Publishing Open Access Books: Funding

<Back to Publishing Open Access Books FAQ's

When you are looking to publish an open access book or chapter will usually be required to pay a book publishing charge (BPC). There are many funding options available to help you cover these fees, our team are here to help you navigate the funding landscape.

Below are some common questions about funding that should be kept in mind when considering an open access books project.

You'll also find a list of funders that support open access books.

BPC’s are funded through three main avenues:

1. Research Funding Bodies

• Authors should contact research funding bodies as early as possible if they intend to publish their book or chapter open access.
• Authors should check the terms and conditions of their grant, as they may need to include the costs of open access in their budget.

2. University Funding

• Universities award open access funding from a) Block grants from research funders e.g. UKRI and COAF b) Institutional open access funds
• Authors should contact their university library or open access/open research contact to apply for open access funding. Most universities have a generic open access email address for researchers interested in publishing open access

3. Self- Funded by Authors

• Authors create a crowdsourcing page to fund the processing charge e.g. kickstarter

Q. Does your funder mandate a specific Creative Commons licence to publish under?

Taylor & Francis retain the flexibility for you to publish your work under any of the Creative Commons licenses to meet your funder requirements, just mention your preferred licence to your Taylor & Francis Editor when introducing the project. If you need to know more about Creative Commons licences and what they enable you can learn more here

Q. Does your funder need proof that your book is under contract in order to secure funding?

If your funder needs proof of contract it is worth noting that open access is mentioned as a possibility in our standard Taylor & Francis Book contracts which can be used as proof. We are more than happy to add an open access addendum once funding is secured, just mention it to your Editor.

Q. When does your funder release the fees?

It is important to know the timeline of when your funder will be able to release the fees for your open access project as the timeline may be longer than you expect. Taylor & Francis will need the BPC when the final manuscript is submitted in order to progress to the publication stage.

Q. Are you eligible for a discount?
If you are an author based in an emerging region you may be eligible for a discount. Funders based in low-income and lower-middle-income economies (as defined by the World Bank) are entitled to apply for BPC discounts to publish gold open access. Ask your Taylor & Francis Editor for more information on eligibility.

Q. Does your institution have an open access membership deal with Taylor & Francis?

If the answer is yes, your project may be eligible for a discounted publishing charge. Get in touch with your institutions librarian who should know more, or get in touch with our Open Access Team who can help you find the answer.

Q. Do you want to apply for funding to convert your work to open access post publication?

These funds allow you to convert a published book or chapter to open access post publication and may be an option avaliable from your funder. At Taylor & Francis this reduces the publishing charge depending on when the title or chapter published. Our Open Access Team are happy to talk you through the steps and discounts available.

Q. What if you change your mind or the open access funding falls through before submission?

Your Taylor & Francis editor will be on hand to discuss the best available options with you. If the book has been accepted after passing through our peer preview process then we would be most likely be able to proceed with the book in the normal way for a non-OA title. 

An increasing number of research funding institutions are making funding available for open access books publishing. The following pages have compiled lists of potential funding sources for open access books:

• The OAPEN toolkit has compiled a helpful list of possible funding sources for open access books worldwide, and is available here.  The toolkit also contains a summary of Research Funder requirements for OA book publishing.

• The OA publication funds page from the Open Access Directory provides an A-Z list of potential OA funders, some of which includes book funding. The funds may be hosted by universities, research centres, foundations, or government agencies.