Flip it Open aims to fund the open access publication of 100 titles through typical purchasing habits. Once titles meet a set amount of revenue, we have committed to make them freely available as open access books here on Cambridge Core and also as an affordable paperback. Just another way we're building an open future.
Open access
It’s less of a sales strategy than a publishing strategy. Our aim is to support authors and institutions to achieve their goals with OA books and are experimenting with different business models and approaches.
Yes, our all our OA books and journals are listed on Cambridge Core under our Open Access section.
Flip it Open Programme
The Flip it Open Programme is an expansion of the open access books pilot that was launched in June 2021. Fifteen 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 launched with new titles 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.
Yes, a full list of the titles in the pilot can be found as a download on the Flip it Open Collection homepage.
Sales for all formats contribute, this includes:
Institutional sales via our Cambridge Core platform
Hardback sales
eBook (Kindle etc.)
Any other rights sales
We approached editors across all subject areas who have had interest from authors to publish open access books. We selected a longlist of monographs and approached each of the authors individually and ask them if they wanted to be part of Flip it Open to reach a final list of 100 titles.
We are expecting to end the programme 18 months after the final title has published, which will be in 2027.
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 added. 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.
For Librarians
All our open access books are added to Cambridge Core. Once flipped to OA, they will be indexed in the Directory of Open Access Books(DOAB).
Titles are flipped in batches as they reach the threshold.
Once flipped these titles will be completely open access with a Creative Commons license.
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.
For Authors
All titles in Flip it Open will be published on Cambridge Core. There will be additional promotion due to their involvement in the scheme as we promote this and look to encourage libraries who are not normally eBook customers for Cambridge to include our OA books and Elements in their library catalogues.
There is no BPC on any of the titles in Flip it Open programme. All of the titles are published as regular monographs and once they reached the sales threshold they are flipped to be open access. The sales threshold of £9,000 is not our BPC and is a number specifically decided on as a sustainable amount for the programme.
When a monograph reaches the sales threshold this will serve as a trigger for the title to flip to OA. . The paperback edition will publish shortly after the target is reached, in most cases.
If you would like to find out more about Flip it Open please get in contact with your editor.