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2025/26 Open Access monograph competition – now open

Unfunded monograph authors from any University Faculty can enter the Library’s Open Access monograph competition 2025/26, as long as they will soon be publishing a monograph or published one on or after 1 January 2025.

Winners will receive funding from the Library to make their monographs Open Access and the Library will arrange this directly with the winners’ publishers. Authors publishing trade books should check with their publisher before submitting an application, as Open Access is often not possible for these kinds of titles.

Please note: authors acknowledging UKRI funding in books and book chapters may be eligible for separate Open Access funding.

How to enter

To enter, please provide a short response to the following questions: 

• What is the expected reach of your monograph?
• What are the benefits of your book being Open Access for your intended audience, and ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½?
• How does your monograph contribute to research in your field?
• Given limited resources, are there any other reasons to fund Open Access for your monograph that we should take into account?

Please submit your answers through this by Friday, 27 February 2026. 

After the closing date, entries will be judged by a representative panel led by Professor James Evans, Associate Dean for Research in Humanities. The Library’s Open Access Team will contact successful applicants in early May 2026.

If you have a question about the competition, please contact openresearch@manchester.ac.uk.

2024/25 Open Access monograph competition winners

Last academic year, we received 34 entries from various Schools across the University covering a diverse range of topics. The entries were considered by Professor James Evans, Associate Dean for Research, Faculty of Humanities, together with a representative panel, who selected the 4 winning titles. 

The following titles will be published Open Access with costs covered by the University Open Access Fund:

• Yusra Suedi - The Individual in the Law and Practice of the International Court of Justice (Cambridge University Press)
• Erica Burman - Child as Method: Othering, Interiority and Materialism (Routledge)
• Stephen Scott-Bottoms - Incarceration Games: A History of Role-Play in Psychology, Prisons and Performance (University of Michigan Press)
• Ed Pulford - Past Progress: Time and Politics at the Borders of China, Russia and Korea (Stanford University Press)

Maurice Nagington (School of Health Sciences) received funding through the 2023/2024 competition for his book (Routledge), published at the end of 2024. He believes making the book openly available has helped it to reach a much wider audience, accelerate its impact and spark interest in the broader research agenda. The book has been downloaded almost 10,000 times and been featured in the .

Congratulations to all the winning entrants to the competition.

The Open Access monograph competition is made possible through collaboration between the Library’s Office for Open Research and Engagement Team and staff from various Schools across the University.