Opening the Future: A New Model for Open Access Books

A collective subscription model that, through its membership scheme, makes library funds go further: achieving the dual objectives of increasing collections and supporting Open Access.

Sign up to support a press:

CEU Press Liverpool University Press

As membership grows, cost per OA book goes down.

For example, if an annual membership of €800 (approx. $950 USD or £700 GBP) gives access to 50 backlist titles, and funds a further 25 OA frontlist books per year, that yields a total of 75 books per year that are accessible to your library users (and growing every year). With just 200 member libraries this would equate to around €11 (approx. $13 USD or £9 GBP) per library, per title.

Better value than buying the same titles individually.

For example, with €800 (approx $950 USD or £700 GBP) libraries might be able to buy 4-6 ebooks on multi-user licences; whereas with Opening the Future programmes, once a press has hit their membership subscription targets, the cost to a library could be as low as €32 (approx $39 USD or £27 GBP) to produce an OA book, and that’s without taking into account the backlist titles that membership gives access to. 

No catches and no hidden fees. No bait and switch.

Members won’t be asked to pay more on top of their annual fee to access ‘more’ or ‘better’ titles. Access to titles won’t suddenly change. Participating presses are upfront about their fees, about what's in their packages of backlist books, and about any other benefits or services to libraries.