Everyone deserves access to scholarship. D2O makes it possible.
Direct to Open: A bold, innovative model for open access to scholarship and knowledge
D2O harnesses the collective power of libraries to support open and equitable access to vital, leading scholarship. Developed over two years with the generous support of the Arcadia Fund, in close collaboration with the library community, D2O:
- Opens access to new MIT Press scholarly monographs and edited collections (80-90 titles per year) from 2022 via recurring participation fees.
- Provides participating libraries with term access to backlist/archives (~2,500 titles), which would otherwise be gated.
- Covers partial direct costs for the publication of high-quality works that are also available for print purchase.
An additional benefit for participating libraries is substantial discounting on the MIT Press Trade books collection on the Direct platform. View our title lists to learn which titles are included in the Direct to Open program and which are in the Trade Collection.
Support open and equitable access
By participating in Direct to Open, libraries shift from buying digital monographs from the MIT Press once for a single collection to funding them once for the world. Together, we can make knowledge more open and accessible. Learn more about joining Direct to Open and our dynamic participation benefits.
Contact us with questions
Become a participating institution
Serious Impact
Direct to Open books reach larger global audiences and receive more citations than their paywalled counterparts, allowing vital, high-quality scholarship to reach wider audiences in communities that need it most.
Why should my institution participate?
- Direct to Open is cost-effective and provides broader access than title-by-title licensing and purchase.
- Open access promotes a more equitable, sustainable, and values-aligned scholarly ecosystem than a closed market model.
- Participation fees are tailored to library size, type, and collections budget.
- When more libraries participate, the fees dynamically lower for all participants. Direct to Open is driven by principles, not profit.
- Participating libraries also receive substantial discounting on the MIT Press Trade books collection on the Direct platform.
- Direct to Open allows authors to publish open access regardless of their institutional affiliation or funding.
“The D2O model creates an open-knowledge commons by re-shaping the academic publishing ecosystem of university presses and research libraries. It is exactly the opportunity libraries should be supporting.”—Greg Eow, President of the Center for Research Libraries and member of the MIT Press Management Board
“Participating in models like Direct to Open is a part of our library’s diversity, equity, and inclusion work and bringing those values into alignment with how we’re spending our budget.”—Curtis Brundy, Associate University Librarian for Scholarly Communications and Collections at Iowa State University and member of the MIT Press Library Advisory Board
“The STEAM collection was an excellent and cost-effective fit for us, as art and various engineering fields have comprised the bulk of our MIT press titles purchased in recent years. Our contribution to D2O was less than we usually spend on MIT Press books in STEAM fields and provides much broader access than our usual title-by-title purchases. Our participation in D2O is part of a broader OA strategy in our collections. It contributes to the development of scholar-led, sustainable OA monograph publishing models, while also providing immediate benefits in the form of backfile access.”—University Libraries, George Mason University
"MIT Press’s Direct to Open offer, along with other innovative open monograph models, is an important and welcome contribution to advancing open scholarship. SPARC hopes libraries will support D2O and other collective alternatives to closed market models.”—Heather Joseph, Executive Director, SPARC
Participation benefits
Participating libraries will receive term access to the backlist/archives (~2,500 titles) even if the model is not successful. These archives would otherwise remain gated. D2O libraries will also receive discounting on the MIT Press Trade eBooks Collection on Direct.
Equitable and dynamic fees
Our participation fees use a tiered structure based on library type, size, and collections budget. The fees are also dynamic—meaning, if total participation exceeds our financial goal at the end of the commitment period, the Press reduces the fees for all participating libraries.
Advantages of the collective model
D2O is designed to increase the chances of success and open as much scholarly book content as possible. Libraries may choose to support one of two smaller subject collections or the complete collection. The model is both shared and scaled.
Books of the highest scholarly standard from a leading university press
Established in 1962, the MIT Press is one of the largest and most distinguished university presses in the world and a leading publisher of books and journals at the intersection of science, technology, art, social science, and design. MIT Press publications are known for their intellectual daring, scholarly standards, interdisciplinary focus, and distinctive design.
Participating libraries will not only open access to new scholarly works by established and rising scholars, but also gain term access to an archive including classic works from luminaries such as Rosalind Krauss, Daniel Dennett, Noam Chomsky, Paul Krugman, Sherry Turkle, and many more.