Open Book Publishers (OBP) is the UK's largest independent open access (OA) monograph publisher. It publishes titles in hardback, paperback and PDF editions, as well as free online publications that can be downloaded, reused or embedded.
OBP does not charge Book Processing Charges, and encourages authors to apply for grants to help offset publication costs. OBP also has a diversified stream of revenue from publishing, which includes a membership scheme for libraries and sales of print-on-demand copies.
Publishes scholarly monographs
Academic presses are an important part of the scholarly publishing landscape and are a valuable resource for library collections. They provide a cost-effective, high-quality alternative to commercial publishers and offer a range of services to authors.
The monograph is an important and often underappreciated form of scholarly output. It can range from unostentatious edited collections and conference proceedings to elaborately designed several-hundred-page monographs, and can be published both in print and online.
Open Book Publishers is an online publishing platform that creates and distributes digital editions of scholarly monographs under a Creative Commons license. Their books are available for free and include an interactive element that allows readers to navigate the book using a variety of media including images, links, and audio.
In addition to creating digital editions of monographs, OBP publishes a number of other OA publications, including e-books and textbooks. These are also licensed under a Creative Commons license, so that users can freely share them with others.
Moreover, OBP has produced a wide range of tools and software to assist in scholarly OA book publishing. These include a website that allows authors to submit their monographs for publication and a service that gathers usage metrics from libraries.
As a result of these initiatives, Open Book Publishers has become one of the leading OA publishers in the world. Its goal is to improve the quality of scholarly publications and encourage their use by a wider audience.
OBP has been a member of the global community for over 15 years, working in collaboration with other open access and non-profit publishers, libraries, and research institutions to increase the availability of scholarly content in the digital environment. It is also an active participant in the development of the OA book model, a form of publishing that offers many benefits to both researchers and library collections.
Open Access has been a major factor in transforming the traditional publication and dissemination of scholarly books. It has enabled scholarly books to be distributed in countries that previously had poor access to expensive subscription-based literature. It has also improved the transparency of book costs and revenue streams, which is essential for assessing the sustainability of OA book publishing.
Publishes e-books
Open Book Publishers is a social enterprise that produces free digital editions of secondary school and academic titles. These are available in hardback, paperback, pdf and ebook formats and can be read online through the website, downloaded, reused or embedded anywhere else.
OBP publishes books on a wide variety of topics, with a focus on humanities and social science disciplines. Its list of available e-books is currently growing rapidly, and it's planning to expand its catalog by more than 2,000 titles per year.
In addition to publishing OA monographs, OBP also offers the option of a "diamond model" that features a mix of revenue streams, including book processing charges and a diversified grant stream. In addition, OBP's website includes an extensive blog that focuses on the issues involved in Open Access book publishing.
The Press' titles are published under the Open Access License (OA), which provides authors with a wide range of rights for their work. Authors retain copyright, but they may use the book in any manner they wish, for any purpose, as long as it is not altered or republished without permission.
Several university presses now offer their own OA collections, such as Tampere University Press, Athabasca University Press and MIT Press. These titles are available as free PDF downloads from the Press or through institutional repositories, and are licensed under various Creative Commons licenses.
These titles can be downloaded in a number of formats, including PDF, EPUB and MOBI. They can be saved to a computer or tablet and are compatible with most e-readers.
Another way to find e-books available under an OA license is through the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB). DOAB lists 400 publishers who have published scholarly, peer-reviewed books available under an OA licence. They also provide a search facility, allowing you to browse by subject area, or to search for a specific publisher.
A third way to find OA books is through the National Library of Scotland's Project Gutenberg. The site enables you to download books for free in a variety of formats, including PDF and MP3. They are licensed under a Creative Commons license that allows you to print or save them on a device, as well as share them with other readers.
Publishes textbooks
Open Book Publishers publishes textbooks in the humanities and social sciences. Most of their books are free to read online, although they also offer print editions in both OA and non-OA formats. The publishing process is governed by a three-person Board of Directors, which makes acquisition and publishing decisions. The titles are published under CC-BY-NC licenses, with some exceptions for titles involving third party materials.
In addition to a general list of available OA textbooks, the publisher also provides a "manifesto" and blog containing news stories, recommendations, advocacy, and resources focused on open access publishing. The company also works with the Open Access Publishing Network to ensure that its titles are compliant with OASPA membership requirements.
The Open SUNY Textbooks series produces textbooks and other educational materials for use in state colleges and universities. These are offered for free in PDF, ePub, and iBook formats. They are mainly released under CC-BY-NC-ND licensing. They are also distributed via the College Open Textbooks service, which offers a large library of peer-reviewed OA textbooks.
Fountain Publishers, a leading East African publisher of schoolbooks and other academic texts, began publishing gratis OA textbooks in 2009. They are available in both print and e-book formats, and are licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND license. They also sell a few other OA titles that are not listed on their site, but are distributed through Google Books.
Several scholarly publishers publish open access textbooks as well. Some of them are based in the United States, while others are located in Europe.
Gorgias Open, an independent publisher specializing in the history and religion of the Middle East, also publishes OA books on a variety of topics. They accept submissions for single chapters or entire books and publish them under CC-BY licenses, as well as under the Gorgias Open Repository platform. They have an author fee policy that allows authors to publish multiple works under a 15% discount, and they are a member of the Association for the Advancement of Digital Libraries.
Hamad Bin Khalifa University Press is a Qatar-based university press publisher of scholarly journals and monographs, as well as fiction and non-fiction for both children and adults. They release all journal articles under a CC-BY license, and they are a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA).
The Bauhaus-Universitat Weimar University Press is a German publisher that focuses on scholarly publications in the arts and sciences. Their titles are released under a CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 license, and they are also distributed through the Google Books project.
Publishes fiction
Open Book Publishers (OBP) is an eponymous publishing house founded by a librarian at Amherst College in 2013. Its name may be a mouthful but its mission is to produce scholarly books or'scholarly novellas' in the liberal arts fields of political science, literary studies, history, economics and anthropology that are available for free online. It has a blog that provides recommendations, news, and resources for readers in the humanities and social sciences.
In addition to the OBP flagship print magazine, OBP publishes a series of'scholarly novellas' on topics that range from ancient Greece and feng shui to 'advanced quantum computing' and 'artificial intelligence' to 'neo-realism' and 'the digital divide'. OBP is also a major proponent of Open Access publishing, publishing more than half of its titles in OA HTML formats that can be viewed on any computer, phone or tablet. The OBP has a notable albeit not as impressive list of awards and accolades for its various publications and is widely recognized as a leading publisher in the field.
The OBP website has a comprehensive list of their publications as well as an interactive online database for subscribers that includes links to author bios, book summaries, and other information. For the most part, the OBP site is easy to navigate, and there are no annoying popups or intrusive ads.