Open Press Tilburg University

Open Press Tilburg University is the scholarly-led academic Open Access publishing house for Tilburg University and beyond. The press aims to accelerate Open Access in scholarly book publishing and to provide Open Educational Resources for our students. We think academic output should be out there as soon as possible, and that academic authors should not be forced to transfer copyrights to other parties. The Open Press TiU produces quality academic Open Access books for affordable and transparent book processing charges (or BPC’s). In accordance with the specific nature of a book (whether a monograph, a scholarly textbook, PhD thesis, a critical text edition or an essay), a matching editorial assessment will take place. We propagate peer-review, but we also recognize the shortcomings of the traditional peer-review system. Many products of sound research are rejected and never make it to become available out in the open, only because of a parti pris or a lack of expertise or time on the side of the reviewer. We want to stimulate researchers to become involved and to customize the reviewing process. In the Netherlands, a PhD-thesis is already critically assessed by a committee of academic experts and might not need another review process with a unpredictable outcome. A textbook for students does not necessarily need the same double blind peer-review used for cutting-edge scientific findings. A quality stamp of the academic department or research institute might suffice. One can even think of a post-publication open review procedure. Following on from other open access initiatives, Open Press TiU thinks other forms of peer-review can be appropriate, as long as the process is transparent. We will use labels to show what kind of peer-review was accomplished. We embrace the principles of Open Science: a science that is transparent from the very beginning all the way to the final product.