Open access books

LSE encourages authors to deposit their books and book chapters in LSE Research Online (LSERO). Check with your publisher if they will permit you to deposit, or "self-archive", the accepted version of your manuscript in LSERO, whether you can apply a Creative Commons licence to the manuscript and if the publisher requires an embargo.

For help understanding publisher policies and depositing your manuscript, contact the Open Access team.

From 1 January 2026, authors can make their monographs and chapters open access with a Creative Commons licence and appropriate embargo, under the LSE Open Access Policy.

Authors are asked to pay a Book Processing Charge (BPC) or a Chapter Processing Charge (CPC) to publish their book or chapter Gold open access under a creative commons licence. BPCs can range from £3,000 to £15,000; CPCs are usually upwards of £1,000.

From 1 August 2025 you will be able to apply for funding from the pilot LSE Open Access Books fund. Authors can make one application to the fund per year and must meet the following eligibility requirements:

• you must be a permanent member of staff, or have at least three years left on your contract for temporary staff
• you expect to be included in the School’s next REF submission and have one of the following job titles Assistant Professor / Lecturer Associate Professor / Senior Lecturer/ Reader Full Professor Assistant Professorial Research Fellow Associate Professorial Research Fellow Professorial Research Fellow

Apply for Open Access book funding (From 1 August)

If your monograph or chapter is the output of a UKRI grant, you can apply for funding from UKRI by filling out a form to let the Open Access team know.

Some other research funders allow you to build open access charges for books into your grant application as eligible, directly incurred costs. Check individual funder’s information to see if they will permit you to do this.

When budgeting for open access books/chapters in your grant application, consider the following:

• Which publishers are you considering for your proposal?
• Do they offer a no-cost, Green or "self-archiving" route for open access?
• What are their costs for Gold open access?

Check your publisher’s open access policies using Open Policy Finder and make sure their titles are listed in the Directory of Open Access Books.

Contact the Publishing Advice Service for guidance on author rights, signing a publishing agreement and choosing a book publisher.

LSE Press is a publisher of high-quality, open access books and journals in the social sciences. It publishes books under both gold open access and diamond open access models (whereby all book publishing charges are waived for authors).

Read about publishing with LSE Press