Overview of Open Access Models for eBooks in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Abstract

Open Access book publishing in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) is on the rise.\nInitiatives are emerging on an international scale, ranging from providing Open Access to\nsingle titles to full-fledged Open Access book publishers. Most of these efforts, however,\nare still in the experimental phase, testing and developing new publishing and business\nmodels as well as tracking customer behavior both online and offline. Nonetheless, some\ntrends and patterns are discernable.\nThis research has looked at a variety of initiatives and specifically at their publishing\nmodels, business models and publishing processes. Within these divisions, special\nattention has been paid to the nature of the content, the level of Open Access provided,\nthe peer review and copyright policies and, finally, the strategies of collaboration. The\nOpen Access book publishing initiatives analyzed in this report have been classified\naccording to their publishing models, they have thus been categorized into commercial\npublishers, presses established by societies or academies, presses established by libraries,\nlibrary-university collaborations, university presses, presses established by academics and\npress-commercial publisher partnerships.