Top 10 Free Academic Book Publishers

There are famous academic publishing houses which operate on the traditional subscription-based model, meaning, the author is not required to pay up front. These publishers are footing the bill for editorial and author services, production and marketing costs, and obtaining revenues from book sales, library purchases, and institutional subscriptions (Butler et al., 2023; Ganjavi et al., 2024; Giménez Toledo, 2016). Writers typically are not charged for publication, but are paid.

How the Top 10 Free Academic Book Publishers have been ranked?

Publishers were evaluated using a multi-dimensional assessment portal that assessed the publishers in eight major objects and weighed criteria, such as academic notoriety, publication output, citation influence, global dispersion, editorial quality and peer review, author services, subject authority and impact and reputation of new journals launched (Vasileiou et al., 2009; Zuccala et al., 2015). Data was gathered from different reliable data bases including Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, Worldcat and publishers' annual reports. We analysed the number of citations, entitlement in university syllabuses, holdings data at university libraries and qualifications of editors and editorial boards for 50+ original publishing houses. Academic prestige became the most important due to its impact on an authors' career with the publishers being rated in all the criteria on the scale of 1 to 10. Fees paid by the authors were not considered and thus publishers that charged an author fee were not included. The top 10 ranking was produced by Final scores using the following key factors: full free access to publications (no publication/ access fees) and full free access for whole publications from readers with no publication/ access fees, thus providing some added value for authors on top of the free publication: a professional publishing service. Opinions from librarians, academic leadership and scholars enabled us to secure expert advice on our criteria, and also added some balance in the decision making.

Routledge Taylor & Francis

The world's leading source of academic Publishers in the Humanities and Social Sciences, publishing thousands of books and journals in these fields each year that serve scholars and instructors and the professional communities worldwide. This is because they have teams of full-time PhD and academic publishing qualified editors in their subject areas. The power of this publisher is the breadth of its academic list in the Environment and Sustainability, Food and Agriculture, Geography, Urban Planning and Urban Design, Environmental Security, Forestry and Wood Science as well as Sustainable Development Special Interest Groups (Imprint Programme) such as: Routledge Research, Psychology Press, Earthscan. Published works can meet international academic interest through a distribution network of over 190 academic libraries all over the world. Discoverability It is optimized for Google and other major search engines and permanently stored in a unique online content store where the publisher is aggregated, that is accessible in the leading tech and application providers: JSTOR, Project MUSE, PubSource, IR systems.

Sage Publications

Sage is the top research-based book publisher and the top publisher of research methods books in psychology, education, sociology, nursing and health sciences. The editorial profile emphasizes solid research designs and applications, so that readers are researchers who want to shuttle from theory research to problem solving. The publisher will carry out the comprehensive editorial process; Methodological reviews will be carried out by experts in Quantitative and Qualitative research methods. Developmental editing, which authors get to receive only, also helps develop theoretical framework, analytic methodologies and implications of findings. Sage’s powerful professional connections align academic authors and their work to industry communities and practice via relationships with professional bodies, think tanks and research and policy institutes. Their advertising campaigns approach academic readers and professional users and ensure wide dissemination and references of published works.

Wiley Academic Publishing

One of the broadest STEM publishing programs, they have strength in chemistry, physics, engineering, medicine and business. They have working scientists and industry professionals who do quality control for accuracy and scientific credibility. They have a fully functional facility for production of high-level graphics, data visualization and digital animation, making it easier to tell more complicated science stories. With better career opportunities and recognition in the industry, writers can make use of more advanced marketing strategies that target academic editors and researchers.

Palgrave Macmillan

Excellent titles one often has to seek in niche corners of the discipline, usually close to current academic research and traditional departments such as history, cultural studies, and political science, are published by Palgrave Macmillan. They care most about original theoretical and conceptual contributions, and, especially, the relevance of the results of academy-based research to others who work in the management field. The publisher has a peer-reviewed process with international experts who evaluate the work submitted for publication. Palgrave books marketing is about thought leadership, public intellectual engagement and helping authors to engage audiences beyond the academy.

