Exploring the possibilities and feasibility of open access monograph publishing in the humanities and social sciences (HSS), OAPEN-UK presents some initial findings from its benchmarking survey with the projects' authors, publishers and members of the steering group. The survey explores their awareness of and attitudes towards open access, their motivations for publishing and priorities in scholarly communication.

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Abstract. This paper presents the initial findings of OAPEN-UK, a UK research project gathering evidence on the social and technological impacts of an open access business model for scholarly monographs in the humanities and social sciences.

About this guide T hE FiNCh REPORT, published in 2012, paved the way for a big change in the way academic journals are published. Following the report, Research Councils UK (RCUK) revised their open access policy to require journal articles based on research, that they have funded, to be published as open access. Crucially, this policy also required that any publications made available through payment of an Article Processing Charge 1 (one route for so-called 'Gold' open access) must use a Creative Commons Attribution licence (known as CC BY) to specify how content can be reused, within the copyright framework. Articles made available through self-archiving ('Green' open access) must simply be made available without any restrictions on at least non-commercial reuse: there is no mandate for a specific licence. Creative Commons licences have subsequently become a topic of considerable debate, confusion and concern among academics.

The primary role of JISC Collections is the licensing of content on behalf of its UK higher and further education member organizations. Affordable pricing and flexible terms and conditions of use, enabling content to be used to support teaching, learning and research, are central to negotiations. In 2011, JISC Collections launched JISC eCollections (www.jiscecollections.ac.uk), a community-owned content service developed to protect and preserve existing content investments by offering an alternative to commercial providers. It brings access fees within the control of the community, in terms of ring-fenced reinvestment and moderation of increases. A completely new venture for JISC Collections, the rationale behind the service's development and some of the challenges overcome in creating three new content platforms are presented in this case study. These included discovering and addressing gaps in content, rationalizing metadata, bringing lots of licences together under one model, anticipating and meeting the needs of multiple audiences (but delivering a simple overall interface) and developing an appropriate business model.