Now in its third year of operation, the MIT Press' Direct to Open (D2O) recently announced that it reached its full funding goal in 2024 and will open access to 79 new monographs and edited book collections this year.
Launched in 2021, D2O is an innovative sustainable framework for open-access monographs that shifts publishing from a solely market-based, purchase model where individuals and libraries buy single e-books, to a collaborative, library-supported open-access model.
“Reaching our overall funding goal — in full and on time — is a major milestone in developing a sustainable open-access publishing model,” says Amy Harris, senior manager, library relations and sales at the MIT Press. “We are extremely grateful for the support of our library and consortium partners that makes this possible.”
There are other models that offer fund-to-open opportunities on a title-by-title basis or that focus on opening access within specific disciplines. D2O is unique because it allows the press to open access to its entire slate of scholarly books at scale during each funding cycle. Thanks to D2O, all monograph authors have the opportunity for their work to be open access, and the press can offer equal support to traditionally underfunded disciplines in the social sciences and humanities.
At a time when the traditional market for scholarly books continues to decline, works funded through D2O are reaching larger audiences online than ever before — averaging 2,694 reads per title and bringing important scholarship to new audiences. D2O books have also been academically cited almost 1,100 times.
“D2O is meeting the needs of academics, readers, and libraries alike, and our usage and citation stats demonstrate that the academic community is embracing open-access scholarship across a wide range of fields and for many purposes — from the classroom to research projects to professional interest reading,” says Harris. “This further aligns the work of the MIT Press with the mission of MIT to advance knowledge in science, technology, the arts, and other areas of scholarship to best serve the nation and the world, and provides opportunities for expansion of the model in the forthcoming years.”
The MIT Press will now turn its attention to its fourth funding cycle and invites libraries and library consortia to participate. For details, please visit: mitpress.mit.edu/D2O.
