Academic publisher Taylor & Francis has pledged its support to convert over 50 book titles to open access in collaboration with Knowledge Unlatched (KU) in 2023. These titles will cover various humanities and social science disciplines and topical areas, such as climate change, global health, and gender studies. KU operates on a crowdfunding model where research libraries worldwide unite to fund the publication costs of new eBooks to make important research accessible to everyone. This collaboration with KU began in 2016 and has led to the publication of over 100 books in OA without any cost to the authors. With a focus on supporting disciplines and regions where there is limited funding for traditional OA models, Taylor & Francis aims to provide an innovative publishing solution for African Studies, with two African Studies titles recently published in OA - ‘The South African Response to COVID-19’ and ‘Nigeria’s Third-Generation Literature’.
Nicola Parkin, Director of Books Editorial Services at Taylor & Francis, expressed the company’s commitment to OA, stating that the KU partnership is crucial in amplifying research and that it is the most effective way to foster human progress. Neil Christensen, Head of Publisher Relations at Knowledge Unlatched, praised the high-quality books that Taylor & Francis and their authors committed to the collective-action model for equitable open access that KU brokers, saying that this partnership plays a fundamental role in shaping the collective knowledge of the world.
Taylor & Francis has one of the largest portfolios of OA books and has been publishing OA journals since 2006. They complemented their open access program with an open access book program in 2013. This program includes books and chapters across all subjects covered by Routledge, CRC Press, and their imprints in the humanities, social sciences, and behavioral sciences. Upon publication, open access titles and chapters are made available in digital format to read and download freely under a Creative Commons license. The company's innovative OA book publishing options continue to evolve, offering choice, sustainability, impact, and value.
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