The guide is primarily intended for editors and publishers of scientific monographs to support them in properly designing and clearly presenting information on their websites about open access publishing policies and open access publishing opportunities for researchers. Information on open access, copyright and compliance with funders' requirements is often inconsistently presented, and the Guide encourages more transparent and consistent practice, contributing to greater transparency in open access scholarly publishing.

The monograph must have its own web address (URL), where data about the monograph and its full text are permanently accessible. The full text of the monograph, or if published in chapters, all chapters, should be accessible in recommended formats (e.g. PDF, EPUB, XML or HTML).

The following information must be available on the website where the monograph is published:

• listed ISBN (International Standard Book Number) for the open access edition on the website and in the monograph itself,
• Editorial policy (purpose and aims of the monograph, conditions for acceptance and processing, method and duration of the review process, named composition of editorial bodies, technical guidelines for the preparation of the monograph or submitted manuscript),
• Privacy statement – collection and use of personal data of the journal must follow standards based on the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR),
• A statement of adherence to publishing and academic ethical standards - publications should follow the COPE standards (Committee on the Ethics of Scientific Publication) to ensure fair editorial decisions and respectful treatment of authors.

The full text of the open access monograph must be immediately and freely available on the monograph's or publisher's website upon publication.

The monograph's or publisher's website must clearly state the open access policy, either in the general information about the monograph or in a separate section. In addition to a statement on providing immediate and free access to content, the open access policy information should include:

• information on the open accessibility of the monograph, from which the open access model (e.g. diamond) is evident,
• statement on permitted uses – e.g. that the content may be read, downloaded, copied, distributed, adapted and further used, with attribution to the author, in accordance with the chosen license,
• the exact license – it is recommended to use Creative Commons licenses (e.g. CC BY 4.0,
• overview of publication costs – if it is diamond open access, it should explicitly state that it does not charge any publication fees; if it is gold open access, it should include a statement BPC (Book Processing Charges) oz. CPC (Chapter Processing Charges) transparent costs.

The copyright notice and the use of free licenses should be clearly written. In accordance with open access policies, authors retain full copyright, or they transfer non-exclusive copyrights to the publisher. Authors grant the publisher first publication of their work under a selected license, which specifies the further terms of use of the work (permitted are CC BY 4.0, CC BY-SA 4.0, CC BY-NC 4.0 or CC BY-ND 4.0). The chosen licence should be clearly stated on the monograph's website and within the monograph itself. If the monograph (e.g., an edited collection) includes multiple works, the licence must be stated with each individual work.

Example of a copyright notice in a monograph:

»© 2025 Author(s). This monograph is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).«

Example of the Instructions for Authors (on the monograph's website):

»Authors retain the physical copyright, and grant permission to the publisher to publish their work under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), which means that all users are permitted to copy and distribute the content in any medium and format, and to adapt the content for any purpose, including commercial purposes, provided that they appropriately credit the author of the work.«

The monograph must ensure compliance with national policies or funders' requirements regarding open access or recommendations such as Plan S and Horizon Europe. As much as the monograph cofinanced with public resources (e.g., from ARIS), this must also be clearly stated. The statement must include the name of the funder, the code and the title of the research project or programme.

The visibility, accessibility and credibility of published scholarly content are enhanced by the inclusion of monographs in international bibliographic databases, indexes and directories. Open access monographs should be available on established open access platforms for scholarly books such as Open Access Publishing and European Networks (OAPEN) Library, indexed in international directories or services that enable discoverability and access to open access books, such as the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB).

The monograph ensures longevity, discoverability, and citation by using persistent identifiers (e.g. DOI) ali Handle), as they enable reliable linking, citation, and long-term accessibility of digital objects. It is recommended that persistent identifiers are also used for authors or researchers (e.g.ORCID) for institutions or research organisations (e.g.  ROR).

Access to the monograph must be ensured. The published monograph is available on the publisher's website, and the mandatory copy is stored on the portal Digital Library of Slovenia - dLib.si, in accordance with Legal deposit act (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, Nos. 69/06 and 86/09). The publisher shall define the conditions for storing the monograph (or individual chapters) in a trusted repository.

Permanent digital archiving comprises technical protection, backup and long-term preservation of digital content. The publisher or issuing body should also ensure the permanent accessibility of the monograph in the event that the primary website ceases to operate. For this purpose repositories that provide conditions for long-term storage can be used, and the use of specialised services for permanent digital preservation is also recommended (e.g. LOCKSS, CLOCKSS, Portico, Internet Archive or other services recognised within the framework of relevant international registers or guidelines for preservation). The chosen method of permanent archiving should be indicated on the monograph's website or the publisher's website.

It is recommended that the website of the published monograph is available in Slovenian and English.  The information must be identical in both languages.

For more information, see:

1. (OA Books toolkit) - online tools for open access monographs
2. DOAB - International Database of Open Access Peer-Reviewed Monographs
3. PALOMERA - Policy recommendations for open access monographs
4. DIAMAS (Diamond Open Access Standard, Tools and Guidelines)