Good news for OA monographs!
Federico
-------- Messaggio inoltrato --------
Subject: [SCHOLCOMM] The MIT Press receives grant to develop and pilot a
sustainable framework for open access monographs
Date: Thu, 3 Oct 2019 11:51:16 +0000
From: Jessica Pellien
For Immediate Release
October 7, 2019
Cambridge, MA
The MIT Press receives a generous grant from the Arcadia Fund to develop
and pilot a sustainable framework for open access monographs
The MIT Press has received a three-year $850,000 grant from
Arcadia<http://www.arcadiafund.org.uk>, a charitable fund of Lisbet
Rausing and Peter Baldwin, to perform a broad-based monograph publishing
cost analysis and to develop and openly disseminate a durable financial
framework and business plan for open access (OA) monographs. The Press,
a leader in OA
publishing<https://mitpress.mit.edu/mit-press-open> for
almost 25 years, will also undertake a pilot program to implement the
resulting framework for scholarly front and backlist titles.
Amy Brand, director of the MIT Press and principal investigator for the
grant, sees it as an opportunity to explore alternatives to the
traditional market-based business model for professional and scholarly
monographs. "Until the mid-1990s, most U.S. university presses could
count on sales of 1,300-1,700 units, but today monograph sales are
typically in the range of 300-500 units," says Brand "Many presses make
up this difference with internal subsidies or subventions from
institutional or philanthropic sources, but this is not sustainable and
often unpredictable. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, this
generous award from Arcadia will allow us to develop and test a flexible
OA sustainability model that can then be adapted to the needs of our peers."
There is growing consensus within the university press community that
publishing academic monographs through a durable OA model may be the
best way to advance scholarship and fulfill our mission. The U.S.-based
Association of University Presses comprises 148 member presses that
collectively publish approximately 15,000 monographs per year. Crafting
and promoting a viable OA model for this community-and leading the way
as the MIT Press intends to do-would represent a major breakthrough.
Work on the grant is scheduled to start in 2019 and the first
grant-funded OA monographs will be available in 2020. At the conclusion
of the grant in June 2022, the Press will openly share a robust, blended
OA model that the university press community can adopt, and adapt,
paving the way for the many scholarly monographs published each year by
university presses and other mission-based scholarly publishers to be
more readily discovered, accessed, and shared.
"We know the content we produce is highly valued by scholars and
librarians. Broad and comprehensive availability of OA scholarly works
published by university presses will increase the impact of research and
contribute significantly to the knowledge sharing mission of the
academy," concludes Brand.
###
About the MIT Press
Established in 1962, the MIT Press is a not for profit, university-based
publisher aligned with the values and mission of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. With offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts and
London, the Press is one of the largest and most distinguished
university presses in the world and a leading publisher of books and
journals at the intersection of science, technology, art, social
science, and design.
www.mitpress.mit.edu<http://www.mitpress.mit.edu>
About Arcadia
Arcadia is a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin. It
supports charities and scholarly institutions that preserve cultural
heritage and the environment. Arcadia also supports projects that
promote open access and all of its awards are granted on the condition
that any materials produced are made available for free online. Since
2002, Arcadia has awarded more than $663 million to projects around the
world.
www.arcadiafund.org.uk<http://www.arcadiafund.org.uk>