“Opening the Book,” Revisited: A Special Report on Open Access Monographs

By Mary Beth Barilla (Program Director, Society for Scholarly Publishing – SSP) <mbarilla@sspnet.org>

Back in November 2021, I had the pleasure of working with Lisa Hinchliffe, University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign, to organize SSP’s annual preconference at Charleston. Entitled “Opening the Book,” the event opened with a stage-setting introduction to open access (OA) monographs, courtesy of Laura Ricci of Clarke & Esposito. Lisa then led a lively panel discussion featuring speakers Viv Berghahn, Berghahn Books; Steve Fallon, De Gruyter; Rachel Fox Von Swearingen, Syracuse University; and Charles Watkinson, University of Michigan Press. The event was such a success with attendees that shortly thereafter, Against the Grain approached me about editing a special report on the topic.

Accepting this invitation was an easy decision for me. With an educational background in the humanities and professional experience in book publishing, I appreciate the importance of monographs to the scholarly communications ecosystem. I remember well when OA monographs were in their infancy and publishers were considering how best to follow in the footsteps of academic journals, which began their transition to OA much earlier. I was eager to hear from our writers and learn more about what has changed since those early conversations. Laura, Steve, and Rachel, all present for the November live event, agreed to contribute to this report, and we were also joined by a few new voices: one from a content aggregator that hosts a large collection of OA monographs, and two from university presses with OA book publishing programs.

As in the preconference, Laura’s piece lays the groundwork for the discussion, opening with a description of several OA monograph publishing models, placing OA books within the broader publishing ecosystem, and then exploring some of the challenges that publishers and librarians have encountered following the launch of their OA programs. While progress has certainly been made on the road to OA, books lag behind their journal counterparts in a number of ways, particularly in the lack of infrastructure supporting their distribution. As Laura notes, this presents an opportunity for intermediaries willing to explore ways to fill the gap.

Following Laura’s introduction are two articles from scholarly book publishers, De Gruyter and Wits University Press. Three authors from De Gruyter examine the rapid growth in recent years of the number of OA book publications (including their own). They note, however, that given limitations on funding, a full shift to OA is unlikely to occur quickly, and they consider how best to develop an accessible, sustainable publishing model to meet the needs of stakeholders in the humanities and social sciences. Author Andrew Joseph of Wits University Press also cites the widespread support for OA books across publishers in South Africa. To facilitate the transition, he calls for more regional cooperation and policymaking to support their efforts, particularly in the development of digital infrastructure, standards, and systems that support OA book publishing and distribution.

A little further downstream, we have views from an aggregator, Project MUSE, and a third publisher, MIT Press. Philip Hearn describes how Project MUSE is doing its part to support OA content by ensuring that it is just as discoverable as any other content in their extensive collection. Next, Amy Harris describes MIT Press’s “Direct to Open Model” and lessons learned since its launch in 2021. Working directly with libraries in her role at MIT, Amy pays particular attention to how the model is perceived by institutional customers. She also shares some of the unanticipated challenges of promoting OA books in an environment built for paywalled content. Finally, Rachel Fox Von Swearingen of Syracuse University Libraries shares her thoughts on how OA monographs have been problematic for library workflows, particularly in the collections development and acquisitions processes. She outlines the difficulties of retrofitting industry and institutional systems and tools designed for paywalled titles and envisions what it might take to develop infrastructure that works for both libraries and their vendor partners. She also highlights issues inherent in tracking and evaluating the growing number of new and highly variable OA funding models offered by publishers. And, concerned that library budgets can’t accommodate indefinite growth in this area, she questions whether the altruistic motive for participation, often promoted by publishers, is sustainable.

Although this special report is by no means an exhaustive account of all the new models and innovations supporting OA monographs — nor of the challenges and opportunities they present — these authors have provided a great starting point for anyone interested in learning the latest about this complex and evolving landscape. I look forward to their future contributions to the ongoing conversation.