Everything we publish is open on the day of publication, under a Creative Commons licence, with copyright retained by the author.
What We Mean by Open Access
Readers may read a work at no cost, and may download, copy, distribute, print, search and link to it, in full and unaltered, for non-commercial purposes and with attribution. Commercial use, adaptation and translation require written permission from the Press.
In practice this means:
- The version of record is free to read. What is published openly is the finished, typeset and copy-edited book.
- From the day of publication. We operate no embargo of any length.
- Everywhere. No regional restrictions, no registration, no account, no institutional recognition.
- Permanently. Every title is deposited and archived with independent preservation services.
The Licence
Every title is published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) by default. The licence is stated on the book, in its metadata and in the file. It is granted for the legal term of copyright and cannot be revoked. Where a funder's terms require a different Creative Commons licence, the book is published under that licence instead. Tell us the award at proposal stage and the licence is set accordingly.
| Use | Permitted under the licence |
|---|---|
| Reading, downloading and printing | Yes |
| Redistribution of the whole work or any part of it, unaltered | Yes, with attribution |
| Deposit in a repository, a course site or a mirror | Yes |
| Course readings and coursepacks not sold for profit | Yes |
| Quotation in scholarly work | Yes, with attribution |
| Translation, adaptation or abridgement | No. Written permission from the Press is required |
| Commercial use of any kind | No. Written permission from the Press is required |
Every book and every chapter carries the same licence, stated on the page, in the metadata, and in the file.
Copyright
Copyright in the work remains with the author. The author grants Bassi Foundation Press an exclusive and irrevocable licence, for the legal term of copyright, worldwide and in all languages, media and formats, to publish, distribute, archive and otherwise exploit the work, and to license others to do the same. Open-access publication is in addition to those rights rather than in place of them. In edited volumes, each contributor retains copyright in their own chapter.
Identifiers and Metadata
- DOIs registered with Crossref at both book and chapter level.
- ORCID iDs for all authors, editors and contributors.
- ROR identifiers for institutional affiliations.
- Funder and grant identifiers registered through Crossref's Open Funder Registry, so your funder can see the output against the award.
- ISBNs for each format; open metadata distributed as ONIX to library systems.
Deposit and Hosting
Each title is hosted on our own platform and deposited with the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) and OAPEN. Where a funder requires deposit in a specific repository, for example Europe PMC and PubMed Central Bookshelf for Wellcome-funded work, we make that deposit on your behalf. You are also free to deposit the published version in your institutional repository; the licence permits it and we will supply the files.
Funder Compliance
Publication with the Press meets the open-access conditions that apply to books. In the United States and Canada the public-access policies of the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Tri-Agency councils reach journal articles and do not extend to monographs or edited volumes. Where a funder does set conditions on long-form work, as UKRI, Wellcome, Horizon Europe and the ERC do, the version of record is published openly on the day of publication with no embargo, the deposits the award requires are made, and where the terms require a licence other than the default the book is published under that licence. Compliance with the terms of an award is the responsibility of the grant holder. The Press confirms the position for a specific award in writing before an author signs.
We will confirm compliance against the specific terms of your award, in writing, before you sign a contract.
Note on the REF: the REF 2029 open-access policy covers journal articles and conference contributions with an ISSN. It does not impose an open-access requirement on monographs, book chapters or scholarly editions, and publishing openly with us is not a REF compliance requirement. Note however that the REF's early decisions indicate a long-form open-access requirement for the exercise after REF 2029, with implementation from 1 January 2029, and that REF 2029 guidance is still being finalised.
Third-Party Material
Material you do not own is the constraint on open licensing. Images, long quotations, figures, maps, archival documents and interview material must be cleared for open reuse under the licence, and a print-only permission does not cover it. Clearance is the commonest cause of delay in open-access book production and should be started as soon as a proposal is accepted. The Press supplies clearance templates and advice, and where clearance cannot be obtained will help you find an alternative, such as a redrawn figure, a link or a description.
Where a specific item cannot be openly licensed, it is marked in the text and excluded from the licence, with its rights status stated. The rest of the book remains fully open.
Every title is available in print, in hardcover or paperback.
Data, Code and Supplementary Material
Where a book rests on data or code, we encourage deposit in an appropriate repository under an open licence, with a DOI cited in the text. We will host supplementary material alongside the book where no subject repository is suitable.