Open Book Publishers (OBP) is the UK's leading independent open-access academic book publisher and one of the pioneers of the diamond open-access model for scholarly books. Founded in Cambridge in 2008 by University of Cambridge academics Rupert Gatti and Alessandra Tosi, OBP has published more than 450 titles - primarily in the humanities and social sciences - all of which are free to read online from the day of publication. The press is registered as a Community Interest Company (CIC) with an asset lock: any surplus must support its open-access mission rather than private gain.

What makes OBP different from most academic presses is its funding model. There are no mandatory fees for authors and no paywalls for readers. The press explicitly rejects mandatory author charges as an unsustainable and inequitable way to fund open access. This guide covers how OBP's model works, what it publishes, what publication actually costs and who pays, the peer-review process, and how to submit a proposal.

OBP publishes open-access monographs, edited collections, critical editions and textbooks, at a rate of roughly 60-70 new titles a year. Coverage centres on the humanities and social sciences - literature, history, philosophy, music, classics, linguistics, area studies - alongside selected mathematics and science titles. Books appear both as standalone titles and within partner series; recent series agreements include the Publications of the Philological Society. OBP does not publish academic journals.

Every book is released simultaneously in free PDF (and usually HTML) editions, with reasonably priced paperback, hardback and EPUB editions sold to help fund the press. OBP is also a founder member of ScholarLed, a partner in the COPIM open-infrastructure project, and a founder and coordinator of the Open Access Books Network.

OBP's headline promise: no mandatory fees for authors, ever. Producing and marketing a book still costs the press about £6,500 on average, funded through a mix of sources rather than author charges:

Funding never influences editorial decisions: a manuscript that passes peer review is published whether or not any grant is attached. In 2024-2025, 35 of 68 published books had no funding, 15 had partial funding and 18 were fully funded. If your institution or funder can contribute, ask OBP for a current quote - contribution levels vary by book and funder rather than following a fixed price list.

All OBP books are peer-reviewed. The process has two stages:

1. Proposal review - incoming proposals are assessed by OBP's editorial team with the support of the editorial board and any relevant series boards.
2. Full manuscript review - if the proposal is of interest, OBP requests the complete manuscript and sends it to at least two expert reviewers in the field. Reviewer anonymity is handled per standard scholarly-book practice; ask the editorial team about the arrangements for your title.

As an OASPA member, OBP commits to independent external review by experts who are not part of the publisher's editorial staff.

1. Check fit. Browse the OBP catalogue and series list to confirm your book suits an open-access HSS press.
2. Prepare a proposal. Use the submission guidance at openbookpublishers.com - typically a synopsis, chapter outline, sample material and author CV.
3. Submit online. Proposals go through the submissions page on the OBP website.
4. Respond to review. If invited, send the full manuscript for review by two or more experts, then revise per reviewer feedback.
5. Prepare the final manuscript. OBP works mainly with Chicago or MHRA citation styles; confirm the style for your series, and use SciSpace formats for Open Book Publishers to structure your manuscript.

OBP titles are published under Creative Commons licenses - most commonly CC BY, with CC BY-NC used for some titles (third-party images or music inside a book may carry separate terms). Authors retain copyright. Books are distributed through the OBP site and major OA book platforms, and OBP reported more than 14 million cumulative book interactions by 2026, with readership led by North America and Europe.

OBP is a member of OASPA and follows its Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing, developed jointly with COPE. The press has been named a Top 100 UK social enterprise five years running, and its authors have been shortlisted for the ACLS Open Access Book Prizes. Its scholar-led, community-funded model is widely cited as proof that rigorous academic book publishing can work without paywalls or author fees.