Where can I publish a Diamond Open Access book?

This guide highlights publishers where fee-free Open Access book publishing may be a viable option for Swedish researchers.

Here, Diamond Open Access (OA) refers to publishing models that are free for authors and freely accessible to read online.

No specific requirements related to licensing (e.g. Creative Commons) are applied, although these may be included in more specific definitions of Diamond Open Access.

The publishers are grouped into two categories: fully Diamond Open Access, and those where fee-free Open Access depends on funding or specific publication conditions.

The publishers listed here publish scholarly books, although review processes may vary between publishers.

✳️ How to choose

The tables below list available publishers.

If you are looking for a reliably fee-free option, start with:

✅ Fully Diamond Open Access (Category 1)

⚖️ Then consider Category 2 publishers offering waivers (full fee exemptions)

Important to know:

Even within Diamond or fee-free models, conditions may apply.

Some publishers do not charge authors at all, while others offer fee-free publication in most cases, but may charge or request funding if it is available.

Whether a book can be published without fees may depend on:

available funding or grants
specific series or editorial programmes (e.g. funded projects or publishing initiatives)
available publishing capacity

👉 Always check the publisher policy before submitting.

ℹ️ Norwegian Level

The tables below include a column indicating whether a publisher is listed in the Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals, Series and Publishers.

✔ indicates inclusion (Level 1 or 2).

– indicates that the publisher is not listed.

The publishers listed below reflect currently identified opportunities where fee-free publishing may be possible. Additional publishers may be added as further options are verified.

✅ 1. Fully Diamond Open Access (no author fees)

These publishers generally do not charge fees, although funding may be encouraged.

Publisher	Type	Location	Disciplines	Notes	Norwegian Level
African Minds	Non-profit	South Africa	Social sciences	Primarily publishes African authors or Africa-related research	✔
Halmstad University Press	University press	Sweden	Multidisciplinary	Publishes works by Halmstad University researchers	–
Lever Press	Non-profit	USA	Arts, humanities & social sciences		✔
mediastudies.press	Non-profit	USA	Media studies		–
Open Book Publishers	Non-profit	United Kingdom	Arts, humanities & social sciences	No mandatory fees; voluntary funding encouraged if available	–
punctum books	Non-profit	USA	Arts, humanities & social sciences		–

⚖️ 2. Diamond and fee-free Open Access (conditions apply)

These publishers may offer fee-free publishing, but conditions apply.

Fees may be requested if funding is available or under specific programmes or circumstances

Here, “Diamond Open Access” refers to a strict no-fee model, whereas “fee-free Open Access” describes cases where authors do not pay but conditions apply.

Publisher	Type	Location	Disciplines	Notes	Norwegian Level
Finnish Literature Society	Society publisher	Finland	Humanities	Focus on research related to Finland; Fees only if funding exists	–
LSE Press	University press	United Kingdom	Social sciences	Fee-free publishing possible for some titles	–
Mattering Press	Non-profit	United Kingdom	Science & technology studies	Requests funding if available; fee-free for unfunded authors	–
University of London Press	University press	United Kingdom	Humanities & social sciences	Fee-free publishing available in certain series; fees apply otherwise	–

💡 Key takeaway

Diamond Open Access does not always mean that no fees will arise in practice; this guide highlights publishers where fee-free book publishing is often possible, but conditions may still apply.

Sources used to identify publishers

Hopkins, K. (2026). Where can I publish a book open access without (necessarily) paying a fee? A list of Diamond open access options. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20287653. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

This article by Halmstad University Library is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence (CC BY-SA 4.0). You are free to share and adapt the material, provided that appropriate credit is given and any derivative works are distributed under the same licence. Learn more: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/