Open Book Collective

We are equally thrilled to explore opportunities for funding our #OAbooks production and to offer more equal opportunities for authors. Funding #diamondOA books isn't easy, and we'll need to explore several opportunities to keep our operations sustainable.

We’re thrilled to welcome @stockholmunipress.bsky.social to the Open Book Collective! A born-OA press, governed by researchers, already transitioning its journals to Diamond OA & now joining OBC to do the same for books. Libraries can support them through our University Presses package. #DiamondOA

And still time for this one too! (Though @heroicendeavour.eurosky.social is replacing @joedeville.bsky.social on behalf of the OBC)

Still (just!) time to register. This webinar begins today at 10am BST / 11am CEST.

❗A major vulnerability have been discovered in PHP (see below), which runs Wordpress, among other platforms. Our OBC blog is based on Wordpress, so as a precaution, we have taken our site offline until a security patch is released. ❗ So if you can't access our site, it's definitely not you!

There's been a lot of interest in this webinar - this is clearly a topic lots of libraries and librarians are interested in! (We love to see it.) There is still time to register and places available, so why not come along? 📚 #OAWeek

We've had a good spread of responses, but more data means more insight into libraries' decision-making processes when choosing to support #OpenAccess initiatives - so please take a few moments to complete our survey or share with colleagues! Consider it your contribution to #OAWeek! 📚

Lara Speicher of @uclpress.bsky.social discusses how BPCs reinforce academic hierarchies and why UCL made the choice to move from BPCs to collective funding via the OBC in July. #OAWeek2026 #OpenAccess blogs.ucl.ac.uk/open-access/...

We're not publishers ourselves, but we very much support open access publishers to keep doing what they do best - producing high-quality research that's openly available to all, with no charges for either authors or readers.

@ojcollective.bsky.social and @openbookcollective.bsky.social are here at the National Open Science Festival at TU Delft today! If you're here, come and meet Thomas Shaw from OJC and Francesca Corazza from OBC. Find us in the Information Market and at the Poster session

"We want people to read what we publish." We spoke to James Rice of @whitehorsepress.bsky.social about taking a small, partner-run press open access, what happened to readership, and where AI fits in. obc.copim.pub/we-want-peop...

Our annual report for May 25-April 26 is now out! It’s been a year of steady growth, with new library supporters, new publishers, and new faces. Between them our members published 326 OA books in this time, an impressive output that rivals many commercial publishers! obc.copim.pub/six-years-in...

Add to your calendars now! 📆 Join @heroicendeavour.eurosky.social @hannahcrago.bsky.social Louise Otting from TU Delft to celebrate #OAWeek2026 and discuss the Cost of knowledge Find out more about #OAWeek 👉 www.openaccessweek.org

Workshop materials from #OAT26 are now openly available! The fabulous @heroicendeavour.eurosky.social ( @openbookcollective.bsky.social ) put together a handout and bilingual (EN/DE) discussion cards on sustaining #DiamondOA through collective funding #OER 🎉 doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

Slidedeck of the #oat26 presentation "Collaboration over competition: what does it look like, in practice?", presented by our wonderful colleagues at @openbookcollective.bsky.social and @ojcollective.bsky.social , is openly available to read along ... doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

Lots of #CopimCommunity are also members of OPERAS 👋 @openbookcollective.bsky.social @thoth-metadata.eurosky.social @openbookpublish.bsky.social @openlibhums.org They share the benefits of membership via the blog series 'Voices of OPERAS UK' 👉 research.jiscinvolve.org/wp/category/...

Day 2 of our panel announcements 📢 Also joining us for the WRUP 10-year anniversary event is Professor Joe Deville (joedeville.bsky.social), Professor of Science & Technology Studies at Lancaster University and Managing Director of the Open Book Collective.

How do you persuade your institution to fund open access? Join us on 22 October (11:00 CEST / 10:00 BST) for a free Open Access Week webinar with colleagues from the University of Essex and TU Delft, plus the Open Book Collective. Register: us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Wir sind in Linz zu den #OAT26! Heute leitet Caroline gemeinsam mit Kollegen von Thoth, OJC und dem Verfassungsblog einen Workshop darüber, wie die ideale Open-Access-Initiative aussehen könnte und ob es ein solches „Einhorn“ überhaupt gibt (oder überhaupt geben kann)! Was denkt ihr darüber?

We're in Linz for OA Tage / #OAT26! Today Caroline will be running a workshop, alongside colleagues from Thoth, OJC, Verfassungsblog, on what the ideal OA initiative might look like, and whether such a unicorn does (or even can) exist! What are your thoughts? Drop them below!

