A North American university press reached out to Maverick for support in developing a sustainable business plan to move their journals to fully open access. They had been registered as transformative journals and were moving in the right direction but not as quickly as they wanted.
GOALS
It was important to the Press that the new model worked for their core market of authors and librarians. It also needed to ensure that the Press remained financially sustainable and to not become a cost to their university.
PROCESS
Maverick worked with the Press to review possible models, including the feasibility of moving to Subscribe to Open. Once a model had been selected, Maverick was able to develop a financial model based on the data that the Press had about its subscribers and authors. This could then be used by the Press to refine their thinking about what model would work for them in the long term and how long they needed for the transition. Once this was finalized, Maverick undertook a qualitative research exercise to elicit detailed feedback from librarians who would be affected by the change.
RESULTS
The project delivered a concrete plan for implementing a new fully open access business model which the Press was then able to share with their current subscribers and obtain their feedback. The Press now has a much deeper understanding of their open access options and the anticipated librarian response.
Thank you and Ed Newman for all of your assistance in mapping a path to sustainable open access.
Executive Director, University Press