Practical Action Publishing's Open Access programme 

We recognize that the ability to publish an article that is Open Access can be a desired and/or mandated access status for our authors and partner organizations. With this in mind, we offer both Gold and Green open access routes for publication in our subscription-based, peer-reviewed journals and Gold open access options for our book programme.

Gold access for books

All open access books are subject to peer-review, both at the proposal stage and when the full manuscript is complete. Further information for book authors on the proposal, submission, peer-review and production procedures can be requested by emailing publishinginfo@practicalaction.org.uk   Post acceptance, authors who have indicated an open access requirement will be asked to pay a Book Processing Charge (BPC). Funding for this may be available as part of the original research project or from an author’s institution. Payment of the BPC ensures that a paginated PDF of the title is freely available in perpetuity and in its final published form, from the moment of formal publication. The title will also be maintained as part of the scholarly record and benefit from inclusion in industry standard archival and preservation initiatives. Further fee information is available below as this charge is dependent on the length of the book and calculated only once the text is finalized.

Books can be published under Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial License, Practical Action’s own Open Access License (Non-Commercial, No Derivatives) or an All Rights Reserved copyright status. Practical Action Publishing will also ensure that a hard copy is available for purchase. Authors may also choose to pay for additional reflowable ebook formats to be produced in addition to the PDF. Practical Action Publishing will distribute these via popular channels such as Amazon, Apple  and Mobi.

Authors should note that all books published via Gold Open Access routes available with Practical Action Publishing will be subject to rigorous peer-review at both the proposal stage and when the manuscript is complete.

Book processing charges

Up to 50,000 words: $12,000 |£6,000 |€9,000

Books which exceed this word count will be charged at the basic rate plus $2,000 |£1,000 |€1,500 for every additional 20,000 words or part thereof. Please note that the quoted fees apply to books with a low level of complexity; higher charges will apply for a non-standard design template or for greater levels of design complexity, including photos and figures. Authors are responsible for the production of an index for their book, if the publishers consider this to be desirable.

Gold access for journal articles

Authors, post-acceptance, will be presented with the option to pay a publishing fee ($1,170 |£650 |€780). Funding for this may be available as part of the original research project or from an author’s Institution. Payment of the Article Processing Charge (APC) ensures that the article is freely available in perpetuity and in its final published form, from the moment of formal publication. The article will also be maintained as part of the scholarly record and benefit from inclusion in industry standard archival and preservation initiatives. Articles can be published under Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial License, or Practical Action’s own Open Access License (Non-Commercial, No Derivatives).

Download the Open Access copyright form

Green access for journal articles

Practical Action Publishing journal authors are free to use their article for internal educational or other purposes within their own institution or company; mounted on a personal web page; or in whole or in part, as the basis for further publications or spoken presentations. In addition, journal authors can post a copy of the final copy edited version of the article to a free public institutional or subject repository. Such copy must include the following notice: © Practical Action Publishing, year.  The definitive, peer-reviewed and edited version of this article (Version of Scholarly Record) is published in journal, volume, issue, pages, year, DOI or URL.

Read about our 2022 plan for moving our journals to an S2O model