Publishing open access books

What is the publishing process for open access books?
Why publish your open access book with us?
Publishing Gold open access monographs
Green routes to open access for books
OpenUP Early Career Researcher (ECR) monograph initiative
Open access books FAQs

What is the publishing process for open access books?

For those new to the process of publishing OA books, please check out this infographic created by one of our OA channel partners OAPEN:

Find more details on each of these sections in the OAPEN toolkit.

Why publish open access with us?

Discoverability and accessibility

• All open access titles (including imprint Policy Press) are indexed by the relevant Abstracting & Indexing services, including the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB);
• They are hosted on a variety of digital platforms, including the OAPEN Library, EBSCO and JSTOR;
• BUP open access books have a truly global reach with over 200 countries accessing our open access books content;
• All books receive comprehensive content marketing carried out by our dedicated sales and marketing team to ensure your research is accessed by a global readership;
• All open access titles are preserved in Portico (via open access platform partners JSTOR and OAPEN).
  
  

Expert support and guidance

• Our publishing commitment puts authors and readers at the heart of what we do, and our author service is central to the way we work;
• Our in-house editorial team will ensure your research gets the expert attention to detail it deserves while coordinating a smooth and efficient path to publication undergoing our consistently high editorial and production workflow processes;
• Quality is paramount at BUP, and open access titles go through exactly the same editorial processes as all our books. Working with a trusted team of copy editors and peer reviewers we ensure high editorial standards with a rigorous two-stage peer review and highly regarded author-focused production process.
  
  

Publishing with integrity and confidence

• All open access books are published under a Creative Commons license. Our recommended licence is CC-BY-NC-ND but all other Creative Commons’ licences are available on request and we comply with all funder requirements;
• All BUP authors retain full copyright of their open access books;
• Flexibility in digital format - all BUP open access books are published in ePub and ePDF format.

"Our research on lay participation in judicial proceedings seeks to directly influence policy and practice. Publishing it Open Access removes traditional barriers and gives us the opportunity to disseminate our findings across the widest possible audience."

Jessica Jacobson, Director, Instutitute for Crime and Justice Policy Research, Birkbeck, University of London. Author of Participation in Courts and Tribunals

"I share Policy Press’s belief in the importance of Open Access publishing in reaching wider audiences and achieving greater impact for my work. I chose to publish with them because their non-profit status better chimes with the aims and values of Open Access as a whole."

Mark Williams, Reader in Human Resource Management, Queen Mary University of London and author of Mapping Good Work

"The ethos of co-production within our international research teams straddling high-, middle- and low-income countries made Open Access publishing a natural decision. The results have been impressive – not only have total downloads far exceeded sales of paper copies but the geographical disaggregation of those downloads shows clearly how many people, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, would have been precluded from access by a paywall. COVID-19 lockdowns around the world have further underlined the global benefit of free downloads."

David Simon, FACSS, Professor of Development Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London. Author of Comparative Urban Research From Theory To Practice

"I see it as vital that health inequalities research has the widest reach possible – OA makes this possible and as a non-profit publisher, Policy Press better espouses the values of the OA movement and of the public health field."

Clare Bambra, Professor of Public Health, Newcastle University, UK.  Editor of Health in Hard Times: Austerity and Health Inequalities

Publishing Gold open access monographs

All books published Gold open access are treated in exactly the same way as any other books we publish, which means they are:

• subject to rigorous peer review at proposal and typescript stage as for all our books;
• professionally copy-edited and proof read;
• produced with high-quality design and typesetting;
  
• marketed widely and highly discoverable.
  
  

Costs for Gold open access

Our open access monograph offering is a gold route to open access dissemination that requires payment of a publishing charge to cover publication costs. Our charges are dependent on page length as follows:

A 15% discount is available for authors from institutions with a Read and Publish agreement and 10% discount to institutions who subscribe to the full Bristol University Press and Policy Press Journals Collection.

We are understanding of the situation regarding government mandates, such as UKRI, and will work with you to ensure you can be compliant.

To discuss your requirements, including any funder mandates, please contact the appropriate commissioning editor for your discipline. Information can be found on our contact us and subject area pages, or you can contact Open Access Commissioning Editor Rebecca Tomlinson (rebecca.tomlinson@bristol.ac.uk) for any generic queries.

Green routes to open access for books

We facilitate Green open access routes as well as Gold. For more information, please see our self-archiving and institutional repository policy.

OpenUP Early Career Researcher (ECR) monograph initiative

Bristol University Press are proud to be part of a collaborative project to secure funding for a number of first books by UK-based early-career researchers to be made open access. Six University Presses are taking part in this three-year pilot project which has raised funds to support making an initial 12 titles open access and the first Bristol University Press title will publish in October 2024. Find out more.

Open access books FAQs

You can download an FAQs pdf here.

Contact

If you have further questions about our open access books please contact the appropriate commissioning editor for your discipline. Information can be found on our contact us and subject area pages, or you can contact Journals Director Julia Mortimer (julia.mortimer@bristol.ac.uk) for any general open access queries.