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Researcher Skills Toolkit

Books & book chapters

Books and book chapters tend to include background information or in-depth analysis on a topic.  Books can provide context in relation to other relevant issues, summarise research in a particular area, and/or provide a historical overview.   

As a research output, books and book chapters are well-regarded in some disciplines, less so in other disciplines. Consult your colleagues or your supervisor if you are unsure.

Ask yourself:

  • Does your research area align with the publisher's target audience? Check recently published titles at the publisher website.
  • What level of editorial support does the publisher provide? 
  • Are the editors recognised experts or practitioners in the discipline? 
  • Is the publisher responsible for all aspects of the publishing process, including review, copyediting, design, printing, distribution, marketing and publicity? 
  • Is the publisher website 'polished'? Are titles easy to locate and marketed well? 
  • Use the University Library catalogue or WorldCat to search for books related to your research area. 
  • Check with colleagues and your Research Liaison Librarian whether the publisher has a good reputation within the academic community. 
  • Does the publisher offer open access? 
  • What level of copyright transfer will happen under the publishing agreement? What ability will you have to share your work/contribution with others? 

Think Check Submit

Use the Think Check Submit checklist to help discover what you need to know when assessing whether a publisher is suitable for your research. 

Check the Predatory publishing section of this Toolkit for more information.

To be eligible for categorisation as an A1 book for internal reporting process and ERA, a book must: 

  • be a major work of scholarship 
  • be offered for sale, or available through open access, in any form of: 
    • hard copies, bound 
    • audio/video files, packaged 
    • e-books, including openly accessible scholarly books 
  • have an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 
  • be written by a single author, or by joint authors who share responsibility for the whole book 
  • be published by a commercial publisher. 

Check the Guidelines for Traditional Research Outputs for further details.

To be eligible for categorisation as B1 chapter for internal reporting process and ERA, a chapter must: 

  • be a contribution, consisting substantially of new material, to an edited compilation in which the material is subject to editorial scrutiny. A book chapter may be included if it has been published previously, provided it constitutes substantial new knowledge and constitutes original research
  • be a chapter in a book that is offered for sale in any of the forms of:
    • hard copies, bound
    • audio/video files, packaged
    • e-books, on subscription or fee basis
  • be a chapter in a book that has an ISBN
  • be a chapter in a book published by a commercial publisher.

Check the Guidelines for Traditional Research Outputs for further details.

An ISBN is a unique identifier assigned to books and other text-based publications. Any book made publicly available, whether for sale or free, can be identified by an ISBN. Additionally, book chapters may also use the ISBN as an identifier.

An ISBN can be applied to a book or book chapter available in print, PDF, or html format. 

Be extremely careful of print-on-demand and vanity publishers (such as LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, and VDM) who mass-email early-career researchers and authors of recently-published theses offering to publish their thesis as a book. Usually, the content of the theses on-published by these publishers remains unchanged and the ‘books’ are sold without peer review or editing of the thesis. Your copyright ownership may also be affected. Check the information about predatory publishers for more information. 

Books published by print-on-demand and vanity publishers may not be eligible for categorising as an A1 (authored) book for internal reporting and ERA purposes. 

Books and book chapters can also be published open access.

Option Details
Publish in an open access book at no cost to authors Various publishers publish open access at no charge to authors. Check the list of open access book publishers.
Pay a book processing charge (BPC) to publish open access

BPCs are payable by authors to cover the open access cost in some books. 

The Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) is a database of open access books that have met certain criteria to be indexed. The DOAB is independent, non-discipline-specific, and indexes books and book chapters in several languages.

By searching the DOAB based on book or chapter title, publisher, subject, or ISSN you can find which publishers are making books openly accessible, the format they are in, and whether authors maintain copyright of their work.

The Open Access Scholarly Books Association (OASPA) is an association of open access journal and book publishers. Check the membership directory for OASPA-approved open access book publishers.
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