Jisc Collections and De Gruyter have signed an agreement to publish up to 30 eBooks in immediate Gold Open Access, crowdfunded by participating libraries. The Purchase-to-Open agreement is a pilot project between JISC and De Gruyter to support sustainable academic book publishing through a crowdfunding model.
Pledging institutions pay a one-off fee to get unlimited access to up to 30 titles in 3 subject packages in Business & Economics, Classical Studies, and Linguistics. The offer focuses on key series from De Gruyter’s core international frontlist program, with all titles published in English.
If the funding target per collection is met, the corresponding number of titles will be transformed to Gold Open Access on publication within the publishing window of 12 months following the offer closing date. If the funding target is not met, the number of titles published in Open Access will be reduced. If the minimum funding level per collection is not reached, the titles are not transformed to Open Access. Pledging institutions keep perpetual access to all titles in their chosen packages irrespective of whether the minimum global threshold is met.
The offer is open for institutions and consortia globally to join until July 31, 2022.
The agreement between De Gruyter and Jisc Collections reflects the inclusion of scholarly monographs in the UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) new open access policy. Jisc Collections works on behalf of the United Kingdom higher education sector to negotiate and license high-quality digital content that meets the requirements of institutions to support academic research, teaching and learning.
