As institutions, authors, and publishers have started to accept open access publishing as an alternative model to traditional publishing, open access journals are being published by major publishers and independent houses that may be publishing only one journal. And indeed, as journal editors and authors consider the implications of publishing open access, the question of other publications arises.
More and more universities are attempting to develop Open Educational Resources (OERs) in the face of Inclusive Access, which often puts the burden of costs of learning materials on students without their knowing. Beyond just journals, articles, or dissertations, questions are arising around publishing full books open access.
One organization is helping to pave the way in leading with potential publishing and financial models for creating new OERs and open access books. OAPEN manages both the Directory of Open Access Books as well as the OA Books Toolkit help to contribute to the growing landscape. With a new strategic plan for 2025-2028, the DOAB aspires to the following over the next three years:
- Make DOAB known and available to publisher’s globally,
- Establish a community of practice for quality assessment of OA books,
- Establish DOAB as a trusted source and reference point for institutions and funders in their strategies and policies for OA books,
- Make DOAB operationally and financially robust and resilient, and
- Bring innovation to the DOAB services and reduce its potential obsolescence.
With a number of smaller objectives making up the more quantifiable aspects of these goals, DOAB’s ability to set itself up as an important access point for researchers and faculty could be an interesting bellwether for the future of open access books in scholarly publishing – and the success and implementation of open educational resources beyond a smattering of excited academics.
OAPEN also offers more resources within their Open Access Books Toolkit, which provides helpful information for authors and policymakers on funding models, licensure best practices, publishing and medium options and more. While appetite for much more affordable resources for research and class syllabi remains, the question will continue to shift; are the new tools and models that it may take to development a more prolific subset of open access networks and publications worth the investment? When large publishing companies are offering more and more competitive options to make sure to secure their subscriptions, who is incentivized to develop open models? Hopefully tools like the OA Books Toolkit and the DOAB will continue to ease the burden of publishing in a less traditional way.