MSP

Sub­scribe to Open is a prag­mat­ic and equit­able ac­cess mod­el which aims to con­vert sub­scrip­tion journ­als to open ac­cess, one year at a time, with the broad sup­port of the sci­entif­ic com­munity. It al­lows each in­di­vidu­al in­sti­tu­tion to in­vest in long-term open-ac­cess pub­lish­ing, us­ing a mod­el that makes sense for math­em­at­ics. It is con­sidered a trans­form­at­ive agree­ment, sat­is­fies most fun­ders’ open-ac­cess re­quire­ments, and has been en­dorsed by a num­ber of open-ac­cess or­gan­iz­a­tions, in­clud­ing cO­Ali­tion S.

Each year, if enough sub­scribers con­tin­ue to sup­port the journ­al, that year’s art­icles will be pub­lished open ac­cess — free to read by every­one and with no au­thor charges. S2O is a sub­scrip­tion mod­el, not a vol­un­tary dona­tion: it funds a pub­lic good (open ac­cess to art­icles) by us­ing each in­sti­tu­tion’s pur­suit of its own in­terests.

For an over­view of the Sub­scribe to Open mod­el, please read our ex­plan­a­tion here. Or, you can vis­it this page for more in­form­a­tion, in­clud­ing a list of oth­er journ­als and pub­lish­ers who are ad­opt­ing S2O.

We think this is the best way to make, and keep, our journ­als open ac­cess.

MSP has been pay­ing close at­ten­tion to the de­vel­op­ment of vari­ous open-ac­cess mod­els. We think that the Sub­scribe to Open mod­el of­fers con­sid­er­able be­ne­fits to pub­lish­er, sub­scriber, and au­thor:

• it is re­l­at­ively straight­for­ward to im­ple­ment, even for a small, in­de­pend­ent pub­lish­er of lim­ited means;
• it still funds the high-qual­ity type­set­ting and copy­ed­it­ing for which we’re known and ap­pre­ci­ated, and that our au­thors’ re­search de­serves;
• it makes use of es­tab­lished lib­rary re­new­al sys­tems, rather than re­quir­ing ad­di­tion­al ne­go­ti­ation and new pro­cesses;
• it’s a mod­el that makes sense for math­em­at­ics; and
• it avoids cre­at­ing bar­ri­ers to au­thor­ship for re­search­ers of less­er fin­an­cial means.

Ad­di­tion­ally, as it spreads the fin­an­cial bur­den across many in­sti­tu­tions rather than charge only the pro­du­cers of re­search, it is likely to of­fer bet­ter long-term sta­bil­ity and can aim for lower prices for all par­ti­cipants. As long as the sci­entif­ic com­munity is will­ing to con­tin­ue pur­chas­ing guar­an­teed ac­cess and to provide sup­port — the very same sup­port, in fact, that lib­rar­ies have provided to closed-ac­cess sci­entif­ic pub­lic­a­tions up to now — Sub­scribe to Open of­fers a path to­wards sus­tain­able OA for many years to come.

You can read more about MSP’s thoughts about Sub­scribe to Open here, and more about MSP’s po­s­i­tion on open ac­cess in gen­er­al here.

In 2024, MSP’s Sub­scribe to Open pro­gram will in­clude 5 journ­als:

• Geo­metry & To­po­logy,
• Al­geb­ra­ic & Geo­met­ric To­po­logy,
• Al­gebra & Num­ber The­ory,
• Ana­lys­is & PDE, and
• Pa­cific Journ­al of Math­em­at­ics.

If any one of these journ­als re­ceives enough com­mit­ments to sub­scribe be­fore 15 Feb­ru­ary 2024, all 2024 con­tent pub­lished in that journ­al will be pub­lished open ac­cess. (A sub­scrip­tion to any pack­age that con­tains these journ­als also counts to­wards the par­ti­cip­a­tion tar­gets.)

If an S2O journ­al does not re­ceive enough com­mit­ments to sub­scribe be­fore 15 Feb­ru­ary, then the 2024 con­tent for that journ­al will re­main be­hind its tra­di­tion­al sub­scrip­tion pay­wall. Ad­di­tion­ally, to en­cour­age as much early par­ti­cip­a­tion as pos­sible, if the year re­mains locked, then a high­er price will be charged to in­sti­tu­tions that had not com­mit­ted be­fore the dead­line.

