Open access books

Our ambition to achieve 100% open access for academic publications also applies to books. Your options for publishing open access depend on your research budget, your funder requirements and the possibilities offered by the publisher.

Diamond

Through the diamond route, you publish open access immediately on a publisher's open access platform. Your book will have a CC BY license and you will retain the copyright to your book. This route is free for authors; the publishing costs are covered by external financiers. Diamond open access is the most equitable way of open access publishing. UU supports sustainable initiatives to further diamond open access.

Some publishers accept a voluntary contribution towards the production costs of the book. The faculty of Humanities offers funding for this purpose. Read more about the fund on intranet.

Are you interested  in diamond open access?

• Please email Publishing Support for help.
• The Open Book Collective (OBC) is a collective of publishers and service providers involved in Diamond Open Access. Utrecht University provides financial support to this collective. The list of affiliated publishers is a good starting point for anyone interested in publishing a book via Open Access.
• The Netherlands University Presses (NUPs) is a joint website of Dutch (diamond) university publishers. Some of these are also accessible to authors from outside of the university. 

Gold

With the gold route, you publish open access immediately on a publisher's open access platform. Unlike diamond, you will be charged book processing charges (BPCs) to make the publication open. You may be able to pay BPCs from your research budget. Check whether this is possible before choosing a publisher to publish with. This will prevent you from incurring unexpected costs. Read more about funding open access books on our page.

Some gold publishers offer a ‘delayed open access’ option, under which a book is published OA after an embargo period (usually 12 or 24 months), for a reduced BPC. At the library, we do not recommend this form of open access, unless it is necessary to comply with a funder's mandate.

Are you interested  in gold open access? 

Please email Publishing Support for help.

Self-publishing

Self-publishing involves publishing your own work without the help of a publisher. You can publish on your own platform or on an open (community based) platform. It is a suitable way to publish books with a built-in audience, such as open textbooks and conference proceedings. Self-publishing is also useful if you update the book regularly or if it contains different types of media. Self-publishing does not involve Book Processing Charges (BPC's) but can carry other costs.

Keep in mind that if you choose to self-publish, you cannot use the services of a publisher. These may include arranging peer reviews, editing and/or formatting, and assigning a doi to your work.  

Are you interested in self-publishing?

• Please email Publishing Support for help.
• The Open Science Community Utrecht (OSCU) has launched the OSCU Publishing Initiative, offering infrastructure and support to those interested in self-publishing.

Green (only for book chapters)

The green open access route serves as an alternative for when you publish closed access.  Through this route, you deposit a book chapter in the UU institutional repository. This route is free for authors. Be aware that is not the same as immediately open access publishing.

There are various green open access options:

• A version of your chapter becomes open access immediately. Many book publishers allow self-archiving of one or two chapters (usually the introduction). This is often negotiable as part of your contract.
• A closed published chapter becomes open access six months after publication. Upload a pdf of your chapter in Pure. The library will do the rest. 

Read more about green open access on our page.