De Gruyter, a prominent academic publisher, is embarking on an ambitious mission to transition a significant portion of its journal portfolio into open access using the Subscribe to Open (S2O) model, signalling a transformative shift in scholarly publishing. Over the next five years, De Gruyter aims to employ S2O as the central model to convert approximately 85% of its existing 320 subscription journals into freely accessible open access publications, marking a pioneering step in the industry.
In close collaboration with journal editors and societies, De Gruyter has set its sights on a comprehensive transformation strategy. Currently, the publisher already offers 16 journals through the Subscribe to Open model, with plans to add five more in 2024. By 2025, an additional 40 journals are scheduled to transition to open access, with the ultimate goal of having approximately 270 De Gruyter journals accessible through Subscribe to Open by 2028.
The decision to embrace Subscribe to Open as the central open access transformation model follows a successful pilot phase, particularly in the field of humanities journals. During this phase, the participation of subscribing institutions was robust, and feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
Subscribe to Open offers advantages to all stakeholders within the publishing ecosystem. Authors can publish their articles in established journals under open access terms without incurring additional costs. Libraries retain guaranteed access to journals via their subscriptions while actively facilitating the journals' open access transformation without added administrative complexity or expenses. Booksellers can continue to manage journal acquisitions for their customers in their accustomed manner.
Unlike the widely adopted Article Processing Charge (APC) model, which predominantly serves the sciences, Subscribe to Open is suitable for the transformation of journals across all disciplines, including the humanities and social sciences. Given De Gruyter's substantial focus on humanities journals, Subscribe to Open is a natural choice to drive open access in the publisher's diverse portfolio.
The global research community and readers stand to benefit significantly from the S2O model, as it makes journal content freely accessible. An illustrative example of this impact is De Gruyter's journal Linguistics, which underwent a Subscribe to Open transformation in 2022. Usage of the journal surged sevenfold compared to the previous year, and access extended to a broader range of countries.
Subscribe to Open operates as a model enabling yearly transitions to open access while maintaining existing subscriptions and without imposing publication fees on authors. Subscribing institutions continue their subscriptions as usual, facilitating open access for all and eliminating author publication fees. S2O serves as a viable alternative to the APC model, which charges per-article publication fees, and other transformation mechanisms such as Publish & Read.
De Gruyter actively engages with the Subscribe to Open Community of Practice, a collaborative effort working to establish S2O as a sustainable pathway to open access.
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