On January 17th-18th, a new two-year project officially kicked off, PALOMERA. PALOMERA stands for “Supporting the development of aligned policies for open access books and monographs” and is funded under the Horizon Europe call: Reforming and enhancing the European R&I System. The project will foster the long-overdue inclusion of books in the current European Open Access policy and funding landscapes and is co-led by OAPEN and OPERAS.
“How, where and from which funds to publish Open Access books are among the most frequently asked questions in DARIAH-EU’s domain-specific Open Arts and Humanities advocacy practice.” – said Erzsébet Tóth-Czifra, Open Science Officer of DARIAH-EU. “Clearly, Open Access cannot be truly open as long as publishing books openly is significantly more difficult than research papers or other scholarly content types.”
The project will:
- Collect and analyze a rich volume and variety of data sources to better understand and address bottlenecks in Open Access book publishing
- Consolidate and share good practices in policies, publishing practices and underlying business models
- Closely collaborate with funders and key European policy players and deliver actionable and evidence-based recommendations and resources for Open Access books and monographs.
In line with the project aims, the consortium enjoys support from and active involvement of key European policy players since its kick-off event.
DARIAH’s involvement in the project is concentrated around the data collection and data analysis phases of the project. For example, DARIAH will be anchoring the work in the research realities both on the level of research institutions and individuals with a strong focus on the Arts and Humanities domain. In addition, DARIAH will also be responsible for shaping the project’s Data Management Plan.
“Closing the book gap in Open Access policy and funding structures is a fairly complex challenge that requires concerted efforts from research performing organisations and individual authors, policy-makers (of Open Access, of the research assessment reform), publishers and infrastructure providers (including the long supply chain of academic books) alike” Erzsébet added. “The PALOMERA consortium forms a critical mass, a dream team in this respect, and DARIAH is both thrilled and truly honoured to be a part of it.”
Open Access Books and DARIAH
Updates and project results will be regularly shared across the DARIAH channels, most notably on the DARIAH Open blog. In the meantime, below we share a selection of Open Access books oriented resources that either provide practical support in publishing or showcase the value and vision of fair, scholar-led models of Open Access book publishing.
- DARIAH Open Access Book Bursary for Early Career Researchers in Digital Humanities (2022 call, meet the winner of the 2021 call, call announcement and background to the call)
- DARIAH Open Science helpdesk
- Interviews with authors of Open Access Books
- Interviews with fair and community-led Open Access Book publishing initiatives
- Open Access Toolkit: DARIAH’s practical recommendations to promote Open Access within the arts and humanities
- 6 innovations from the humanities that make Open Access publishing a reality to everyone
More on PALOMERA
More information about the project, its members and partners, is available on the OPERAS website.
