Springer Expands Open Access Program With Books, Ebooks

8/30/2012: Update Below Re: Pricing for the Program
From a Springer Announcement:

Springer is expanding its open access (OA) program by offering a fully open access option for books, which will extend Springer’s established SpringerOpen and BioMed Central journal portfolio, and its Springer Open Choice option. Any electronic version of a SpringerOpen book is fully and immediately OA, and thus freely accessible on SpringerLink for anyone in the world with access to the internet.
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The copyright for the entire open access book including every chapter remains with the editor/author. SpringerOpen books are published under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC) license. This facilitates the open distribution and the free re-use and sharing of the work for non-commercial purposes, as long as the authors/editors are properly attributed.
SpringerOpen Book titles will be listed in the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB), the discovery service for OA books which increases visibility and findability of Springer’s OA books.

Update: Here’s a bit of info about how the Springer ebook OA program will be priced. It comes from a Springer spokesperson.

The OA charge is calculated individually based on the number of pages. An average book (monograph or edited volume) costs around EUR 15,000 (excl. VAT) [$18,820/USD]. Authors who come from institutions which have a BioMed Central/ SpringerOpen OA membership receive a loyalty discount which is deducted from the charged OA fee.

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