Why publish your book Open Access?

Open Access means everyone can read, review, share, cite and reuse your book or chapter: readers do not have to buy a copy, and libraries do not have to pay to stock your work. Therefore, OA increases the opportunities for your work to be read widely and be taken up by students, academic peers and other societal partners who may be interested in your work.

Maastricht University Library collaborates with UM faculties to pilot the support of open access book publishing.

Apply for funding

Are you a UM researcher and considering publishing your book/monograph open access? Maybe we can help.

Apply now

Eligibility criteria and application process

Since this is a pilot, we cannot predict precisely how many researchers we can support within this first call for the UM Open Access Book Fund.

We will use this pilot to gain more insights on the wishes and needs for financial support for open access publishing of books to continue this support more sustainably in the future. Do you meet the requirements, and do you want to optimise support for OA book publishing at UM? Please apply to participate in the pilot by completing the application form. A committee of open access and publishing experts from the University Library will review your application.

Maximum reimbursement per application
  • The UM Open Access Book Fund covers a maximum of €5,000 (incl. VAT) per book, or €1,000 (incl. VAT) per chapter, up to a maximum of 70% of the book processing charges (BPC).
  • The amount reimbursed for edited volumes is proportional to UM editors’ number. If one out of four editors is from UM, we will fund 25% of the BPC up to a max. of €5,000.
  • We expect authors to fund at least 30% from other sources.
  • The UM Open Access Book Fund does not cover copyright permission costs (i.e. fees you have to pay for reusing figures or tables).

(Note: we consider an introduction to an edited volume a chapter).

Eligibility criteria for authors and publications
  • You are (co-)author of the book or the chapter to which the application applies, and Maastricht University employs you.
  • You will publish the book or chapter under an Open Access licence (such as a Creative Commons licence), and peer review takes place before the publication.
  • The book or chapter contains research output, and the publication is not primarily meant for education or does not have students or the general public as its primary audience.
  • The publisher of the book or chapter is listed in the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB).
  • The book or chapter has gone through editorial or peer review and is accepted. Your negotiations with the (intended) publisher of the book are in such an advanced stage that you can provide an official indication of the expected BPC costs. Your application should enclose evidence of acceptance and express the expected BPC.
  • Your funder cannot cover the full costs you are applying for (e.g., funding of open access publishing costs of academic books that result from NWO funding).
Application form

Name applicant(Required)
Upload (provisional) contract with publisher
Drop files here or
Max. file size: 64 MB.
    - Explanation of why costs cannot be covered from other funds/budget
    - Budget plan for the remaining costs
    Give a summary, including explanation of why this should be considered research output and is not primarily intended for educational purposes; max. 250 words.

     

    Contact and Support

    If you have any questions or require assistance, please use the form below to contact the Open Access support team.

    Would you like to apply, but does the fund not meet your needs for financial support in open access publishing of your book (chapter)? Please use the form to tell us!

    In this pilot phase, it is also valuable for us to hear about what the needs within the research community are and how we can make our Open Access book fund align with those needs as good as possible.