Orient BlackSwan Open Access Policy

Orient Blackswan Private Limited Open Access (OBSOA) offers authors and their funders the option to publish open access research across all publication formats, including monographs. Content published via OBSOA will be made available with immediate open access upon publication.

Orient Blackswan Private Limited is taking the lead in India responding to the international academic community’s request for an alternative publishing model to sit alongside traditional methods.

Many research funding bodies have begun to incorporate funds for open access publishing within their grants. Some university departments and other institutions now regularly make funds available to support the dissemination of research to the widest possible audience.

Creative Commons licenses

OBSOA content will be published under the terms of Creative Commons Licenses which allow copyright to remain with authors and require full attribution to accompany all reuse and dissemination.

Our recommended license is Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC-BY-NC) which includes a requirement of the copyright holder’s permission for any commercial use of the content. The license deed is available at the following link:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Some major funders, including the Wellcome Trust, insist on the use of the least restrictive Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY) and we will be happy to use this when required. Under this license users can reuse and disseminate your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you. The license deed is available at the following link:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Some authors may prefer to use the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license (CC-BY-NC-ND). Under this license others may download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially. We will be happy to use this license if it is requested. The license deed is available at the below link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Peer-review process

Orient BlackSwan is committed to the highest standards of peer-review in order to maintain our reputation for quality control and this is equally true for OBSOA also.

Content published via OBSOA is subject to the same professional and rigorous peer-review process as all other Orient Blackswan Private Limited publications. ALL titles will be sent out to multiple referees before there is any agreement to proceed with them. Contracts to publish will only be issued after satisfactory peer-review. The final manuscript may also be submitted to further refereeing either by a series editor or by an external reviewer.

The opportunity to publish open access is only available to authors once their research has been approved for publication. Authors can opt to pay a publication charge in order for their research to be made freely available.

Availability

Orient Blackswan Private Limited content will be freely available and searchable via Orient Blackswan Private Limited’s platform, its website open access page at the below address: www.orientblackswan.com/OBSOA

Upon publication, your monograph will be freely and immediately available online on the Orient BlackSwan website and clearly identified as ‘open access’.

We will also deposit Wellcome Trust-funded books and book chapters in the PMC Bookshelf and Europe PMC repository if an open access fee is paid.
For more information contact websupport@orientblackswan.com

Approximate costs for OBSOA

The charges for making the content available in the open access platforms are*: (Taxes are extra as applicable)

• up to 80000 words £ 4500 (Equivalent to Rs. 4,50,000 at current exchange rates)
• 80000--100000 words £5500 (Equivalent to Rs. 5,50,000 at current exchange rates)
• 100000--120000 words £6500 (Equivalent to Rs. 6,50,000 at current exchange rates)
• 120000 words and above-£7500(Equivalent to Rs. 7,50,000 at current exchange rates)

Maximum words should not exceed 150,000; if it does then it will be considered as another new volume.
*Please note that these are indicative prices and may vary depending on the material and complexity of the content. These prices are subject to change without prior notice and authors/content owners should take prior quotes before accepting funding.

Formats

Licence for print PDF files will be free but if print copies are required shipping and handling charges will be extra.

A print version of the book will be made available for customers still wanting to purchase a hard copy of the book.

Terms and conditions 

• The open access publication charge must be paid in full when the final manuscript is submitted to Orient BlackSwan, unless otherwise agreed.
• Titles will benefit from the high standards of professionalism and expertise as our regular published titles and receive the same editorial guidance, peer review, production values, sales and marketing support and global distribution.
• OBSOA ebooks may be included in our e-collections and sold in the e stores or given free also.
• Authors will not be entitled to royalties on any print sales of the book.
• Our policy is not to include material requiring the clearance of permissions or rights in OBSOA.

Retrospective open access
In case you have already published a book with Orient Blackswan Private Limited or any of its associates, and you would like to offer it under the OBSOA, you would need to contact the legal department to discuss this. They can be reached at: legal@orientblackswan.com