Publishing and Sharing

Books and Monographs

In Higher Education, when publishing an academic book, the author submits a book proposal to an academic publisher. This might be a commercial publisher. For example, Taylor and Francis, Wiley or Bloomsbury. A university press, for example, Liverpool University Press, Manchester University Press or White Rose University Press.  It might be an open-access non-profit publisher. An example of an independent open-access book publisher is Open Book Publishers.

Often, there is copyright guidance for authors on the publisher’s website and there might be someone from the editorial team or rights and permissions services that the author can contact in relation to their copyright queries. Authors do need to ensure that they seek written permission from the copyright holder when using other published material (third party material) in their book, book chapter or monograph. If there is a fee associated, then this will need to be paid by the author if they use the published copyrighted material. This guide provides copyright and intellectual property advice tailored for researchers sharing their work.

Exceptions can only be used in line with government guidance. Commercial book publishing is intended to make a profit. The copyright exception of non-commercial research and private study is not synonymous with commercial publishing. It is intended for researchers to be able to make copies of all types of copyrighted works for non-commercial research. The amount should be as with fair dealing and not financially impact the copyright owner through use. Sufficient acknowledgment is needed when using it for non-commercial research.  This is not an exception for research that will be shared with others or published.

The exception criticism, review and reporting on current events. This exception is applicable to any type of copyrighted work. Fair dealing is allowed for criticism, review or quotation. However, fair dealing for the purpose of current events is allowed for any type of copyrighted work other than a photograph. Sufficient acknowledgment should always be given.

When a book is published as open access, it will usually be published with a creative commons' licence. This clearly indicates how the material can be reused. It can also not be assumed when there is no creative commons' licence, yet the material is open access, that this material can be reused. Written permission would need to be sought from the copyright holder.

Comprehensive guidance for publishing an open-access book is provided by OAPEN in their Open Access Book Toolkit. It covers the whole book publishing process. Book contract, permissions, rights and license. Publishing options. Discoverability and dissemination. Quality assurance & peer review.