Bloomsbury Open Access
Frequently Asked Questions
What is open access?
Open access (OA) refers to scholarly works that are free to access, share, and re-use.
How can I use the open access books on Bloomsbury Collections?
All Bloomsbury open access books can be downloaded free of charge from Bloomsbury Collections by anyone with an internet connection. You can download a PDF of the whole book, as well as individual chapter PDFs, and you may share these PDFs with others.
Please check the Creative Commons license attached to each open access book for details of further re-use that is permitted.
What are Creative Commons licenses?
Creative Commons (CC) licenses are a standardized way of granting permission for certain kinds of re-use of copyrighted work without the user having to apply to the rights-holder for permission. Open access content is typically released under a Creative Commons license to enable sharing and re-use.
When are open access books made available on Bloomsbury Collections?
Most of our open access titles are made open access immediately on publication online. Titles are uploaded to Bloomsbury Collections monthly, and the online publication date is typically in advance of the print publication date. However, very occasionally online publication may be delayed to the month after print publication.
Each year we also make a small number of titles open access after an agreed embargo period ("retrospective open access"). These books convert to open access a minimum of 18 months after publication.
What do the ‘downloads’ and ‘views’ counters mean on open access book and chapter pages?
The download counter records the total number of times an individual book or chapter PDF has been downloaded from all Bloomsbury’s publishing platforms. Chapter downloads are not aggregated into full-book download counts.
The views counter records the total number of times any chapter full-text page has been accessed on all Bloomsbury's publishing platforms since the title was published.
Both metrics reflect access across all Bloomsbury’s publishing platforms. For example, the same title may be hosted on both Bloomsbury Collections and a subject platform such as Bloomsbury Education and Childhood Studies, in which case the downloads and views counters will each reflect the combined activity on both environments.
Are Bloomsbury open access books available in epub format?
Epubs of Bloomsbury open access books are available from the OAPEN Library.
How does ‘Bloomsbury Open Collections’ relate to Bloomsbury Collections?
Bloomsbury Open Collections is a collective-action approach to funding open-access monographs. Through this model, we are aiming to make open access publication available to a wider range of authors by spreading the cost across multiple organizations, while providing additional benefits to participating libraries. You can learn more about it here.
Any open access titles successfully funded via the Bloomsbury Open Collections model will ultimately publish on the Bloomsbury Collections platform.
