Open access book policies: The author’s experience

At this free online event organised by the Open Access Books Network as part of the PALOMERA project, we heard from four authors about their experiences of publishing an open access (OA) book, and how they navigated policy mandates to publish OA.
Jenneke van der Wal (Leiden University), Arturs Logins (Laval University), Evi Agostini (University of Vienna) and Miloud Belkoniene (University of Zurich) shared the process of publishing their OA books, from choosing a publisher to seeing the book shared openly, and whether this was different from their other publishing experiences. We delved into the advantages and disadvantages of policy mandates from the author’s perspective: what difference did it make to be subject to a policy mandate (or not)? What advice and/or funding was available throughout the process and what were the challenges? What support would the authors like to have had and what would they do differently next time? And how has the experience of publishing an OA book influenced the authors’ views of open access?