De Gruyter’s Subscribe to Open Program Continues to Grow, Furthering Open Access in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Four additional journals to be transformed into OA via the Subscribe to Open model

Berlin, 9 May 2023 – De Gruyter continues the transformation of its journals in the humanities and social sciences into open access. Four additional titles have been transferred to the publisher’s Subscribe to Open program in 2023 due to popularity of the model among subscribers, editorial boards and authors. These are the Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik (Yearbooks of National Economy and Statistics), the Zeitschrift für Tourismuswissenschaft (Journal of Tourism Science), the Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte (Art History Journal), and the journal Arbeit (Work).

Launched as a pilot project in 2021, the Subscribe to Open (S2O) program was successfully expanded to include eleven journals in 2022. This allowed a total of almost 500 articles to appear directly in gold open access last year. This corresponds to 8% of De Gruyter’s total annual open access output.

S2O is a model that enables the year-by-year open access transformation of journals by continuing existing subscriptions without incurring publication fees for authors. Institutions with an existing subscription continue to subscribe as before, thereby enabling the journal to be published in open access and authors to publish in them without having to pay article processing charges. S2O is thus an alternative to the APC model and transformation mechanisms such as Publish & Read.

Dr. Christina Lembrecht, Senior Manager Open Research Strategy at De Gruyter, emphasizes: “We are very pleased with the positive response to our S2O program. The addition of four more journals in 2023 shows that the model is gaining traction and is an important step towards sustainable OA transformation in the humanities and social sciences.”

She adds, “De Gruyter remains committed to creating sustainable open access models in HSS that reflect the publishing cultures and funding situations in these disciplines. Ensuring the best possible access to research results is an integral part of our mission at De Gruyter, which is why we are pleased to be able to further expand this important program.”

For more information on De Gruyter’s S2O program, click here.