Everything we publish is open on the day of publication, under a licence you choose, with copyright you keep.
What We Mean by Open Access
The term is used here in the sense set out in the Budapest and Berlin declarations. Readers may read a work at no cost, and may also download, copy, distribute, print, search and link to it, and reuse it for any lawful purpose, subject to attribution and to the terms of the licence the author selects.
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. Deposited and archived so that access does not depend on our continued existence.
Licences
CC BY 4.0 is our default. It is the licence most funders prefer and the one that places fewest obstacles between your work and its readers. Authors may select an alternative Creative Commons licence where their funder permits it and where there is a considered reason.
| Licence | What it allows | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| CC BY 4.0default | Any reuse, including adaptation and commercial use, with attribution. | Required or preferred by UKRI, Wellcome and most major funders. |
| CC BY-SA 4.0 | As CC BY, but derivative works must carry the same licence. | Authors who want reuse to stay open. |
| CC BY-NC 4.0 | Reuse and adaptation for non-commercial purposes only. | Compliant with Horizon Europe and ERC requirements. |
| CC BY-ND 4.0 | Redistribution in full, without adaptation. | Where the integrity of the text is a genuine concern, for example contested testimony or legal analysis. |
Individual chapters in an edited volume carry the licence chosen for the volume unless a contributor's funder requires otherwise, in which case that chapter may be licensed separately. Every book and chapter states its licence on the page, in the metadata, and in the file.
Copyright
Authors and contributors retain copyright in their work. You grant Bassi Foundation Press a non-exclusive licence to publish, distribute and archive it. We do not require an assignment of copyright and we do not ask for an exclusive licence.
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 us meets the open-access conditions of UKRI (in force for in-scope long-form outputs published from 1 January 2024), Wellcome, Horizon Europe and the ERC, and funders with equivalent requirements. Because we publish the version of record openly at publication under a Creative Commons licence with no embargo, we satisfy the strictest of these conditions rather than the most lenient.
We will confirm compliance against the specific terms of your award, in writing, before you sign a contract. Where your funder's terms are unusual, tell us early and we will read them.
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, and we will not tell you that it is. 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 you select, 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, rather than restrict the licence on the rest of the book.
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, to order at cost-plus pricing. Print sales do not fund the Press.
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.