Collective funding models for open access books Wednesday 4 October 2023

1. Supporting not-for-profit, community-led
open infrastructure for Open Access books:
The University of Manchester Library perspective
Emma Booth (she/her)
Metadata Manager for Content Management
The University of Manchester Library

2. • Context: University of Manchester and UoM Library
– Office for Open Research.
– Open Access Fund and OA Monographs.
– OA Monographs Project.
• Supporting collective-funding models and community-led open
infrastructure for Open Access Books.
– Why?
– What?
– How?
• Final thoughts…

3. The University of Manchester Strategic Vision1
• Research and Discovery:
– Russell Group University; N8 Research Partnership.
– Commitment to build an open and responsible research environment.
– Strongly support researchers using a Rights Retention statement as
standard practice. 2
• Teaching Excellence:
– Research-enhanced teaching and learning across all subject disciplines.
– Wide range of courses; large student population.
• Social Responsibility:
– Advance education, knowledge and wisdom for the good of society.
– Address social and environmental challenges through research, teaching
and learning, public engagement, and campus operations.

4. Office for Open Research

5. Open Access Fund and OA Monographs
£60,000
60%
£20,000
20%
£20,000
20%
2021-2022 = £100,000
£72,56
4
48%
£31,95
0
21%
£47,45
9
31%
2022-2023 = £151,973
OA Monographs Competition (BPCs)
OA Monographs – Collective-Funding Models
Open Research Initiatives and Community-Led Solutions

6. OA Monographs Project:
Implementing UKRI OA Policy2 and Supporting Sustainable OA Book Publishing
• Review UKRI guidance/requirements
and anticipate impact on REF2028
requirements for long-form research.
• Analyse historic monograph publishing
output at UoM to:
– Identify key researchers and research
communities that will be affected.
– Assess future OA monograph
requirements and associated costs.
• Provide training, support and guidance
for the Library OA Team.
• Create and deliver targeted
communications to support relevant
researchers and research communities.
• Analyse, support and evaluate
new/innovative (non-BPC) OA monograph
publishing models, such as collective-
funding and subscribe-to-open schemes.
• Develop assessment criteria for OA
monograph publishing schemes and update
Acquisitions Policy.
• Ensure a holistic approach to incorporating
OA Books metadata into Library discovery
systems.
• Engage and collaborate with community-led
initiatives to support sustainable OA Book
publishing, such as COPIM Project and
DOAB/OAPEN.

7. Community-led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs
(COPIM)
“The alternative infrastructures, business and revenue models, preservation
structures, and governance procedures that have been scoped, developed, and
proof-of-concept-delivered through COPIM, enable increased economic
resilience and enhanced capacities for the publication and dissemination of
open access books at a variety of scales.
“COPIM's scaling small approach offers Higher Education institutions and HSS
researchers sustainable publishing models that they control, providing them
with increased publishing options, new revenue streams, and cost reductions
that are designed to help build a more equitable, horizontal, and co-operative
knowledge sharing community.”4

8. 5

10. • Advocacy and promotion, and community engagement:
– Raising the profile of community-led initiatives for Open Access Books.
– Speaking about our experiences at conferences and webinars.
• Working Group participation:
– OAPEN/DOAB Library Working Group – Metadata.
– RLUK Collection Strategies Network OA Monographs Sub-Group.
• Providing expertise and insights:
– Sharing our Assessment Framework and Acquisitions Policy for
supporting collective-funding models for Open Access Books.
– Providing feedback to OAPEN and Thoth Metadata about MARC records.
• Helping to develop the community-led open infrastructure…. ?
– OA Books Archiving Network.
Support doesn’t have to just be financial!

11. Final thoughts
• Collaboration with partners such as OAPEN/DOAB and COPIM, and
supporting the development of community-led open infrastructures for Open
Access Books demonstrates our leadership and social responsibility in the
fields of open research and scholarly communications.
• We see our support for community-led open infrastructure for Open Access
Books as essential for making progress towards an equitable and socially
responsible open research environment.
• It is only by participating in community-led schemes and initiatives that
support both Open Access publishers & Open Access service providers that
libraries can help to secure a sustainable Open Access monograph
publishing environment that does not rely on BPCs.

13. 1 University of Manchester (2020). Our future: Our vision and strategic plan as The
University of Manchester enters its third century
https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/vision/
2 University of Manchester (2023). Rights Retention and our updated Institutional
Publications Policy. https://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/services/research/open-
research/access/rights-retention/
3 UKRI (2021). UKRI Open Access Policy. https://www.ukri.org/publications/ukri-open-
access-policy/
4 Steiner, T., Adema, J., (2023). Community-Led Open Publication Infrastructures for
Monographs: Final Report (1.0). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7961527
5 Open Book Collective (2023). The OBC Welcomes University of Manchester Library.
https://openbookcollective.pubpub.org/pub/kb284k7b
References