Benefits of Open Access books
Making your book (monograph, edited collection, chapter) available Open Access can have many benefits:
- It can increase the reach of your research and help to boost the number of citations it receives, potentially leading to greater research impact. A report from Springer Nature found that Open Access books were downloaded on average ten times more than non-Open Access books and were cited 2.4 times more. Additionally, the readership for Open Access books is more international
- Publishing a monograph Open Access will not necessarily decrease the number of sales. Conversely, the Open Access copy can help attract more readers and actually increase the number of print sales
- When you publish your monograph Open Access you as the author retain the copyright, not the publisher - giving you more control over how your book is used by others.
Key principles for publishing open access books
Contact the Library’s Open Access team before a book contract is signed
Think about open access before you submit a book proposal to a publisher. Check your funder’s open access policy as they may have specific requirements for publishing books open access. If you’re a UKRI-funded author see guidance on the UKRI Open Access policy page for requirements. Contact the Library Open Access team to discuss potential funding options available at Liverpool before a book contract is signed.
Financial Support for open access books
There is limited funding available. We may be able to support publications that are with fully open access publishers only. We cannot financially support book-related costs such as the copyright clearance of images/material, figures etc.
Supporting different publications models
University of Liverpool will support diamond open access platforms such as:
Other routes to Open Access
Trailblazers 2026 programme for Early Career Researchers
Trailblazers is an exciting opportunity for Early Career Researchers (those within 8 years of the award of their PhD, not including career breaks). It offers the chance to get your first monograph published on an Open Access basis with the award-winning Liverpool University Press, while also benefitting from additional masterclasses on the whole of the book publishing and scholarly communication ecosystem.
Applications for 2026 have now closed.
Note that given Trailblazers participants benefit from greater additional support from Liverpool University Press than authors going through a standard book submission process, your book proposal must not be under consideration with any other publisher and, if your proposal is accepted, you agree to give Liverpool University Press exclusive rights to publish the monograph (notwithstanding that the final product will be available on an open access basis as well as in hardcopy, of course).
Consider Green Open Access (institutional repository route - free)
- Check with your publisher if they offer a green open access option as early in the process as possible
- Check the publisher contract and send it to the Open Access Team (openaccess@liverpool.ac.uk) to review for the green open access option
- Deposit the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) into the University Repository via Elements if appropriate and possible
- Sometimes, it is not possible to deposit the AAM due to things such as high-definition photographs or third-party copyright materials
- Check out this guide on third-party copyright for research publications.
UKRI grant holders and longform publications
From January 2024, longform publications (monographs, edited collections, chapters) by UKRI grant holders must be made open access.
There are two routes to compliance, further information on which can be found on the UKRI Open Access Policy section of our webpages.
External resources
Back to: Open Research