About
Opening the Future in summary
Opening the Future is a monograph subscription model that makes library funds go further through its collective membership scheme: achieving the dual objectives of enhancing collections while also supporting open access. Members pay a small annual fee to get DRM-free, unlimited access to a closed selection of the well-regarded MSU Press backlist, with perpetual access after three years. The membership revenue is used only to produce new OA monographs, without forcing authors to find funding for book processing charges (BPCs). The program was shortlisted for an ALPSP Innovation in Publishing Award soon after launching.
What members get
Member libraries and institutions have unlimited, simultaneous access to all titles in the package they’ve subscribed to during the term of their three year membership. You get perpetual access to that package at the end of your three year membership. You may sign up for access to more than one package at any time - this membership and package access will also be for a minimum of three years. Packages are hosted by non-profit Project MUSE and come with MARC and KBART, and COUNTER-compliant statistics.
Banding and fees
Library and institutional members are tiered. Banding for US Institutions is tiered based on the Basic Classification from Carnegie Classification. In Canada we use the CRKN banding system and in the UK bandings are based on Jisc classifications. Based on this, our annual membership fees are:
• $2100 high tier, per year (£1560 GBP)
• $1400 medium tier, per year (£1050 GBP)
• $700 lower tier, per year (£520 GBP)
How to sign up
USA & Canada
Sign up for N. American libraries is facilitated and invoiced by Lyrasis, a trusted library consortia and partner. Go to Lyrasis' product page to sign up in the USA and Canada.
Sign up via LyrasisUK
Sign up for UK libraries will be facilitated by Jisc soon. In the meantime you can pledge your support via our simple sign up form using the button below.
Sign up via JiscRest of World
Sign up via our siteAbout MSU Press
Michigan State University Press is the scholarly publishing arm of historic Michigan State University (1855), the nation’s pioneer land-grant university and the prototype for the institutions established under the Morrill Act of 1862. Although a formal Press was not established at MSU until the mid-20th century, scholarly publishing was an important part of the institution’s mission from early on; significant and influential technical publications were regularly issued from the colleges as early as the mid 1870s.
Since its founding in 1947, the mission of the Michigan State University Press has been to be a catalyst for positive intellectual, social, and technological change through the publication of research and intellectual inquiry, making significant contributions to scholarship in the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences.
The Press has been publishing titles OA since 2002, and is keen to increase this because we are committed to fostering equitable access to knowledge for all.
Sustainable funding for OA monographs
The model has support from Lyrasis and Jisc who assist with organising library participation in the program. Membership is open to libraries and institutions worldwide. There are no catches and no hidden fees - members won’t be asked to pay more on top of their annual fee to access ‘more’ or ‘better’ titles. Packages won’t suddenly change.
Key benefits of OtF
All the revenue from the membership is used to fund the frontlist to be OA. Library membership fees pay for only those books that do not already have funding. If a proposal for a book comes to MSU Press with partial OA funding, the Press will use Opening the Future membership fees to share the production costs and publish the book OA.
The aim of this approach is to continue to yield a sustainable source of revenue for the Press while achieving the desired commitment to making more titles OA. Given ever-present budget pressures, a consortial model of funding promises a cost-effective solution for OA that means no single institution bears a disproportionate burden, while all benefit.
A three-year commitment to receive perpetual access to 66 titles and simultaneously fund new OA books is less than half an average BPC for a single book at many commercial publishers.
Supported by the Copim Community
Copim is an international partnership of researchers, universities, librarians, publishers and infrastructure providers supported by the Research England Development Fund (REDFund) and by Arcadia, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin. MSU Press were assisted by Copim in implementing Opening the Future. You can find out more about the Copim Community and its other open infrastructures at www.copim.ac.uk.
