Open Access (OA) is a publishing model that makes digital versions of academic information, like books and data, freely available to readers online. Creating an OA version does not prevent publishers like SUNY Press from also offering print versions for sale, but the free digital version provides global online access to readers that might otherwise not have it.
At SUNY Press, all OA books are held to the same rigorous quality standards as everything else we publish. All of our scholarly monographs and edited collections – whether published traditionally or through Open Access - are subject to the same selection, approval, and peer review processes and receive the same levels of attention from our production and marketing departments. The big difference is in distribution. Digital versions of all SUNY Press Open Access books are made freely available online through our website and through partners such as Project MUSE, OAPEN, and others. Removing cost barriers for access to these versions greatly increases the visibility, global reach, and scholarly impact of these books. And the Creative Commons licensing options applied to OA books allow authors to control how their work is shared and used by others.
Because OA books at SUNY Press are held to the same standard and produced to the same quality as traditional titles, the cost to create them is also the same. But providing access to a free version makes it more difficult to cover those costs purely through revenues generated by sales to libraries and individual consumers. When appropriate, we believe it is important to pursue Open Access publishing options to allow for broad global online access. But to do so, it is necessary for us to rely on the kindness of funders such as Knowledge Unlatched, Project TOME, the NEH, campus support, and other private donors.
Print versions of all SUNY Press Open Access books are available for purchase on our website or through your favorite bookseller. To learn more about Open Access publishing at SUNY Press, contact Amanda Baker. If you are interested in supporting the expansion of the SUNY Press Open Access publishing program, check out our Innovation Fund.
