Open Access
We provide Open Access services for peer-reviewed monographs, research handbooks, conference proceedings
and edited collections. Our editorial staff will be pleased to talk to you about your requirements. The information
contained in this section of the website refers to ‘Gold’ Open Access. For more information about our editorial
policies and process, please refer to our Editorial Guidelines and contact the editorial team if you have any questions.
To browse our Open Access books view our current collection.
Submitting a proposal
Our team of commissioning editors will be delighted to receive your proposal. The submission procedure is as follows:
- Contact our editorial team for an initial discussion and/or download and complete a new proposal submission form
- Email the form, together with any supporting material, e.g., your CV and draft material, to our editorial team
We will keep you informed of the progress of your submission at each stage of the consideration process.
Peer review
Your OA book proposal will initially be evaluated by our editor, then peer reviewed by academic specialists who
provide independent advice on the contribution of the research and its potential for publication. Following the peer
review feedback we work closely with you to find the best way to develop and present your manuscript.
Open Access licence agreement
We publish our OA content under a Creative Commons licence. Creative Commons licences allow authors to
retain copyright in their work, while allowing others to distribute, copy and make certain uses of their work.
The standard licence agreement we use for OA publications is the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Unported License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
Most research funders requiring OA will accept this licence, but if you would like to use a different licence which
permits a greater degree of flexibility, please discuss this with your editor when you submit a proposal.
Publication process
The publication process and production timeframe for OA can be as short as 3
months. Once your final
manuscript is in-house, your dedicated editor and
production manager based in our UK office will oversee the
process, including
manuscript copyediting, cover design, typesetting and proofreading.
An overview of the publishing process:
1. Submission: Once you’ve submitted your book proposal and all supporting material to our editorial team,
our editor will contact you to discuss and provide a provisional quote for OA.
.
2. Peer review: Your editor will send your proposal and accompanying material to qualified scholars in your
field of research for peer review.
3. Author response: When the review is complete, your editor will send the reviewers’ feedback to you and invite
a formal response from you.
4. Committee approval: With the original proposal, sample material, review and response in hand, your editor will
present the book to our publishing committee for approval to publish and finalise an OA quote.
5. Contract and fee transaction: You will receive a contract stating the agreed-upon delivery date for your final
manuscript. After you have signed the contract, your editor will send you more information about preparing your
work for publication and our Author Guidelines. At this point, the agreed OA fee will also be due.
6. Production: You will deliver your final manuscript along with supplementary forms and evidence that all
necessary permissions have been secured. Your book will then be copyedited, typeset, proofread and bound.
7. Publication: Your book is made publicly available and freely accessible worldwide. It will also be available in
print format.
8. After publication: We will work closely with you to market your book as widely and effectively as possible.
Dissemination
Your OA content will be available for free download on the BAR Digital platform, and on online repositories
such as Google Scholar/Google Books, DOAB and OAPEN. It is also automatically accessible as part of the
BAR Digital Collection, and the URL is deposited in the Crossref DOI repository, allowing citation-linking to the work.
Marketing
Most OA books will be part of the BAR Series, the largest series of academic archaeology in the world,
and so will benefit from our sales and marketing reach, built up over 45 years of publishing for the archaeology community.
Our marketing team will work with you closely to ensure your book reaches the widest possible audience.
We promote your book to our network of libraries, institutional customers, and sales agents worldwide. You can expect tailored
marketing activity in the form of email campaigns, social media, and representation at conferences worldwide.
Preservation
In addition to dissemination through multiple e-book channels, the OA book will be archived with Clockss to
ensure future preservation and access.
Open Access fees – immediate 'Gold' OA
Please note that the prices listed below serve as guidelines only. The price for an OA book is determined for each title
individually, based on the number of pages, number of images and expected production costs.
- Up to 200,000 words £6,500
- Up to 300,000 words £8,000
Please ask our editorial team for an estimate for larger books or edited collections.
Obtaining permissions for third-party materials used in your book
It may be more difficult or more expensive to obtain permission to reuse materials (including your own writing
published by third parties) in an Open Access book that will be freely available online. When you obtain
permissions, you must ensure that you explicitly state that they are being sought for an Open Access publication.