Ebooks FAQs

We offer ePub3, PDF, HTML, and MOBI (Kindle). Full-colour print copies are also available. All our ebook formats are media enriched, and contain embedded multimedia as standard.

Ebooks are primarily sold in collections to academic/corporate research institutes, where subscribers are able to download an electronic version of the book as part of their subscription—this model is great for students as the book collections come complete with perpetual access, are DRM free, and we do not impose a concurrent user limit, meaning researchers can access the content on whatever device they like, 24 hours a day! They are also available to purchase in both electronic and print on Amazon and other online retailers.

Books can range in length from as little as 80 pages up to several hundred pages, depending on the Collection to which you are submitting. Visit our Collection pages for specific page length limits.

Yes, we publish single-author, multiple-author and edited ebooks.

We offer a fee-based system, comparable to expected royalties in a more traditional publishing model. Exact fees depend on the book, and are paid in stages on contract signing, manuscript acceptance and publication.

Yes, in fact we encourage the use of multimedia throughout our ebooks, so long as it enriches the content. These can range from embedded video clips interactive figures, and animations, to video abstracts, lectures, and author webinars. Multimedia is supported across all our digital publication formats (ePub3, PDF, HTML, and MOBI) where possible, and embedded within the book for an enhanced reader experience. Please see our Author Handbook for further details on how to prepare these files, or speak to one of our editors about your ideas for including multimedia content in your book.

If you did not create the multimedia content yourself or you have used previously published content, please ensure that you obtain permission from the copyright owner for IOP Publishing to publish the content. If you are using the multimedia content in ancillary materials, as well as the ebook, please ensure you obtain permission for both types of use.

Unfortunately, we cannot allow any music to be used in our ebooks.

Our dedicated and friendly team of commissioning editors, marketers, designers, and production editors will guide you through each step of the process, from submitting your initial proposal and draft, through to publishing and promoting your completed ebook. These web pages also hold large amounts of support materials that will help you manage your ebook submission with us. And if this isn’t enough, we also have a dedicated ebooks customer service team to manage any other enquiries you might have! Take a look at some of our most frequently asked questions.

Ebooks Author Rights Policy

This policy sets out how authors of an ebook may reuse parts of their ebook and where they may post parts of the ebook online following publication by IOP Publishing. Any other use of the ebook without IOP Publishing’s prior express permission is prohibited.

Can I reuse parts of my ebook elsewhere?

Following publication by IOP, authors may use original figures and portions of the text from their ebook:

• in articles submitted to learned or professional journals,
• in papers presented at conference proceedings,
• for the author’s professional purposes generally

provided full acknowledgement of the ebook and IOP’s status as publisher is given, the copyright line of the copyright owner as published in the ebook is given, as well as a link back via DOI to the abstract on the ebook’s homepage.

In addition to the general reuse mentioned above we also have a policy regarding hosting or depositing sections of the ebook online as set out below.

Authored books

In addition to a cover, blurb and the table of contents, authors may host a preface/foreword/introduction plus one additional chapter of their ebook on their Personal Website or to a non-commercial repository, such as arXiv, or to an institutional repository. The same chapter must be used in all instances. This includes multi-authored ebooks, where the authors should jointly agree on which additional chapter to share to ensure that the same additional chapter is used on each site they post to.

Full acknowledgement of the ebook and IOP’s status as publisher must be given, as well as the copyright line of the copyright owner as published in the ebook, and a link back via DOI to the abstract on the ebook’s home-page.

Edited books

Editors and contributors may host the cover, blurb, table of contents and the preface/foreword/introduction on their Personal Website or to a non-commercial repository, such as arXiv, or to an institutional repository. Editors and contributors may not post an additional chapter.

Full acknowledgement of the ebook and IOP’s status as publisher must be given, as well as the copyright line of the copyright owner as published in the ebook, and a link back via DOI to the abstract on the ebook’s homepage.

