Jim Cheshire

Open access monographs: a humanities research perspective

This article discusses the thoughts of a humanities researcher in relation to open access (OA) publishing. Digital media have dramatically improved access to historic texts but library e-books are frustrating due to software and loan arrangements. Authors of illustrated books risk losing control of book design, although new media offer opportunities to improve image quality and access. Alfred Tennysons career shows that authors have been sensitive about the physical form of their work since the Victorian period and ignoring the material significance of the book could make us overlook the fundamental changes that the e-book represents. Monographs retain value as a way of evaluating substantive research projects and those published through the OA process will have great advantages over the commercial e-book. ‘Green’ OA publishing is impractical for humanities scholars and funded ‘gold’ OA publishing is likely to involve a labour-intensive application process.

How should we fund open access monographs and what do you think is the most likely way that funding will happen

The contributors to the Insights OA monograph supplement were invited to respond to this question, and their thought-provoking and sometimes conflicting replies below make interesting reading.

Fashioning Church Interiors: The Importance of Female Amateur Designers

In 1876 Oscar Wilde wrote a letter from Bingham Rectory, Nottinghamshire, while staying with his friend Frank Miles: The church is very fine indeed. Frank and his mother, a very good artist, have painted wonderful windows, and frescoed angels on the walls, and one of his sisters has carved the screen and altar. It is simply beautiful and everything done by themselves.1