The UK’s JISC is inviting humanities and social science researchers to participate in an online survey (http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/oapenukresearcher) to help JISC Collections understand the future of the monograph.
In an open access model the monograph is made freely available, but the process requires some investigation to establish the priorities for such a business model. Readers or their libraries do not have to pay to read it online because the costs of the publishing process - such as typesetting and marketing - are recovered through alternative routes. The funding routes typically include research grants, institutional funding or readers purchasing print editions or particular formats for their iPad or Kindle.
According to Caren Milloy, head of projects at JISC Collections, it is already six months since the project was initiated and some key questions for researchers – both as authors and readers - have been identified following a series of focus groups. The findings from this survey will combine with interviews and surveys of other stakeholder groups to help understand the big issues and priorities that an open access publishing model must accommodate.
OAPEN-UK is an Arts and Humanities Research Council and JISC funded project exploring the issues impacting upon the publishing of scholarly monographs in the humanities and social sciences. The project is working with Taylor & Francis, Palgrave Macmillan, Berg Publishers, Liverpool University Press, University Wales Press, research funders and universities to understand the challenges and steps required to move towards an open access publishing model for scholarly monographs.
