The OBC’s business model is distributive: small annual contributions sourced from a network of research institutions across the world form a robust revenue pool that enables an extremely cost-effective method for funding open access books in which no single institution bears a disproportionate cost and publisher and publishing service provider members share revenue and resources with each other.

The OBC sources revenue from supporting institutions on behalf of its publisher and publishing service provider members, for which the members provide, in addition to open content, a variety of benefits, such as usage metrics, catalogue records, cross-referenced metadata, annual financial reports, shared governance, and so on. Institutions pay a small fee on top of the support they pledge to one or more membership programmes, which money is used for the operating expenses of the OBC. Publishers and publishing service providers give some of the money they receive from supporters back to the OBC for operating expenses and also for a collective development fund that has been established to provide financial assistance to members of the OBC to improve their operations, technical and otherwise.

The collective development fund is a highly unique aspect of the OBC and demonstrates the OBC members’ commitment to mutual aid and non-competitive collaboration. Monies in this fund will be distributed to publishers and publishing service providers who apply for micro-grants for various projects, and this money will also be used to create toolkits, manuals, workshops, and the like for assisting open access book ventures to learn about and implement the best practices and standards for open access book publishing expected by funders and larger research communities. 

Supporting Institutions

• In addition to money that is pledged to one or more membership programmes,  supporting institutions pay an annual 5% Supporter Processing Fee that is added  to the cost of the chosen membership programme(s) and goes to the OBC’s operating costs.

Publishers and Publishing Service Providers

• The OBC charges publishers and publishing service providers two distinct fees, subtracted from the monies they receive from supporting institutions: a Provider Processing Fee and a CollectiveDevelopment Fund Fee. 

• In the first year of joining the OBC, the Provider Processing Fee is 7.5% of monies received. In each subsequent year, the fee is 5%. The higher fee in the first year reflects the increased labour involved in setting up memberships for new publishers and publishing service providers. This money goes to the OBC’s operating costs.

•  The OBC also charges publishers and publishing service providers a Collective Development Fund Fee of 5% of monies received. This income is used to fundthe OBC’s grant giving and resource development programme, as described above, and is a critical part of the OBC’s community-focused work. 

 

To learn more about our fees or the fund contact info@openbookcollective.com