Springer is expanding its open access (OA) program by offering a fully open access option for books, which will extend Springer's established SpringerOpen and BioMed Central journal portfolio, and its Springer Open Choice option. Any electronic version of a SpringerOpen book is fully and immediately OA, and thus freely accessible on SpringerLink for anyone in the world with access to the internet.
SpringerOpen books give authors and editors in all areas of science the opportunity to publish open access with the same high standards they are used to at Springer.
"Many of our authors, editors and societies have asked us for an open access option for books ," said Bettina Goerner, Manager Open Access at Springer. "The increasing interest in publishing open access books in the community led us to expand the SpringerOpen family by developing an open access option for books across all disciplines."
The copyright for the entire open access book including every chapter remains with the editor/author. SpringerOpen books are published under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC) license. This facilitates the open distribution and the free re-use and sharing of the work for non-commercial purposes, as long as the authors/editors are properly attributed.
SpringerOpen Book titles will be listed in the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB), the discovery service for OA books which increases visibility and findability of Springer's OA books.
"Books are the next logical focus in the progression of open access, and this initiative from Springer helps to establish open access as a viable publishing model for scholarly books," said Eelco Ferwerda, Director of the Directory of Open Access Books and the OAPEN Foundation.
Springer began publishing individual open access papers through its Springer Open Choice model in 2004. Since then, the publishing group has refined and extended this publication model. In 2008 Springer acquired BioMed Central, making it one of the world's largest open access publishers. In 2010 Springer launched a new open access portfolio which now contains more than 90 open access journals focusing on specific research areas. In January 2012 the SpringerOpen journal portfolio was joined by SpringerPlus, an interdisciplinary open access journal, publishing research in all STM disciplines.
Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) is a leading global scientific publisher, providing researchers in academia, scientific institutions and corporate R&D departments with quality content via innovative information products and services. Springer is also a trusted local-language publisher in Europe – especially in Germany and the Netherlands – primarily for physicians and professionals working in the automotive, transport and healthcare sectors. Roughly 2,000 journals and more than 7,000 new books are published by Springer each year, and the group is home to the world's largest STM eBook collection, as well as the most comprehensive portfolio of open access journals. Springer employs nearly 6,200 individuals across the globe and in 2011 generated sales of approximately EUR 875 million.
For more information visit: www.springeropen.com/books