Edward Elgar Publishing

The editorial staff of Edward Elgar publications include practising economists and legal academics and provide expert editorial processes for these challenging topics. With its expertise on science-based policy and theory-application in the field of history, politics and social sciences, the publisher's products are in high demand with government and international bodies. All authors will greatly appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with editors to ensure manuscripts are not only of high academic quality but also are policy relevant. The distribution is via alliances with the major economic research centres, policy study organisations and government departments with work of Edward Elgar's publications. They are written both for target academic economists and for policy wonks, for the sake of capturing as much audience as possible for scholarly work.

Emerald Publishing

Emerald Publishing focuses impact pertaining to applied research with real world relevance to topics which include, but are not limited to, business, education and society and wider organisational studies. Their sense of editionedness emphasizes research driven to action and the pedagogical knowledge that can further the development of evidence-based skills, both by scholars and by practitioners. The peer-review procedure of the publisher is a role-based mechanism for involving full researchers and practitioners and guarantee that published contents are high quality and have substantive value. Practical and relevant decision-oriented feedback to authors for their papers.

Peter Lang Publishing

Peter Lang Publishing has one of the most successful ongoing academic monograph series in the world, which contributes to theoretical debate and discipline knowledge. The filtration of the content meets high standard and includes originality and innovation in the practice of scholarship. The publisher also offers development editing for theoretical arguments, scholarly apparatus and reader-friendliness for academic readers. Peter Lang's world-wide marketing and sales networks also include an unrivalled technology-compelled research and large academic publishing firm.

IEEE Computer Society Press

The IEEE Computer Society Press is recognized worldwide for its high-quality work in computer science, electrical engineering and information technology. The publisher's technical review process involves several technical experts to evaluate for the theoretical value, practical application and significance to the technology community. Using the vast resources IEEE has to offer in terms of a worldwide professional network, academic scholars have access to small or large technology companies, industry leaders, and research laboratories. Their marketing is aimed at both academic researchers and technology transfer professionals, enabling the flow of knowledge between academic research and industry.

American Mathematical Society (AMS)

The AMS's mission is to be the most comprehensive society for both independent and applied mathematics, the best publisher of mathematical research and a major contributor to the development of mathematical research. Their peer review is the strongest in the world of maths. AMS is a partner of national, international and regional mathematical organizations throughout the world and its global distribution network ensures books reach scholars and students around the world. Their deserved reputation will guarantee that the highest quality research and author credibility are ensured in the mathematical sciences.

Anthem Press

Anthem Press editorial research commitment promotes creative thinking, cultural awareness, whole-contextual understanding and fresh perspectives to offer new approaches to further understanding of traditional academy formats. The publisher's editorial services span the creation of the whole manuscript to editing for theoretical framing, argumentation and cultural analysis. Writers will grow in tandem with the mentor of an editor whose reflections bring to mind the present currents of thought and praxis in academia. Their marketing campaigns emphasize on intellectual innovation and cultural significance, which enables authors to influence both specialist academic communities and the wider intellectual communities.

 

Further Reading: Top 10 Open Access Publishers

To explore more, see: Top 10 Self-Publishing Book Publisher

Learn more in: Top 10 Low-Cost Open Access Book Publishers

See the Guide to Open-Access Book Publishing for more resources

 

References:

Butler, L. A., Matthias, L., Simard, M. A., Mongeon, P., & Haustein, S. (2023). The oligopoly’s shift to open access: How the big five academic publishers profit from article processing charges. Quantitative Science Studies, 4(4), 778-799.

Ganjavi, C., Eppler, M. B., Pekcan, A., Biedermann, B., Abreu, A., Collins, G. S., ... & Cacciamani, G. E. (2024). Publishers’ and journals’ instructions to authors on use of generative artificial intelligence in academic and scientific publishing: bibliometric analysis. bmj, 384.

Giménez Toledo, E. (2016). Assessment of journal & book publishers in the humanities and social sciences in Spain. In Research Assessment in the Humanities: Towards Criteria and Procedures (pp. 91-102). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Vasileiou, M., Hartley, R., & Rowley, J. (2009). An overview of the e‐book marketplace. Online Information Review, 33(1), 173-192.

Zuccala, A., Guns, R., Cornacchia, R., & Bod, R. (2015). Can we rank scholarly book publishers? A bibliometric experiment with the field of history. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 66(7), 1333-1347.