Understanding the impact on print revenue when university press books are open access [the project seeks to understand empirically whether the availability of open access (OA) editions of scholarly…

Understanding the impact on print revenue when university press books are open access [the project seeks to understand empirically whether the availability of open access (OA) editions of scholarly books has a quantifiable effect on the sales performance of print editions. University presses publish an estimated 4000 monographs annually. While many university presses have pursued experiments with OA publishing, sustainable financing of all publishing operations is a significant concern. This study will gather sales data on a significant number of both OA and traditionally published titles across multiple disciplines from a wide array of non-profit scholarly publishers in order to answer one of the biggest questions in humanities book publishing: does an OA option decrease sales, increase sales via greater discovery, or have no discernible effect? The research will be essential to inform future OA book programs and models, pointing the way to expanding sustainable open publishing operations.]