Book chapters
This page explains how to publish a book chapter open access, and highlights resources to help you do so.
On this page
How to make your book chapter open access
While technically a 'short-form output' in terms of length, book chapters are often categorised as 'long-form outputs' because they are part of a longer book or monograph output. If you’ve written a chapter in an academic book, read on for advice on making it open access.
Before you start you will need to check:
Your funder’s open access policy
The publisher’s open access policy
There are two ways to publish your book chapter open access:
Open access via deposit (through the University)
Some publishers allow you to deposit a single book chapter (or 10%) of a book.
For more information about what major publishers will allow, check the table below.
Open access via payment (through the publisher)
Many publishers allow you to publish through paid 'hybrid' open access. This is more common in multi-author works and allows you to make an individual chapter open access.
Certain funders will also pay for this option. To see which funders include monographs and chapters in their policies, check the list of funders below.
Key information – read this first
Publishers' policies on book chapters
Many publishers allow you to deposit a single chapter (or 10%) of a book to make it open access via the 'green' route.
Currently, Elsevier, Thomson Reuters, Boydell and Brewer, and Brepols will not allow book chapter deposit.
The table below tells you what each publisher will allow.
Note: The information below was checked on 19 June 2023 and is subject to change by the publisher. Always cross-check information with the publisher's official policy page: we include links in the table.
All publishers require a link to the published work and a copyright statement, so we have not specified this below. If you deposit into the Oxford University Research Archive (ORA), this information will be added by the team so you will always meet this requirement.
Publishers' policies for chapters deposited into Oxford's institutional repository
| Publisher | Scope | Amount allowed | Other criteria | Policy link | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bloomsbury | Authored or co-authored book. | Accepted manuscript/version of record of 1 chapter after a 6-month embargo. | Provided following email request. | Bloomsbury's archiving/deposit policy | |
| Brill | Multi-authored books and encyclopaedias. | Accepted manuscript/version of record of 1 chapter available on publication (no embargo). | Brill's archiving/deposit policy | ||
| Cambridge University Press (CUP) | Authored or co-authored book. | Accepted manuscript/version of record of 1 chapter after a 6-month embargo. | CUP's policy allows authors to make content free to access and read, but not free to reproduce. | CUP's archiving/deposit policy | |
| Edward Elgar Publishing | Authored or co-authored book (seek permissions of co-authors). | Submitted version only after a 6-month embargo. | Edward Elgar's archiving/deposit policy | ||
| Emerald Publishing | Authored or co-authored book. | Accepted manuscript of 1 chapter on publication (no embargo). | Copy licence of original work OR apply a CC BY-NC licence. | Emerald's archiving/deposit policy | |
| Franz Steiner Verlag | Contributors to anthologies. | Version of record of 1 chapter after an 18-month embargo. | Franz Steiner Verlag's archiving/deposit policy (in German) | ||
| Oxford University Press (OUP) | Authored or co-authored book. |
1 chapter, up to 10% of the total content, and/or 3 figures/illustrations/tables from a single book with 1 or more authors. A maximum of 1 chapter/article from an edited volume or collection (such as Oxford Handbooks) A maximum of 1 chapter/article of your contribution to an online-only or digital-original publication.
Embargoes: 12 months for science and medical titles. 24 months for academic, trade and reference titles. |
Contact OUP to establish their classification of an 'academic' title. | OUP's archiving/deposit policy | |
| Palgrave | Authored works, textbooks. Contributed volumes (incl handbooks) Proceeding papers. |
Accepted manuscript of: > Authored works, textbooks up to 10% > Contributed volumes and proceeding papers 1 chapter after a 24-month embargo.
|
Palgrave's archiving/deposit policy |
||
| Routledge / Taylor and Francis/ Ashgate/ CRC Press | All books. |
Accepted manuscript of 1 chapter. Embargo: 12 months for STEM 18 months for HASS. |
Taylor and Francis group's archiving/deposit policy | ||
| Sage | Handbooks within the reference category. | Accepted manuscript/version of record of 1 chapter after a 24-month embargo. | This policy does not apply for Sage Business Cases as they disallow open access. | Sage's archiving/deposit policy | |
| Springer |
Authored works, textbooks. Contributed volumes (incl handbooks). Proceeding papers. |
Accepted manuscript of: > Authored works, textbooks Up to 10% > Contributed volumes and proceeding papers 1 chapter after a 24-month embargo.
|
Springer's archiving/deposit policy |
