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The Dutch Research Council (NWO) supports Open Access books

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8 februari 2021

Open Access has become an established practice for scientific articles. But this is not yet the case for scientific books. NWO has recently launched a funding instrument for NWO researchers who wish to publish their books Open Access. WUR researchers Bernice Bovenkerk and Jozef Keulartz have already received funding.

Call to publish books Open Access

NWO wants to give more impetus to Open Access availability of scientific books that emerge from its funding. To do so, NWO has launched a special funding instrument to reimburse book processing charges (BPC). As BPC are not included in the project budget, the charges are reimbursed independently of the project timing.

Researchers who wish to publish a book or edited collection Open Access can apply for this funding. To be eligible researchers must show that their research was funded by NWO and that their book went through peer-review. A maximum of 10,000 euros is available for each project to pay the BPC. Applications are accepted on a continuous basis.

First NWO-funded WUR Open Access book

The first applications have already been funded, including “Animals in Our Midst: The Challenges of Co-existing with Animals in the Anthropocene”. The book is edited by Dr Bernice Bovenkerk and Prof. Jozef Keulartz and will be available online in spring 2021.

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We wanted to publish this book Open Access, because it is a collected volume, with contributions from well-known, but also less well-known names in the field. Additionally, this book is part of my VIDI project and NWO requires publications to be published Open Access. We expect a wider audience to read the book. This could lead to more citations and increased visibility, which is in my case not unimportant as I am a Tenure tracker.
Dr. Bernice Bovenkerk

More readers, greater reach

The advantages of Open Access for scientific books are essentially no different to those for articles. It is widely known that Open Access books have a greater reach, are downloaded more often and are cited and quoted up to 50% more than books published non Open Access (Springer Nature, 2017).

More information

  • More information on the application procedure & criteria can be found on the NWO website.