Routledge bonanza of free titles shows value of scholarly open access

I wouldn’t normally share the details of an Amazon free giveaway drive, as these pass by so fast and are better suited to forums or push alerts than articles, but I’m including this one because it showcases the value of the principle of scholarly open access when potentially really useful titles are involved. Useful to the policymaker or the academic, admittedly, but with just enough general interest to be worth putting out there – because Routledge is currently pushing out free offers on some of its humanities titles that can save readers over $200.

The Mobileread Forums  – always a good source for these kind of deals – tipped me off to the first title on offer, The World of Indigenous North America in the Routledge Worlds series, originally sold at $220, but currently on offer for just $0.48, via my Kindle access at least. Now, this is definitely a scholarly publication, but you can imagine many writers using this for source material for anything from historical fiction to alternative history fantasy – as well as anyone with indigenous North American ancestors turning to this for insight on their heritage.

Then you have titles like Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation: Towards a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World? in the Routledge Global Security Studies series, which could potentially be useful to journalists, diplomats, activists – and even the Tom Clancys of this world. Or Consumer-Citizens of China: The Role of Foreign Brands in the Imagined Future China in the Routledge Contemporary China Series, which could be useful to marketers and business pros with an eye to the international market. And so it goes on … and on.

Note that these are not generally recent titles, although in most cases just a few years out of date. And in some cases, the offers may have already expired. But all the same, Routledge is to be applauded for putting them out there – as well as for giving back a little of the public grant money, scholarly research endowments, tax breaks, and other tweaks which meant that in many cases U.S. readers at least would have been paying for part of their content out of their tax dollars. Good on you, Routledge.