'Opening the Future' – A Reliable Funding Model for Open Access Monographs: Introducing an Innovative Approach to Publishing OA Books Through Library Membership Funding

In this presentation, Kira Hopkins and Tom Grady outline the work of two university presses (Liverpool University Press and Central European University Press) who are, with assistance from Copim (Community-led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs), running an innovative revenue model to fund open access monographs. Called Opening the Future (OtF) this model builds on library subscription models: giving library members access to a highly-regarded backlist, with the revenue then used to make the frontlist openly accessible to all.

Given the current global library environment and budget pressures, a consortial model of funding promises a cost-effective solution for OA that means no single institution bears a disproportionate burden. The OtF model, then, appeals to both those who wish to pay for subscription-access content (more traditional university acquisition models) and those who support OA initiatives. It brings many institutions together under one roof for an affordable route to open access books, and offers the publishers a reliable revenue stream with which they can plan ahead.

OtF was developed to enable smaller publishers to foster a community of libraries: to enable presses to seek library support to publish OA books without using Book Processing Charges which do not scale, and which favor the well-funded researcher and institution. To date, it has been successful in enabling OA publishing that is not only equitable, but global; connecting presses in the UK and Austria with supporting libraries from Europe, North America, and Australasia. Copim’s work is about community-building over profit-driven centralisation; and the growing and safeguarding of open accessibility to academic books for global readers without barriers.