the situations across countries, it became clear that an internationally uniform approach to setting and formulating OA book policies is not viable. Nevertheless, a lot can be gained through cross-stakeholder cooperation not just nationally but also internationally, to share experiences and good practices in a collaborative environment.

Policy Implications and Recommendations

This unprecedented research into the OA policy landscape enabled us to produce evidence-based and actionable recommendations supporting more funder and institutional policies for OA books. Alignment has been one of the key goals of our recommendations. The current landscape of OA book policies is characterised by a lack of policy alignment between various relevant stakeholders, as was evidenced by stakeholder engagement events organised throughout the project. To address this fragmentation, we provide actionable recommendations in a structured way that progressively moves from general recommendations to stakeholder-specific ones. First, we formulate general recommendations that are relevant for all stakeholders:

  1. Address OA books specifically in OA policies.
  2. Use simple language in OA book policies.
  3. Raise awareness about OA books at all levels.
  4. Consider funding mechanisms for OA books that do not involve Book Processing Charges (BPCs).
  5. Engage in collaboration with related stakeholders.

Secondly, we present a set of common recommendations for Research Funding Organisations (RFO), Research Performing Organisations (RPO) and national and regional policymakers:

  1. Consider appropriate reward and recognition mechanisms for OA books.
  2. Provide appropriate funding mechanisms for OA books.
  3. Put in place mechanisms that monitor OA book policies.
  4. Develop awareness about rights and licences.
  5. Contribute to improving the infrastructure for OA books.

Finally, we formulate recommendations that specifically apply to each of the following eight stakeholders: RPOs, RFOs, national policymakers, libraries, researchers, learned societies, open Infrastructure providers, and publishers. For each set of recommendations, we have defined a timeline by prioritising recommendations in terms of short term (1-2 years), medium term (3 years), and long term (4-5 years) time frames. In addition, the project has performed three validation exercises to check the validity of 1) the data collection and methodology; 2) the analytical approach, methodology, and key findings; and 3) the recommendations themselves. This approach has been chosen to increase the engagement with all relevant stakeholders and to strengthen the outcomes of PALOMERA. We also integrated the valuable comments of our reviewers, as well as the constructive comments from the subgroup on scholarly communication of the European University Association’s (EUA) Expert Group on Open Science and the LIBER Working Group on Open Access. These contributions were very valuable and helped solidifying our recommendations. It is essential that the recommendations are aligned and complement each other across the stakeholder groups. Ideally, they should be adopted in mutual concertation between stakeholders both internationally and nationally to translate policy into practice and action. Alignment of policies can occur in a healthy ecosystem, where the stakeholders work together in a synergetic way. Varied perspectives need to be considered and addressed collaboratively in an actionable way based on available evidence and best practices. The recommendations are actionable, which means that they contain practical advice, best-practice examples, and links to contextual material to facilitate their implementation in institutional contexts. Although we understand that national, cultural, economic and social contexts may differ, we hope these recommendations will contribute to fruitful pathways towards more policies for OA books, in the interest of the public availability and dissemination of scholarly knowledge. This could lead to an increase in the number of books published OA, more funding for them, and help develop supportive infrastructure services for a more mature and resilient OA book ecosystem.

Sustainability and Legacy

Sustaining key project results has been a clear ambition for PALOMERA from the start. Three project results stand out that will ensure the legacy of the project.

Knowledge Base

The PALOMERA Knowledge Base is a rich source for policymakers and other stakeholders who are searching for OA book policies in Europe. It’s an efficient tool for exploration and identification of policies within the 39 countries that we have researched. Research performing and funding organisations alongside national policymakers will be encouraged to add their OA policies to the Knowledge Base to ensure its future usefulness and relevance. Workflows for this are being developed involving a number of project partners. The technical maintenance of the Knowledge Base is secured by OAPEN, who has a strong track record in serving the OA books community.

OAPEN OA Books Toolkit

The OAPEN OA Books Toolkit now contains a new funder and policy section as a result of the PALOMERA project. This consists of short articles digesting the vast research that we have produced. In this way, our research findings are disseminated to a wide audience since the Toolkit (established in 2020) is already used globally by many stakeholders to gain knowledge about OA book publishing. The Toolkit is overseen by a large editorial advisory board representing relevant stakeholders in the field, promoted widely, and operated by OAPEN.

Policy Forum for OA Books

A new OA book Funder Forum was established to specifically bring together research funders and some institutional and national policymaker representatives to discuss policy making in relation to OA books. This forum has proven to be of wide interest and over the four meetings held during the project, we have seen the participation of 24 countries. Research funders have confirmed their commitment to the continuation of this forum and Science Europe, cOAlition S, and OAPEN have agreed to jointly investigate a way to coordinate the forum supported by organisations like SPARC Europe and EUA. The forum will be named the Policy Forum for OA Books to clearly signal its purpose and scope (RFOs, RPOs, and national policymakers). The start of the Policy Forum is planned for the first quarter of 2025.

Future Directions

PALOMERA has managed to increase the attention of scholarly books in OA policies to RPOs, RFOs, national policymakers, libraries, researchers, learned societies, open Infrastructure providers, and publishers across the ERA. This has been achieved through a multitude of events engaging all the stakeholders in different ways both within Europe and beyond. This engagement also includes the validation exercises performed as part of the PALOMERA methodology. We have also raised the level of knowledge in this policy field by producing research data and creating useful resources and formulating many recommendations. In other words, we have established a useful platform for action. With the (expected) creation of the Policy Forum for OA Books, we hope that our evidence-based recommendations can be further exploited and implemented. In particular, we believe that the following three recommendations are useful starting points:

  1. Consider funding mechanisms for OA books that do not involve Book Processing Charges (BPC). For example, by investigating this further and proposing an action plan for Diamond OA for books.
  2. Consider appropriate reward and recognition mechanisms for OA books. For example, by addressing this topic within the framework of CoARA.
  3. Contribute to improving open infrastructures for OA books. For example, by exploring how open infrastructures can be utilised to support Diamond OA for books and to monitor the impact of OA books.

More work needs to be done now to continue the positive momentum created by the PALOMERA project across the stakeholder groups. All the recommendations require action to turn them into concrete, pragmatic practices and plans that work in specific national contexts. The new Policy Forum for OA Books can be instrumental in this development but all actors have a stake in creating positive change towards a culture of Open Science across the European Research Area.

The official deliverable has been published on Zenodo.

Version 1.2 – under EC review. Funded by the EU. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.