The Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) and JSTOR have announced a multi-year agreement for Path to Open pilot, a new cost-effective, sustainable publishing model aimed at supporting university press monographs and making them open access after three years. The pilot will include over 30 university presses and hundreds of authors, with the initial 100 books being released on JSTOR in the fall of 2023. The additional 300 titles will be published annually during the term of the pilot, which is from 2024-2026. Participating libraries will have access to the titles during the first three years, and thereafter all titles will be converted to open access, benefiting readers worldwide.
The pilot aims to bolster university presses through the transition to open publishing, exploring new business models to achieve sustainable and equitable ecosystems. The Path to Open books will be available DRM free with unlimited user access and integrated with other scholarly content on the JSTOR platform, including thousands of books, journals, and primary source collections.
The BTAA institutions are among a growing set of academic libraries and university presses in supporting Path to Open. Members of the BTAA, the university press community, and JSTOR will discuss the need for sustainable open access solutions for university press books and the importance of community-wide support at a free Library Journal webinar on May 17, 2023.
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