Cambridge University Press makes raft of physics titles available as open access books 

Cambridge University Press (CUP) has made 21 of its physics titles available as open access books, as well as reissuing them as “affordable" paperback editions.

The move comes thanks to funding from the Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics (SCOAP), described as “a global partnership with a mission to enable barrier-free, equitable open access to research in high‐energy physics”, and there are plans to add a further 21 titles in the new year.

SCOAP includes more than 3,000 libraries, funding agencies and research centres from 50 countries and intergovernmental organisations. All contribute to a central fund, managed by CERN, which then covers the costs of making research available open access.

Titles on a range of topics related to particle physics were made available online as Cambridge’s initial contribution to the SCOAP for Books pilot project, which expanded the fund’s reach from research journals into books. In all, the pilot converted 113 monographs and textbooks from a number of publishers to open access between May and November 2022.

A further contribution of another 21 books from is physics backlist early next year will make the University of Cambridge one of the project’s biggest contributors to the collection.

Vince Higgs, senior commissioning editor for physics at the press, said: “This has been fantastic project to work on and it’s given a real boost to our list of open access books in physics.

“It has involved colleagues from our editorial, content and digital publishing teams to get all of the pieces in place. We also faced some unique challenges, because the project involved previously published titles – some of them going back several decades.”

Ben Denne, director of books publishing at the press, said: "The open access principles of availability, inclusivity and dissemination are central to what we are about as a university press.

"Finding new ways to publish books open access is one of the many ways we are working to realise the potential of an open future, with increased reach for and access to the research we publish. So it’s great we have been able to work with the wider academic publishing community and make such a big contribution to the success of the SCOAP3 for Books pilot.

"It’s also exciting to see that SCOAP3 will be exploring opportunities for new books in particle physics to be published directly as OA titles, and we hope to participate fully in future projects with them.”