Contributors are not permitted to host their individual contribution on any website or repository.

Exceptions

There may be cases where portions of an ebook already existed on an author’s website or repository prior to contract. In such cases please discuss your intention to reuse the work with your editor.

Where the copyright is not held by IOP Publishing, you will need the permission of the copyright owner before you reuse or post the content elsewhere.

Collections

This policy applies to the following IOP ebooks collections:

• IOP Expanding Physics
• AAS-IOP Astronomy
• Physics World Discovery

Queries

Please contact permissions@ioppublishing.org

Queries on the IOP Concise Physics Collection

For queries on the policy applying to the IOP Concise Physics collection, please contact our partner Morgan & Claypool at info@morganclaypool.com

IOP Publishing is committed to making our ebooks content available through the discovery platforms researchers integrate with. We partner with the leading web discovery service providers to index full-text books and ebook chapters on IOPscience.

We are pleased to confirm that IOP ebooks content is indexed in the discovery platforms listed below, and because of this, you can be confident that your ebook will be discoverable through the most important library discovery channels for researchers.

• ‘Summon’—SerialsSolutions
• ‘Primo’—Ex Libris
• ‘ALMA’—Ex Libris
• ‘EDS’—EBSCO
• Worldcat—OCLC

Introducing our design and branding values

Strong design values are one of the strategies IOP has developed to promote and support our publishing activities. By increasing brand awareness and visibility, IOP strives to help our authors stand out in a crowded, ubiquitous market place, both in print and digital. We offer a unique competitive advantage with our own in-house design department, promoting a strong design culture within the organisation and beyond. Our design studio has evolved into a highly effective design force within the STM sector—we see design as one of the key components of publishing, in both editorial and marketing activities, and a strong offering to help authors promote their work within the scientific community.

We acknowledge and respect the significance of an author deciding to publish their work. Throughout the publication process, we remain fully committed to providing our authors with the best possible publishing experience, including efficiency and personal service throughout each phase of the publishing process.

Each manuscript undergoes full copyedit and proofread (including grammar, tense, punctuation, and spelling). After your manuscript undergoes editing and typesetting, you will be provided with a set of proof pages for. Please review all corrections carefully.

It is important to remember all submitted manuscripts are to be considered final and should only undergo minor corrections and changes to not disturb typesetting.

Our dedicated team of expert marketers help you manage the promotion of your book throughout the publication process and beyond. The marketing team work closely with the commissioning team and the information provided by the authors in their Marketing Questionnaire in defining the promotional activities for each title.

An overview of our marketing and how authors can assist in the promotion of their book can be found in our Marketing Guide For Authors.

Getting the best exposure for your book

Author and title awareness and attraction

Raising the profile of our authors is key if we are to help make any book a success. Author awareness campaigns help raise the demand for a book. Key activities for author promotion may include:

Library and reader awareness in support of sales

Our library campaigns are directly focused on generating visibility, demand, sales and usage at global institutions and our books will benefit from activities such as:

Marketing support materials

Marketing materials specific to each book are created, including web banners, print adverts, business cards and flyers. Authors can download flyers for their book from their own books homepage on our website iopscience.org/books. Marketing materials are also sent to targeted conferences and exhibitions to promote relevant books.

Hosting

Our books are hosted on iopscience.org. This is our innovative content platform, which attracts an audience of more than 1.5 million visitors a month from more than 4700 worldwide institutions and corporations. All books are fully integrated with other content on iopscience.org. This means users will find it when they are searching by keywords, subject area or simply browsing book collections.

Homepage

All books also benefit from their own homepage, which we link directly to in our specific marketing campaigns.

It is important we maintain current book content for the scientific community. Minor revisions and extensions can be accommodated through updates to the published version of the book. Please contact your editor if you have suggestions for updates to your book.