Which of your researchers have published with OBC presses – and where are their books being read? We're building an open Impact Dashboard with @ojcollective.bsky.social to provide exactly those answers! The first release is due before the end of 2026. A first look: obc.copim.pub/coming-soon-...

Next week we're in Linz for OA Tage - the big gathering of the German-speaking OA community. Caroline (@heroicendeavour.eurosky.social) will be speaking about the importance of collaboration over competition, alongside colleagues from OJC and Thoth. If you're there, please come and say hello!

Wrote in @timeshighered.bsky.social Campus about Diamond Open Access in the UK. Give it a read and check out these incredibly vital OA initiatives: @oipassoc.bsky.social, @ojcollective.bsky.social, @openbookcollective.bsky.social, @eudch.bsky.social. www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/diamo...

ERRATUM welcomes new library supporters [see link for how you can recommend the press to your library too] theoryfictionconsortium.substack.com/p/erratum-we... @openbookcollective.bsky.social

If you missed it the first time, here’s our Community Engagement Lead, Caroline Ball, talking open access, monographs, REF, and more!

Are you going to OA Tage 2026 at the end of the month? #OAT26 Our Community Engagement Lead, Caroline Ball (@heroicendeavour.eurosky.social) will be there delivering a presentation and workshop - stop by and say hi, attend one of the sessions, or email to schedule a meeting with her.

Sussex were one of our earliest library supporters, and we remain ever grateful for that! 🙏 They have a long-standing commitment to building a fairer, more open, and more resilient open research landscape for everyone, as the Jisc feature below evidences.

The wording was a little unclear on some of the Qs and As, so I’ve edited it. We’re interested in your decisions funding ANY open access initiative, doesn’t have to be the OBC!

🌍 Help shape the future of #DiamondOA in Europe! EDCH is looking for new Advocates to connect with local communities, share resources, contribute to the EDCH Forum, and help shape services to meet community needs. Join our 2026–2027 cohort! 📅 Apply by 30 September 2026 🔗 tinyurl.com/5n7d7tp4

Academic librarians - how does your institution actually decide whether to fund collective, fee-free open access? What finally ends up moving the internal discussions from yes, or maybe to no? We're running a short, anonymous survey (10–15 mins) to find out. 📚

A new episode of my Under Review podcast is out where I invite a guest to unpick the good, bad and ugly from their part of the academic world. We’re looking at the Open Books with my guest @heroicendeavour.eurosky.social @openbookcollective.bsky.social YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu9E... 1/3

Wa’tkwanonhwerá:ton, welcome, bienvenue to the newest member of the Collective - Concordia University Press! @concordiapress.bsky.social is a Canadian dual-language publisher of the arts, humanities, and social sciences, and can be supported via the full OBC and University Press packages.

Deadline is midnight tonight (any timezone). Get your applications in for our new part-time, fully remote Head of Operations post! bsky.app/profile/did:...

Our Community Engagement Lead, Caroline Ball, also talking about why Diamond OA is more than just idealism, it makes economic sense. Universities spend millions on 'big deals' when collective funding could build diverse, sustainable publishing for a fraction of the cost.

Post-Brexit, UK organisations risk being excluded from European policy conversations - that's why partnering with organisations like OPERAS is so important. Together, we can share expertise, problem-solve, and shape the future of open scholarship across Europe. Read more in the #VoicesOfOPERAS blog

There's still time to get an application in for our new Head of Operations role - the deadline is the end of 9 September (any timezone). Part-time (2.5 days a week), fully remote, £40-48k pro rata - click the link below for further details: obc.copim.pub/obc-is-hirin...

A fantastic milestone to start the new academic year with - and always growing! obc.copim.pub/100-librarie...

September's here & for many of you a new academic year. So just a brief reminder of what we're here for. The OBC is a charity that channels library funding to Diamond OA publishers - the books are free to read & no author pays to be published. It's small-scale, deliberately, but with a big impact!

The Open Journals Collective has appointed @dqprogramming.bsky.social to develop its Impact Dashboard! This is a joint project with @openbookcollective.bsky.social and the OJC dashboard will provide data and metrics about the impact of OJC journals - we look forward to launching it soon!

With support from the #CollectiveDevelopmentFund, Chinhoyi University of Technology's new open access press (the first in Zimbabwe) just announced publication of its first titles, free to read and reuse! A fantastic example of what happens when libraries invest in global publishing infrastructure.

We’re hiring! Come and work with us to make the open access book landscape successful, sustainable and scalable. The role is part-time and fully remote.