Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding models for Open Access publishing involve sourcing funds for one or more books from multiple different supporters – usually universities. Knowledge Unlatched, founded in 2012 and recently purchased by Wiley, is the most prominent organisation to act as an intermediary between publishers and libraries, using a consortial/crowdfunding model to fund Open Access books. One of its key areas of activity is to create a marketplace that allows libraries to choose titles that they want to fund (see Gerakopoulou et al., 2021). Another prominent crowd-funding platform is unglue.it, which is focused more on crowdsourcing funding to convert existing closed access books to Open Access (used, for example, by Ubiquity).

When considering whether a crowdfunding strategy is appropriate for some or all titles, a publisher may wish to consider whether its books' areas of subject focus are likely to attract funding by libraries (for example, Knowledge Unlatched has organised its latest funding round around titles that fit with Sustainable Development Goals) and whether crowdfunding intermediaries are compatible with its own publishing ethos.