Re­gard­less of wheth­er the par­ti­cip­a­tion threshold is met or not, all pay­ing sub­scribers will re­ceive all the usu­al be­ne­fits of a tra­di­tion­al sub­scrip­tion: on­line ac­cess to both new con­tent and the full back cata­log (the back­list) of the sub­scribed journ­al dur­ing the 2024 cal­en­dar year, as well as per­petu­al ac­cess to the 2024 con­tent of the sub­scribed journ­al, and us­age re­ports.

The best way to not only en­sure that a journ­al’s con­tent is opened, but also guar­an­tee the lower sub­scrip­tion price for your in­sti­tu­tion, is to con­firm to MSP early on that your in­sti­tu­tion in­tends to sub­scribe.

Since it re­lies on sub­scrip­tion com­mit­ments for sup­port, we think Sub­scribe to Open works best with a stable sub­scriber base. The five journ­als we’ve se­lec­ted for our ini­tial Sub­scribe to Open pro­gram are well-es­tab­lished and fully de­veloped, both in terms of size and con­tent and in terms of sub­scrip­tion sup­port; there­fore, they’re the most likely to suc­cess­fully con­vert to open ac­cess un­der the S2O mod­el, and to be able to sus­tain them­selves once con­ver­ted. To put it an­oth­er way, we think start­ing with these journ­als is the best way to set our open-ac­cess pro­gram up for long-term suc­cess.

If MSP’s Sub­scribe to Open pro­gram for these journ­als proves suc­cess­ful and stable, then in time we will likely ex­pand it to more of our journ­als.

No. Pro­fes­sion­al sci­entif­ic pub­lish­ing can­not be done without fund­ing. Pub­lish­ers must pay for type­set­ting and copy­ed­it­ing, for on­line host­ing and oth­er di­git­al ser­vices, for long-term pre­ser­va­tion, etc. They must of­fer peer-re­view sup­port and foster a vi­brant com­munity around each journ­al. These costs do not de­crease simply be­cause the ac­cess mod­el has changed.

MSP is sin­gu­lar among pub­lish­ers of math­em­at­ics journ­als for the care we give to the type­set­ting and copy­ed­it­ing of art­icles we pub­lish. Our au­thors ap­pre­ci­ate it, as the quotes on this page show.

MSP’s core mis­sion has al­ways been to make high-qual­ity re­search avail­able at the low­est reas­on­able price, and with this ini­ti­at­ive we are fur­ther­ing this mis­sion. We be­lieve that the S2O mod­el strikes the right bal­ance between ac­cess for all, fund­ing the high-qual­ity type­set­ting and copy­ed­it­ing that our au­thors’ re­search de­serves, and open sus­tain­ab­il­ity without in­equit­able bar­ri­ers. But, to suc­ceed, it re­quires the broad sup­port of the sci­entif­ic com­munity.

The best way to sup­port our Sub­scribe to Open ini­ti­at­ive is to sub­scribe! Every sub­scrip­tion to an S2O journ­al is a vote in sup­port of the mod­el, a step to­wards open­ing the con­tent to all, and each pur­chase will make a dif­fer­ence.

Not much will change for you! You (or your agent) will still re­ceive the usu­al re­new­al in­voice. The main dif­fer­ence is that, if you re­new your sub­scrip­tion be­fore 15 Feb­ru­ary, not only will you guar­an­tee your lib­rary’s un­in­ter­rup­ted ac­cess and the lower S2O-sup­port­er price, but your sub­scrip­tion pay­ment will also rep­res­ent an in­vest­ment in open ac­cess. If you can’t ac­tu­ally pay your in­voice be­fore 15 Feb­ru­ary, don’t worry — you can con­tact us and let us know you plan to re­new, and you’ll still get all the same be­ne­fits, in­clud­ing per­man­ent ac­cess and us­age re­ports.

