The Flip it Open Programme is an expansion of the open access books pilot that was launched in June 2021. 15 months into the pilot we decided to expand to a wider programme based on the initial success of flipping 5 out of the 28 titles in the pilot during this time, positive feedback and engagement from the library community and on a better understanding of our internal workflows and processes.

The Flip it Open programme is based on the same principles as the pilot. The programme will include an additional 100 monograph titles across all subject areas. The programme will launch with new titles starting in early 2023.

Our aim with the pilot was to investigate a new open access books publishing model to determine whether it could be sustainable as a business model. With the programme we will be working at establishing this new business model for a wider monograph books list. The biggest difference between the pilot and the programme is the number of titles being included and the inclusion of all subject areas across our monograph publishing. All revenue streams will still contribute to a title reaching the sales threshold to flip.

We are following the same editorial policy for the programme as for the pilot with the only difference being the inclusion of all subjects and a bigger shortlist of 100 titles.

Similar to the pilot titles will be evaluated in an 18 month period to allow them to flip.

Titles will be flipped in batches when they reach a set sales threshold. These titles will retain the same ISBN on Cambridge Core when they become Open Access with the CC license being updated. A paperback edition of the title will be published as soon as the title flips to OA. All other print and third party eBook editions will continue to be sold.

Read more about the Flip it Open, books in the pilot and blog posts from participating authors on the Flip it Open information page on Cambridge Core.

We decided to focus on HSS titles for the pilot and approached editors who have had interest from authors to publish open access books. We selected a longlist of 40 monographs and approached each of the authors individually and ask them if they wanted to be part of the pilot. The subjects in the pilot are diverse but also niche.

We expect the pilot to run for 18 months starting in June 2021, with most (hopefully all) titles flipping to open access within this period.

Currently yes, all the titles in the pilot are in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

We decided to focus the pilot on HSS subjects because of the lack of OA funding in these subjects and to help provide access to more books in these subject areas. That is not to say that if we expand the pilot we will restrict the titles in the program to only HSS subjects.

Yes, a full list of the titles in the pilot can be found as a download on this Flip it Open information page.

These titles are all part of our research list.

Sales for all formats contribute, this includes:

• Institutional sales via our Cambridge Core platform
• Hardback sales
• eBook (Kindle etc.)
• Any other rights sales

A continuous message around these titles being part of the pilot will be communicated over the next two years through marketing efforts through our sales colleagues’ communications with our institutional customers, especially leading up to their EBA selections. This should mitigate the risk of the titles not being taken up by libraries. Giving libraries the opportunity to be featured in the OA edition of the titles, both in print and on Cambridge Core, should also help with take up.

Yes, a full list of the titles that have flipped to date can be found as a download on this Flip it Open information page on Cambridge Core.

This pilot is our way of asking our customers to become actively involved in the funding of Open Access books. Libraries are paying to get the book early, and to fund a wider program that will benefit them, their customers and the wider Academy directly. There are a few important things that our program is not. It is not a program in response to any particular government, funder or society mandate. Rather, it is the implementation of the core OA principles of availability, inclusivity and dissemination because we believe in them. It is also not a mechanism for funding all our publishing. We are asking our customers and partners to buy what they would want to buy anyway, in the knowledge that by doing so they will have the additional bonus of helping those books to reach a wider audience.

Read more about the Flip it Open pilot, books in the pilot and blog posts from participating authors on the Flip it Open information page on Cambridge Core.

All our Open Access books are added to Cambridge Core. Currently we do not actively index our OA books any other repositories, however we are working with DOAB on possible indexing.

Libraries that contributed to flipping these titles will be mentioned on a special page on Cambridge Core and a page in the new OA print and digital edition will link directly to the page on Core where libraries will be thanked for their contribution. We hope to create a community of libraries helping to fund more open access books through the pilot.

In the pilot each title was “flipped” as soon as it reaches the sales threshold. This meant that they were flipped throughout the period that the pilot was run.

In the Flip it Open programme titles will be flipped in batches as they reach the threshold.

Once flipped these titles will be completely Open Access. The new OA versions of the titles will be published as new editions and linked and signposted on Cambridge Core between the old, non-OA edition (which we will not remove from Cambridge Core) and the flipped OA edition.

Any purchase of the titles in the programme – whether directly from the Press, via your usual library supplier, through an EBA, or a Frontlist order – will support a title on its journey to becoming OA.

The books in FiO are also part of our EBA collections, meaning EBA customers can choose to spend their committed funds on these titles if usage indicates a healthy demand, thereby moving the books closer to their ‘flip’ target.

Each sale of each book in the pilot, not more and no less.

The pilot will run until May 2023, giving each title a minimum of 18 months to reach the sales threshold. During this time we will be evaluating the sales of the titles and flip them as they reach the threshold. The success of the pilot will be determined by through seeing if and how many titles can reach the threshold during the pilot period and how long it takes the different titles to reach the threshold. The ultimate success of the pilot will be to provide us with a new scalable and sustainable OA books business model.