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Move forward on monographs

Image: Abhi Sharma [CC BY 2.0], via Flickr

Open-access book publishing needs a set of guiding principles, say Verena Weigert and Graham Stone.

Alongside the drive to open up journal publishing, research funders and policymakers across Europe are exploring how to make the transition to open-access for academic books. The UK’s main public research funder, UK Research and Innovation, for example, is covering monographs and book chapters as part of an open-access policy review, set to run until early 2020.

Plan S, the international push towards open-access mandates, has acknowledged that open access for monographs will take longer to implement than for articles. Revised implementation guidance published on 31 May states that Coalition S, the group of funders signed up to the plan, “will, by the end of 2021, issue a statement on Plan S principles as they apply to monographs and book chapters”. Monographs require different solutions to journals, and we are glad they are being treated differently. 

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