“Bloomsbury Open Collections is a collective-action approach to funding open access books which is currently in its pilot phase. 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. We are the first commercial publisher to pilot such a model. Our hope is to engage a more diverse set of authors, bringing their work to a wider global audience.

What is Bloomsbury Open Collections?

Bloomsbury Open Collections is a collective-action OA model – spreading the costs of publication in order to make a collection of titles open access
We aim to make 20 frontlist titles in African Studies and International Development open access immediately upon publication. The titles are due to publish between March 2024 and February 2025, and include titles from Bloomsbury’s renowned Zed Books imprint…”

“Bloomsbury has announced ‘Bloomsbury Open Collections’, a pilot collective-action funding model for Open Access books. 

The publisher said Bloomsbury Open Collections seeks to improve equity in scholarly publishing by spreading the cost of Open Access publications across multiple organisations, while providing private benefits to participating libraries. According to Bloomsbury, it is the first commercial publisher to pilot such a model, and this approach aims to “reach and engage a more diverse set of authors, bringing their work to a wider global audience”.

An “alternative to more 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, this collective-action approach seeks to spread the cost more equitably across multiple institutions….”