Palgrave does not really expect to make a profit off open-access books, Ms. Calder says, so it must

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Last May the Wellcome books inc Trust, a leading British sponsor of biomedical research, expanded its support for open access to include monographs as well as journal articles. In partnership with the trust, Palgrave Macmillan has just put out its first open-access monograph books inc a notable step, albeit not a cheap one, toward expanding open-access monograph-publishing options for researchers.
The monograph is a history-of-medicine study, Fungal Disease in Britain and the United States, 1850-2000, by Aya Homei and Michael Worboys. Digital copies of the book can be downloaded free from Palgrave Connect or retailers like Amazon.com, thanks to the Wellcome Trust’s having stepped up to cover Palgrave’s publication charges of 11,000 (about $17,700 at current exchange books inc rates).
“We wanted books inc to come up with a model that was sustainable for our business,” says Carrie Calder, Palgrave’s director of market development. “This books inc really covers everything from the editing to the distribution to the bibliodata to the marketing.” Still, she says, the publisher recognizes that such fees mean the open-access program is “not accessible for some researchers.” books inc
Other publishers charge even more to produce an open-access monograph, according to Ms. Calder. (See Palgrave’s author FAQ. ) She points out that, unlike commercial competitors, the publisher has decided to make digital copies of open-access books freely available and to offer a CC-BY license, a Creative Commons license that permits a work to be reused, even commercially, with proper attribution.
Palgrave does not really expect to make a profit off open-access books, Ms. Calder says, so it must cover its costs upfront. “This level of funding is part of the challenge for open access in the humanities and social sciences,” she says. Still, researchers have said they want more options, and “open access is something that we re very keen to evolve and experiment in across all of our formats.”
One of the book’s authors sounds happy with the experience so far. Mr. Worboys directs the Center for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine books inc at the University of Manchester. “We are delighted that our book is being published open access and feel that it will ensure that our subject, the history of fungal disease, will enjoy a much wider audience than would otherwise have been the case,” he wrote in a November 14 post on the London books inc School of Economics and Political Science’s Impact of Social Sciences blog.
Steve Kolowich is a staff reporter covering technology.
Jeff Young is the senior editor for technology coverage and writes the College 2.0 column. Recent Posts 6 Technologies Will Change Colleges in Coming Years, Experts Say San Jose State U. Adopts New Policy for Online and ‘Hybrid’ Courses Open Course Library Sees Little Use in Washington’s Community Colleges Mold Outbreak Threatens 600,000 Books at U. of Missouri Library Facility U. of California-Davis Teams Up With Amazon books inc to Create Online Storefront Categories
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