JSTOR, part of the non-profit ITHAKA, and a cohort of leading university presses recently announced Path to Open, a program to support the open access publication of new groundbreaking scholarly books that will bring diverse perspectives and research to millions of people.
Launching as a pilot, Path to Open libraries will contribute funds to enable participating presses to publish new books that will transition from licensed to open access within three years of publication. The initial pilot will produce about one thousand open access monographs. If successful, it will lay the foundation for an entirely new way to fund long-form scholarship while vastly increasing its impact.
In a recent New York Times guest essay, University Presses are Keeping American Literature Alive, Margaret Renkl argues the value of bibliodiversity for society and spotlights the barriers facing presses and their authors. Studies show that monograph first copy costs are high and many books never break even nor reach their full impact. Presses find it increasingly difficult to invest in new ideas and the emerging authors who can build new or historically under-supported fields of study. This conundrum persists despite growing evidence from JSTOR and others demonstrating that open access significantly increases the readership of books. A new way forward is needed to lower financial risk while maximizing the impact that digital access offers.
Presses have been experimenting with solutions for several years, but have yet to derive a scalable, sustainable approach. Path to Open originated in conversations between presses eager for alternative models and took shape as presses, librarians, and scholars came together, convened by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), to explore and define transformational approaches and how to scale them.
Along with ACLS, organizations instrumental in Path to Open’s development include the University of Michigan Press, University of North Carolina Press, and Lyrasis.
Presses and ACLS asked JSTOR to join the discussions and to help pilot Path to Open given its extensive experience developing scalable solutions with the community. JSTOR works with thousands of publishers and libraries to fund the digitization and preservation of back issues of academic journals and has a successful fund-to-open model for primary sources through Reveal Digital. The JSTOR platform itself reaches millions of users every day, offering the reach and impact that authors, presses, and libraries are looking for.
The first Path to Open books will be released in fall 2023.
Click here to read the original press release.