Larger extensions and revisions are best published through new editions; these typically involve a significant editorial revision or update, typically a with minimum of 15% new material. Your editor may contact you to discuss ideas for updates or new editions, but if you have interest in preparing a revision of your book, please contact your editor so they are able to determine if it is the appropriate time to begin the revision process. We may seek feedback from readers of the present edition to help with formulating the new edition.

As you write the revision plan, consider the new or updated content including new sections and chapters that would benefit the book. It is also important to consider what content, if any, is now considered obsolete and should be removed.

Please keep in mind you will be required to obtain permission for all figures in the new edition which you did not originally create for the ebook. This applies unless you cleared permission to reuse the figure in ‘all editions’ of the book when you first obtained permission.

After your book is approved for publication by our Publications Board, you will be contacted immediately by our editorial team. The agreement will be supplied via our electronic signing software. You are encouraged to read the agreement carefully and contact us with any questions or concerns you may have. It is important to us that you are comfortable and secure with our publishing terms and process, and the contracted date for final manuscript submission.

Co-authors and co-editors

If you have co-authors or co-editors who will be receiving credit as author or editor on the cover of the book, they will also be required to sign the agreement. The agreement will define the previously agrees distribution of payments.

Contributing authors for edited books

If you are publishing an edited book with contributing chapter authors, each contributing author will also be asked to sign a separate contributor agreement form for their corresponding chapter(s). Please note the contributor agreements can be signed after the Editor agreement, but contributor agreement forms must be completed, signed, and delivered before or during submission of the final manuscript.

Published titles must be the authors’ own work. Plagiarism constitutes unethical scientific behaviour and is never acceptable. Plagiarism ranges from the unreferenced use of others’ ideas to presenting someone else’s work or ideas as your own, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgement.

During the preparation of a typescript, you may be contacted by the ebook editor to review a draft of the typescript or selected chapters. Your review will serve as a testimonial and add value to the ebook in assisting the author refine the coverage to best suit the need of readers.

As an expert on this selected material, the editors are seeking your overall impression of the content and appreciate any feedback on how to improve the work.

With the audience in mind, this review should focus on quality, scope, and presentation of the ebook material. IOP Publishing will work alongside the author or editor of the ebook in incorporate your suggestions. Please note this is strictly a content review and you will not be asked to edit for grammar, punctuation, or spelling as each manuscript has a full copy edit and proof read upon submission of the final files.

A tailored reader’s feedback form is provided, which asks for feedback on specific elements of the work. Key focus points while reviewing sample manuscript content are:

Timeframe

It is important to adhere to the review submission date which your Editor will discuss with you upon invitation. Timely return of reviews of manuscripts will help to keep the manuscript on schedule and ensure we meet the set publication date promised to our audience.

If for some reason you are not able to complete the review, alternative names for potential reviewers are most helpful.

The reviewing stage of any proposal is key to ascertaining the quality, worth and potential of the ebook being proposed. As a specialist in the topic of an ebook proposal under consideration you may be approached by the ebook’s editor to provide feedback and your opinion on quality, relevance and scope of the book and how it fits in the wider ebook landscape. Your feedback  is used not only to assess the quality of proposal, but to provide constructive feedback to allow IOP to work with the author to develop and maximize the potential of every title

An ebook proposal review form tailored to IOP Publishing standards will be sent to reviewers to identify strengths and weaknesses of the proposal, proper book structure, and a series of questions to determine if the ebook proposal plan demonstrates to be a viable investment of IOP. Among the series of questions in the proposal review form, the most important are:

It is important to note that IOP Publishing is an international ebook publisher adhering to a global audience. We seek reviews from all regions of the world to ensure the ebook will appeal to our worldwide readership. This includes possible reviews from North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia/Pacific.

Timeframe

It is important to adhere to the review submission date which your Editor will discuss with you upon invitation. Timely return of reviews  assists the author and IOP in developing  and assessing the project.

If for some reason you are not able to complete the review, alternative names for potential reviewers are most helpful.