After receiving a grant from the Arcadia Fund in 2019, MIT Press got to work building a collective action model for open access monograph publishing. The press juggled several obstacles, like limited data on OA monographs and having to determine a realistic target needed to sustain the program. With Direct to Open (D2O) now officially launched, how did it evolve into its current form today?

Emily Farrell, Library Partnerships and Sales Lead at MIT Press, speaks on “[upholding] the editorial and production integrity” in the design criteria for the program. Communicating with MIT’s authors on the benefits of publishing OA or assuaging any potential concerns played a role in the model’s development. Greg Eow, president of the Center for Research Libraries, unpacks another central component of the model: participation. How can this model fit into a library’s budget? Beyond looking at price, licensing terms, and content, what’s the value proposition of increased data and metrics? How can librarians change their perspective to see D2O as an opportunity to better asses the user experience?

In this second episode, Emily and Greg discuss D2O’s evolution, including helpful feedback from academic consortia. They also dig into what happens when a library signs up for the framework—access to an administrative portal, user statistics, and more—and the number of institutions needed for the pilot to be considered a success.