ACLS Launches 2026 ACLS Open Access Book Prize and Arcadia Open Access Publishing Award Competition

The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is now accepting nominations for the 2026 ACLS Open Access Book Prize for authors and Arcadia Open Access Publishing Award for publishers.

For more than a century, ACLS has been a leader in supporting the creation and circulation of humanistic knowledge—knowledge that advances understanding of humanity and human endeavors. By promoting open access publications—which are made freely available to all readers with an internet connection—ACLS reaffirms its commitment to equity and innovation in how humanistic knowledge is shared, both within and beyond the academy.

Established in 2023, the ACLS Open Access Book Prize and Arcadia Open Access Publishing Award aim to raise awareness about the benefits of open access publishing in the humanities, as well as support increased access to high-quality humanistic research. Both awards are made possible by a generous grant from Arcadia, a family philanthropy.

Now in its third year, this pilot program will once again recognize authors and publishers of exceptional, innovative, and open humanities scholarship. It offers the largest prizes recognizing open access monographs in the humanities with dual awards for each winning book: $20,000 for authors, and $30,000 for publishers to support making future books available as open access.

The 2026 competition will recognize one open access monograph published between 2019 and 2024 in each of the following categories:

• Anthropology
• Environmental Humanities
• History
• Literary/Media Studies
• Multimodal, in any humanistic discipline
• Political Science

Publishers are invited to nominate up to three books in each category through Friday, February 27, 2026. View full eligibility and entry details.

Learn more about the 2024 and 2025 prize winners and finalists.