Next in our series of Open Access resources are Open Access books and platforms for them. Starting DOAB, which is a directory for Open Access books and helps to increase the discoverability of Open Access books. Publishers are invited to provide metadata of their OA books to DOAB and libraries can integrate the directory in their catalogues and online collections. As such, DOAB aids students, scholars and researchers to discover OA books. DOAB is a joint service of, amongst others OAPEN. OAPEN (Open Access Publishing in European Networks) is an ‘Online library and publication platform’. It operates the OAPEN Library and the DOAB. The OAPEN library largely features humanities and social sciences but does also include many other (research) disciplines.

Open textbook library is a resource for Open Access textbooks, reviewed by faculty from various universities. Books are available from a wide range of disciplines and aimed at students (and researchers) at various levels of study. Whether you are in need of a laboratory manual for non-science majors, are considering learning Italian in lockdown or just want to read something about various management strategies,Open textbooks library is likely to have an appropriate textbook ready for you.

Open humanities press is an international publishing collective with a focus on humanities, led by scholars. OHP published both books and journals, and does so in various languages. An interesting series by OHP, highlighting the ideals of Open Access are their Liquid/Living Books which are OA books open to editing, annotating, reformatting etc by readers. The most interesting results (selected by Culture Machine’s editors and peer-reviewers), will be ‘frozen’ and published by OHP as new volumes. A concept worth some consideration.

Open book publishers is an independent open access academic publisher for monographs from all disciplines, run by academics. All their books are available in PDF and XML format and some of their books are also hosted on Wikiversity in a socially editable format as well. 

Copernicus publishing promotes open access in natural science and manages Open Access journals in multiple disciplines within the natural sciences such as mathematics, geosciences and life sciences amongst others. They currently publish 28 journals and other material on behalf of the European Geosciences Union, and are the main Open Access publisher in the Earth sciences and Geosciences.
In our next posts, we will discuss some Open Access publishers and Open Access platforms, repositories, libraries and more. Make sure to keep an eye out for these new blog posts or follow us on Twitter (@HudUniPress), Facebook (/HudUniPrew) or Instagram (@)

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