What would it take to develop tools, models, and resources that make scholarship more accessible to researchers and other readers around the world?
A commitment by one of the world’s most respected research institutions, for a good start. The support of a university press certainly would help. And $10 million from a leading UK philanthropy – that should seal the deal.
In May, MIT Press and Arcadia put that package together as the Arcadia Open Access Fund. The new endowment will support the MIT Press’s innovative efforts to publish open access books and journals.
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“We’re really honored by Arcadia and excited to have this commitment,” notes Amy Brand, Director and Publisher of the MIT Press.
“The main reason is to accelerate our capacity to experiment with different types of models,” she tells me. “We’re always thinking ahead to new sustainable open publishing models for books and journals.”
One recent Arcadia-supported effort is shift+OPEN, designed to flip existing subscription-based journals to a diamond open access publishing model.