UMass Boston faculty will soon have new opportunities to publish their books as open access through pioneering agreements led by Healey Library. The initiative aims to make scholarship freely available worldwide while enhancing the visibility of the university’s research.
Healey Library has long supported faculty in publishing journal articles as open access. Extending this support to books addresses a gap where affordable options have been limited. According to Steve Smith, associate university librarian for collections and discovery services, the new agreements emerged from faculty requests for similar open access opportunities for books. He explained that the library is shifting resources toward making faculty-produced scholarship openly available rather than paying for access.
The first agreement, Cambridge University Press’s Open EBA, combines access to Cambridge e-books with a flexible fund to support open access book publishing. UMass Boston is the first institution in North America to participate, following only the Max Planck Institute in Germany. Smith noted that faculty had expressed strong interest in publishing their books open access, prompting discussions with publishers to make this possible.
A second agreement, DeGruyter’s eBound UPLOpen program, expands opportunities further by enabling faculty to publish open access with more than 50 participating university presses, including Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Yale, Columbia, Rutgers, the University of California Press, and the University of Massachusetts Press. This network reflects many of the presses where UMass Boston faculty most frequently publish.
Smith emphasized that open access benefits both authors and readers. Faculty gain broader visibility and higher citation potential, while researchers, students, policymakers, and community members worldwide can access scholarship without subscription barriers. He highlighted the social justice dimension, noting that open access ensures scholarship is available to everyone, not just the wealthiest institutions.
For many faculty members, publishing a book represents years of research and a defining academic achievement. Smith observed that supporting this work aligns with the mission and ethos of UMass Boston, while also strengthening the university’s growing research profile.
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