Information For Authors

Step 1: Book proposal 

You are first required to submit a proposal . Your proposal will be first screened by the TU Delft OPEN Publishing team and then reviewed by the TU Delft OPEN Books Board of Editors, and external experts. You will receive a response within 15 working days. Upon approval,

  • You will be asked to provide an estimated date of completion of the book, and the name of all authors.
  • You will also be asked to choose an open license; the license allows you to set how your work can be reused, and by who (see below).
  • We will organise a meeting with you to discuss the workflow and answer any questions you might have.

Step 2: Book license & publication agreement  

  • All TU Delft OPEN books are published with an open license. This means books are freely available to read, download, and share from the time of publication. Restrictions in reuse are limited by the use of a Creative Commons license.  Check our Open Access Policy for more details. 
  • Copyright -Publishing with TU Delft OPEN means that you retain your copyright except on teaching materials produced by you as a teacher of TU Delft. Please consult the TU Delft Copyright team for more information. 
  • You will be asked to sign a publication agreement with TU Delft OPEN. Choose here your publication agreement.

Step 3: Book writing

  • You can use TU Delft Overleaf an online collaborative tool, or any other tools to write your book.   
  • Make use of our Academic Writing Assistant tool that can help you with writing structure, style and spelling.  
  • Data: TU Delft OPEN strongly supports that the books include data registration in a recognised research data repository and will support data citation- please visit this page for more information.
  • Software: TU Delft OPEN strongly encourages the adoption of the TU Delft Research Software Policy. This policy facilitates best practices on research software and emphasises the value of research software. Please visit this page for more information.
  • Provide in a separate document a book synopsis, keywords and the author/editor biography. 
  • Reuse of published materials: If you use published images, text or other materials (including logo), please be aware of copyright regulations - the TU Delft Copyright helpdesk can provide further information and answer your copyright questions.  Send your list of images to the TU Delft Copyright team for clearance and advice. 
  • Plagiarism: Be aware of plagiarism – more information about plagiarism from the Copyright Team, and this guide can help you prevent it. 
  • Contributor statement: Describe properly all author contributions including the reviewers of the book proposal and the Copyright clearance and all types of relevant contributions - see Policies (tudelft.nl)
  • Reference: Use the APA citation system and the APA format, to put the references in alphabetical order (not in the order they appear in the text).   
    For more information and examples please go to https://tulib.tudelft.nl/apa/

  • Conference Proceedings:

    • We only accept conference papers (short or long) and extended abstracts which are peer-reviewed. 

Step 4: Book review 

  • You need to first submit your book (.docx or PDF format) to https://books.open.tudelft.nl/  
  • Your book will be automatically checked for plagiarism using Ithenticate.  If part of the book has been published elsewhere and you wish to include that part in your book, please get in touch with us.
  • Your book will be independently reviewed by experts or by a review committee. We encourage you to opt for an open review process, but you are free to choose a single anonymous or double-anonymous process peer review process. 
  • Please read our review policy to learn more.
  • After you have addressed the comments of the experts or the review committee submit two versions of your revised book: One version where the changes made are highlighted (it facilitates the work of the editor of the book) and one clean version ready for copyediting. 
  • In the case of edited books or conference proceedings, you are required to provide details about and/or evidence of the book review process(es). Contact us in case of doubt.

Please note: Only peer-reviewed books are indexed in the Directory of Open Access Books

Step 5: Book production

Persistent Identifiers:

  • ORCID iD: You are required to provide an ORCID iD with the final version of your book.
  • ISBN: Request the ISBN through our publishing services.
  • DOI: Your book will be assigned automatically a DOI. You also have the possibility to assign a DOI to every chapter of your book. Do let us know in advance.

Book Structure: You are free to choose how you want to structure your manuscript however the following elements are required

Book copy and language editing: For quality assurance, we would like to have your book copyedited. We offer copyediting services via an external partnership but you can choose your own services. The authors will have to cover the costs of this service.

Format: Your book will be published by default in a PDF format however you can also publish your book in other formats such as EPUB or HTML.  Review files and supplementary materials can also be published.

Print On Demand (POD):

  • In addition to the digital version send us a print version (high resolution) of your manuscript. Your manuscript will be available for anyone to purchase via our partner.
  • Special requests are handled by our partner Holland Ridderkerk- See here for more information.

Please contact library@tudelft.nl if you require additional information.    

Step 6: Book publication

Your open book will be published in the format(s) you chose and will be included in our catalogue.  

Step 7: Book post-publication

Visibility & Discoverability: Your book will be  

  • available in Google Scholar
  • included in the Directory Of Access Books  (DOAB, a community-driven discovery service that indexes and provides access to scholarly, peer-reviewed open access books and helps users to find trusted open access book publishers.) 

Social media post: Many of our authors have benefitted from sharing their books and other publications on social media, e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn – this generally increases engagement from your community with your work. Please read this page for more information, and if you do use Twitter to promote your work, please mention the TU Delft OPEN Publishing platform @TUDelftOPEN, we’re happy to help amplify your message. 

Author spotlight: ”Author Spotlight” is a series of interviews where our authors share the stories behind their publications and their thoughts on open publishing practices. If you would like to be interviewed as part of this series, please let us know after your book is published.