Bloomsbury Open Collections most successful funding year to date
This builds on the initial 34 titles which have been published open access in the first two years of the programme. Bloomsbury Open Collections is part of Bloomsbury’s wider open access offering, which sees the publisher release well over 100 open access books each year.
Pioneering an alternative to traditional open access models, which typically rely on an individual or their funder or institution paying a fee (or ‘book processing charge’) to cover the costs of publishing, Bloomsbury Open Collections’ equity-led approach spreads the cost across multiple institutions. Bloomsbury was the first commercial publisher to pilot such a model and, following the successful launch of the pilot programme in 2023, expanded the range of disciplines offered in 2024. As Bloomsbury enters its fourth year of Bloomsbury Open Collections, the programme showcases the potential sustainability and resilience of collective-action open access models.
Bloomsbury Publishing
David Avital, Global Editorial Director, Social Sciences
Bloomsbury Open Collections has had its most successful year ever this year. Thanks to the support of participating libraries, we will be able to make 29 new books available for everyone to read on an open access basis. These books offer in-depth research on some of the most important issues facing the world today, often written by early career researchers and scholars from the global south.
Following the success of the first three years, Bloomsbury Open Collections will continue to offer three collections of 18 titles each in African Studies & International Development, Environment & Climate Change, and Gender & Sexuality in 2026-27.
The impact
Through Bloomsbury Open Collections, Bloomsbury has introduced important new open access publishing opportunities, prioritising titles and amplifying authors based in low- and middle-income countries, unaffiliated authors, early-career researchers and those who are otherwise underrepresented in scholarly publishing. Since the programme launched in 2023, funding from participating libraries has enabled Bloomsbury to publish open access:
- 22 titles by authors from low- and lower-middle income countries
- 20 titles by unaffiliated authors
- 28 titles by authors who are early-career researchers
All of these titles have been published open access at no cost to the author.
Since starting as an open access book publisher in 2008, Bloomsbury’s Academic division has grown to become a leading global independent publisher focussing on the arts, humanities and social sciences. It has one of the largest open access book portfolios, recently publishing its 600th open-access book, and is committed to evolving its programme as well as adapting to change as the demand for open access increases. Through Bloomsbury Open Collections, Bloomsbury have succeeded in enabling open access publishing for a selection of authors for whom it would not otherwise have been an option.
