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OAPEN – open access for books

The OAPEN Foundation (OAPEN) is an independent, not-for-profit Dutch foundation registered at the National Library in The Hague. Dedicated to supporting open access (OA), peer‑reviewed scholarly books, we manage three key infrastructures:

  • The OAPEN Library: A global digital library for hosting and disseminating scholarly OA books, free to use, no registration required.
  • Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB): A free global discovery service developed in partnership with OpenEdition to index peer-reviewed OA books
  • OAPEN Open Access (OA) Books Toolkit: A free resource intended to help authors to better understand open access book publishing and to increase trust in open access books.

OAPEN connects libraries publishers researchers , and funders  with a global infrastructure for peer-reviewed open access books to advance research and the public good.

Our Vision

Inspired by Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, OAPEN envisions a world where “everyone has the right to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.” We believe that scholarly books should be shared and distributed openly and equitably for the benefit of all.

Our Mission

Our mission is to sustain and evolve the OAPEN Library and related open infrastructure services for peer-reviewed books. We serve a diverse set of stakeholders including publishers, libraries, research funders, and researchers, with the ultimate goal of advancing open access for the public good.

This blog highlights new developments taking place at OAPEN or in the field of open access books.


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Eelco Ferwerda (March 4, 2020). OAPEN – open access for books. OAPEN: A world of scholarly books: Open to all, built to last. Retrieved January 23, 2026 from https://doi.org/10.58079/sh3i


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