Open Book Benefits for Authors and Readers

The Authority File

In the second episode of this four-part series, David Gunkel, Presidential Research, Scholarship and Artistry Professor in the Department of Communication at Northern Illinois University, and Amy Harris, Senior Manager of Library Relations and Sales at MIT Press, continue their discussion on the benefits of open monographs. First, David proposes open books as an antidote to the awkwardness around an author assigning their own book to a class or asking fellow researchers to buy their book to learn about their work. Further, David shares how open books help English as a Second Language (ESL) speakers by allowing them to copy and paste text from an open PDF into online translators; this helps the scholarship reach a wider audience and increases the potential for global partnerships. In addition, Amy chats about the advantages of open objects and digs into the challenges of copyright mandates and contract management when making backlist titles open—or, as MIT Press affectionately calls it, a “backflip.”

Read the latest impact report from MIT Press’s Direct to Open (D2O).

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