On the oth­er hand, if you don’t com­mit to re­new un­til after the dead­line, your sub­scrip­tion will not count to­wards S2O par­ti­cip­a­tion and your sub­scrip­tion rate will be high­er than it would have been with an early com­mit­ment. Plus, your users may ex­per­i­ence a break in on­line ac­cess. The best way to sup­port Sub­scribe to Open, guar­an­tee the lower price, and en­sure un­in­ter­rup­ted ac­cess to on­line con­tent is to con­tact MSP early and let us know you in­tend to re­new.

The best way to sup­port a Sub­scribe to Open journ­al is to com­mit to a sub­scrip­tion be­fore the dead­line. Note that we do not re­quire pay­ment be­fore the dead­line — only a con­firmed in­tent to sub­scribe. To make sure your in­sti­tu­tion’s sub­scrip­tion has been con­firmed, you can email con­tact@msp.org.

When your lib­rary com­mits to sub­scribe to an S2O journ­al be­fore the dead­line, you

• guar­an­tee your lib­rary’s un­in­ter­rup­ted ac­cess (in­clud­ing per­petu­al ac­cess to that year’s con­tent);
• guar­an­tee a lower price for your sub­scrip­tion; and
• con­cretely in­vest in the suc­cess of a new open-ac­cess ini­ti­at­ive.

It is only with the par­ti­cip­a­tion of in­sti­tu­tions like yours that our ini­ti­at­ive will be suc­cess­ful. With your help, we can en­sure the long-term sus­tain­ab­il­ity of open-ac­cess con­tent, us­ing a mod­el that makes sense for math­em­at­ics.

If you are a cur­rent sub­scriber and do not com­mit to re­new be­fore the dead­line, then the Sub­scribe to Open tar­get will most likely not be met, and this year’s art­icles will re­main be­hind a pay­wall. If you then de­cide your in­sti­tu­tion still needs ac­cess to this journ­al, you will be charged a high­er price.

Our tar­get for the S2O journ­als is re­new­al from al­most all cur­rent sub­scribers, so your lack of par­ti­cip­a­tion would make it very likely that the tar­get will not be met.

Noth­ing will change for MSP’s oth­er journ­als, or for in­sti­tu­tions that sub­scribe to them and not the S2O journ­als. You will still re­ceive all the same in­voices and on­line ac­cess as be­fore. If any of MSP’s oth­er journ­als will change their ac­cess mod­els in fu­ture years, we will be sure to let you know.

Sub­scribe to Open avoids pla­cing the fin­an­cial bur­den for pub­lish­ing costs on the shoulders of au­thors, while sat­is­fy­ing most fun­der man­dates for open-ac­cess pub­lish­ing. Sub­scribe to Open provides a stable path­way to­wards freely avail­able sci­entif­ic re­search — which means bet­ter and more af­ford­able cir­cu­la­tion of ideas.

We’re ex­cited to have found an open-ac­cess mod­el that makes sense for math­em­at­ics. It’s equit­able and for­ward-think­ing, while still fund­ing the high-qual­ity type­set­ting and copy­ed­it­ing for which we’re known and ap­pre­ci­ated, and that our au­thors’ re­search de­serves. For us, this is an op­por­tun­ity to work with the aca­dem­ic com­munity to­wards a more open and sus­tain­able fu­ture.

The most help­ful thing to do is to ask your lib­rar­i­an to sub­scribe to our journ­als. Each sub­scrip­tion to an S2O journ­al rep­res­ents a step to­wards sus­tain­ab­il­ity for the pub­lic­a­tion, and a vote of con­fid­ence in the mod­el.

No. MSP does not charge any fees to pub­lish in any of our journ­als, re­gard­less of the ac­cess mod­el. We be­lieve that au­thor fees present an un­ac­cept­able and in­equit­able bar­ri­er, as we ar­gued here.

MSP’s policies have long been as re­laxed and open-friendly as pos­sible. Even if the S2O tar­get is not met and your art­icle can­not be pub­lished open ac­cess, our policies will still al­low you to sat­is­fy most open-ac­cess man­dates through the al­tern­at­ive, Green OA route. MSP au­thors are wel­comed to re­tain copy­right, to de­pos­it their work in open-ac­cess re­pos­it­or­ies, etc. For more about our policies for au­thors, please vis­it this page.