True to its title and philosophy, this curated collection of articles is reprinted from an earlier special issue of the open access journal titled Publications. The publisher, MDPI has a mission to: ‘foster open scientific exchange in all forms, across all disciplines’. This scholarly work is available as a paid printed book or as a free PDF. All content is available under a CC-BY licence.
The calibre of the editors is exemplified by a comprehensive selection of aspects of open access in contemporary librarianship. They are leaders in digital scholarship and actively involved in open access communities, activities and sectoral groups. The editors and authors emanate from the UK and Europe, so a diversity of practical case-studies, projects and reflections is shared.
All articles are worthy of inclusion in this collection and there is something for everyone from a broad audience. A focus on international disciplinary initiatives (e.g. SCOAP3) is counterbalanced with local interventions such as institutional repositories (e.g. Surrey) and open university presses (e.g. Huddersfield). Brunel demonstrates library contributions to enhancing publication data while Gottingen authors offer a long list of helpful open science projects and initiatives.
One positive aspect of the book is the inclusion of a number of tables, graphs and coloured diagrams. Extensive and comprehensive references provide easy links to seminal works in the Open Access canon.
It is disappointing that the esteemed editors offer limited conclusions or discussion. They observe the changing role of libraries from gatekeeper to facilitator and exhort research libraries to continue to shape open access through ongoing research and reflections on our own role.
As the content was first published in 2018, the absence of an article on Plan S is not surprising. But the editors conclude that: ‘a full open access publishing model (at least for articles) now looks closer than ever before’.