Open access and rights retention

Gold Open Access

It is possible to publish a monograph as gold open access. This will usually require payment of a fee called a Book Processing Charge (BPC) to the publisher.  

Some publishers will make an electronic open access version of your monograph available online whilst also selling hard or paperbacks via print-on-demand. There are many other business models and not all publishers offer an open access option.

There is usually a charge for gold open access, and this can be quite high for a whole book. However, you can request support with open access fees from the SHU Open Access Fund. Please apply before agreeing to publish your book open access.

Green Open Access

If you book is not published as Gold Open Access it is highly unlikely that your publisher will allow you to make your work available through the green Open Access route (depositing your accepted manuscript on SHURA).  Your publisher may allow you to make  one chapter or a percentage of your book green Open Access.

To make a chapter from your book green open access, add the details of your chapter to Elements and deposit the Author Accepted Manuscript of your chapter. 

Your publisher may impose some restrictions, such as an embargo period before the manuscript can be made available to the public. The Library will check your publisher's green open access policy and make your manuscript available on SHURA accordingly.

Gold Open Access

It is possible to publish an edited collection as gold open access, although not all publishers offer this option. Some publishers will make an electronic open access version of your edited collection available online whilst also selling hard or paperbacks via print-on-demand.

You will need to inform all the contributing authors that the work is going to be Open Access.

There is usually a charge for gold open access. You can request support with open access fees from the SHU Open Access Fund. Please apply before agreeing to publish your book open access.

Green Open Access

Your publisher may have a self archiving policy that allows authors to deposit their own chapter on their own institutional repositories, but there may be a maximum number of chapters or a maximum percentage of the whole collection that can be deposited.  They are also likely to require an embargo period.

If you are the author of an individual chapter or chapters in your edited collection you should include the Rights Retention Statement when submitting your chapter(s) to enable the author accepted manuscript of your chapter(s) to be made available on SHURA on publication.

The OAPEN Open Access Books Toolkit is a very useful resource if you are considering publishing an Open Access book. The accompanying FAQs are also useful for answering your Open Access book publishing questions.

If you are unsure about the credibility of an open access publisher you can check:

• Whether their monographs are included in the OAPEN library
• Whether their monographs are included in the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)
• Whether they are a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA)

Use the Think, Check, Submit: books and chapters site for further advice on checking if an Open Access publisher is trustworthy.

The UKRI Open Access policy requires Open Access no later than 12 months after publication for monographs, book chapters and edited collections resulting from a grant from one of the UK Research Councils, published on or after 1 January 2024. 

UKRI have provided guidance on making your monograph, book chapter or edited collection Open Access.   

UKRI will make funding available to cover the cost of Open Access. The Library will be able to apply on your behalf for support from the dedicated fund UKRI provides.

For help with making your publication Open Access please email: library-research-support@shu.ac.uk