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Publisher policies for the self-archiving of book chapters (“green” open access) are often hard to find and, when found, hard to keep as URLs change frequently. Unlike the Sherpa Romeo database, there is no centrally maintained database for publisher policies for self-archiving book chapters apart from a community-maintained Google Sheet which is a reflection of the hard work and generous, collaborative spirit of librarians and staff supporting open access.
Publisher policies vary greatly in the small print; the general trend is that only one chapter of an edited collection can be made open access on a repository. Nearly all policies refer only to the accepted manuscript, which has the final text after peer review but no publisher formatting (see our post on this version, with examples).
Policies for some of the most common publishers (at Swansea University) are given below.
- Bloomsbury: the accepted manuscript can be made open access after an 18 month embargo.
- Brill: the accepted manuscript can be made open access after a 24 month embargo
- Cambridge University Press: the accepted version of one chapter can be archived on a repository after a 6 month embargo.
- De Gruyter: the published version can be made open access after a 12 month embargo.
- Edinburgh University Press: book chapters and whole monographs can be made open access after a 36 month embargo.
- Elsevier: book chapters cannot be made open access.
- Emerald: the accepted version of book chapters can be made available on a repository at publication.
- Oxford University Press: the accepted version can be uploaded to a repository after an embargo (12mo STEM, 24mo humanities & social science). There is a complex list of inclusions / exclusions in terms of the types of book.
- Palgrave Macmillan: *updated* one chapter can be made available after a 24 month embargo for monographs – some types of book are excluded.
- Routledge / Taylor & Francis: the accepted version of one chapter can be made open access on a repository after an embargo (12mo STEM, 18mo humanities & social sciences).
- Springer: *updated* now allow book chapters to be self-archived with a 12/24 month embargo depending on the type of book
- University of Wales Press: no policy for book chapters found.
- Wiley-Blackwell: no policy, request via permissions@wiley.com
Smaller publishers may not have a clear policy: it is always worth requesting permission to make the accepted manuscript of a chapter open access, after an embargo if necessary. It may be useful to refer to the examples above of permissions from major publishers.