Project MUSE offer for Subscribe to Open (S2O) journals targeted for 2025

By Project MUSE

Following a year of research and community engagement funded by a planning grant from the Mellon Foundation’s Public Knowledge Program, Project MUSE is preparing a Subscribe to Open (S2O) offer across multiple journal titles and participating publishers that will begin with the 2025 calendar year subscription term.

With more than 700 current journals in the humanities and social sciences on its platform, from close to 200 non-profit publishers, Project MUSE is uniquely positioned to develop and deploy a Subscribe to Open business model at scale. The collective support of an S2O offer by MUSE’s community of thousands of libraries worldwide has the potential to equitably open a wealth of vital scholarship, in disciplines frequently not well served by other open access (OA) models.

S2O is an equitable alternative to “author-pays” OA models, expanding both author and reader access. The S2O model works by converting traditional gated subscriptions into annual payments that make open journals sustainable. Eliminating financial barriers for authors and readers is a major step forward and a foundational imperative to achieving an equitable, just, and inclusive world.

At this time, Project MUSE is beginning conversations in earnest with its many participating journal publishers and invites questions and inquiries from publishers with an interest in OA. MUSE has also joined the Subscribe to Open Community of Practice, and will engage in conversations with library customers as more information about the S2O program becomes available.

(See our S2O Program page for the latest on S2O at Project MUSE.)