How Publishers Can Prepare Book Titles for their Unlatching into Open Access

Metadata and format standards for transitioning book titles into Open Access at the platform of Knowledge Unlatched.

Published Apr 01, 2020

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Metadata and files for publishers' book titles can be shared via the Knowledge Unlatched (KU) publisher portal (app.knowledgeunlatched.org). The following metadata and format standards are highly recommended by KU to ensure that Open Access titles live up to industry standards allowing for book titles to be widely disseminated and discoverable in the Open Access format.

The corresponding file formats are as follows:

The PDF (and EPUB where available) or ZIP (for chapter files) file formats;
The book title may also be produced and sold as a print edition;
The PDF file that contains the complete work, including cover, frontmatter, and backmatter;
The PDF file that is bookmarked and searchable;
The PDF file that contains a reference to the Creative Commons license and the copyright holder(s), which is usually the author(s), and, if available, to the sponsor(s);
Whereas the complete work receives, as a rule, a DOI and an ISBN, it is desirable to assign DOIs at the chapter level;
DOIs for figures and tables are recommended.

At the level of the metadata, these ought to include the following at a minimum:

Title - subtitle - series title - volume number;
author(s)/editor(s) name(s) - ORCID (if possible) - university affiliation at the level of the publication;
publication date - publisher;
ISBN(s) - DOI - Creative Commons attribution.

In case the book title is part of one of the KU-sponsored collections, for instance "KU Select," it is recommended to refer to the institution and/or library community working with KU to promote the title(s) made available in Open Access thanks to the respective institutional funding.

This can be indicated by repurposing the following freely available text:

An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched (KU). KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access for the public good. The Open Access ISBN for this book is XXXXXXXXXXXXX. More information about the initiative can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org and links to the Open Access version at www.openresearchlibrary.org.