The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), a publisher in microbial science, has announced a strategic shift to a Subscribe to Open (S2O) publishing model for its seven subscription journal titles starting in the 2025 subscription year. This transition to open access demonstrates ASM's dedication to making research accessible to a global audience while fostering collaboration and accelerating scientific advancement in microbial sciences.
In conjunction with this transformative move, ASM has streamlined its extensive content by consolidating its 15 journals and ASM Press books under ASM Publishing, led by Melissa Junior, ASM's Executive Publisher. With 30 years of expertise in scientific publishing, including overseeing 12 ASM Journals, Junior assumes the role of Executive Publisher within ASM's executive leadership. The convergence of ASM's adoption of the S2O publishing model and the consolidation of its titles under ASM Publishing highlights the organization's commitment to remaining at the forefront of scientific publishing, advocating for open access, and facilitating collaboration within the scientific community.
The scholarly publishing landscape has been evolving for years as publishers seek sustainable business models for open access that balance affordability, equity, and support for the scientific community. Accelerated timelines resulting from funder mandates and guidance from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) require publishers to make all U.S. Federally funded research freely available upon publication by 2025.
ASM has been actively advancing the open science movement, such as by launching its sixth fully open access journal, Microbiology Spectrum, in 2021, and joining initiatives like the Initiative for Open Citations (IO4C) and the Alliance for Open Science. The society also promotes fundamental open science principles, including data availability, data sharing, and preprinting, among other critical components aligned with its mission to advance microbial sciences. Authors submitting to ASM journals are required to make their data publicly available, preferably through curated and sustainable data repositories.
APC models, where authors pay publication fees to make their papers open access, can create financial barriers for researchers from underserved populations, including early career researchers and those with limited resources or from historically excluded backgrounds. The S2O model employed by ASM leverages the society's existing journal subscription base to make articles freely available worldwide, mitigating some of the inequities associated with APC models. APCs will also be covered for authors from participating institutions. As targets are met, the S2O model will enable a complete and immediate transformation to open access for ASM Journals on a yearly basis.
ASM publishes six gold open access scientific journals and 15 peer-reviewed journals, with ASM journal articles accounting for 17% of all microbiology articles and 22% of all microbiology citations. Recognized as a trusted source for the latest information in microbial science, ASM's journals are frequently featured in prominent news outlets such as The New York Times, CNN, Science Magazine, NPR, and the Los Angeles Times. By completing its transition to open access, ASM aims to expand the reach of its research to an even broader audience.
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