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06. Opening the Future: Introduction and Description
How Opening the Future actually works is very simple, on both the publisher and the library side. It is a revenue model for open access monographs in which a press solicits a relatively small financial contribution from a moderate number of academic libraries,...
Opening the Future implementation toolkit
This shelf gathers together the three sections of the Copim Compass which make up the Opening the Future implementation toolkit.
Introduction: A guide of guides
Find out more about the Copim Compass.
01. About Copim Compass
Copim Compass is an online information hub developed by Copim's Open Book Futures project (2023-2026).
Success stories
This shelf pulls together success stories from libraries, authors and publishers.
Using the Opening the Future toolkit: An introduction to the resource
This toolkit sets out how we implemented the Opening the Future model, including the documentation of challenges, resources, timetables, and activities, from initial set up to renewals. It is intended as a roadmap for other presses that wish to implement an ‘O...
Copim Compass. A guide
This toolkit is the output of one of Copim's Open Book Futures project deliverables: to establish a knowledge base to provide comprehensive resources on alternative funding models and modes of publishing, acquiring and archiving open access books, alongside ne...
07. Opening the Future: Financial modelling
This section provides the detailed financial modelling spreadsheets and other tools that our participating presses have used, in order for you to make your own calculations.
Acknowledgements
The development of this guide was led by Kira Hopkins and Anna Hughes, with additional input from Tom Grady. The authors would like to thank the following individuals who contributed to the creation, reviewing and editing of this guide: Lucy Barnes, Simon Bowi...
08. Opening the Future: Workflows, partners & marketing
In order to implement Opening the Future on a day to day level, several organisational partnerships, website updates, workflows, and other BAU activities will be necessary. This section provides information about the workflows for using Opening the Future, inc...
License
This toolkit is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). Bookstack, the platform used to run the Toolkit, is used under an MIT license.
Why OA (for books), and why collective funding?
Traditional academic monograph sales are declining. The sector needs some kind of change in order to survive: OA is a more cost effective way to fund and produce these books for the academic market. OA is increasingly important and in some places mandated...
What is Opening the Future?
It is a revenue model utilising a Press' closed backlist to fund the open access frontlist. The Press creates backlist packages that libraries can subscribe to. The library subscriptions are then used solely to publish frontlist titles OA. How the Op...
04. Library Success Stories
Libraries are a vital and omnipresent part of open access publishing. Institutional publishing, generally in the form of university presses, is one major facet of this. Beyond that, libraries are the primary funder of collective open access funding; they provi...
What Opening the Future is NOT, and the importance of working with libraries in good faith
This is not a transformative agreement which links institutional support of a Press to their own authors being allowed to publish with that Press. Having a positive, open and respectful relationship with librarians is fundamental. You should communicate wit...
Author and library outreach
Here we detail general outreach. However, direct outreach to libraries that you hope will support you is vital to spreading awareness of your scheme and gaining hew support. This section covers suggestions and templates for this sort of direct outreach. This c...
Financial & resource assumptions underpinning implementing Opening the Future
You can use OtF to convert a series of books to OA (on the frontlist), or it can be used to gradually convert your entire frontlist to OA. This will change the scale of your OtF activities and how many library subscriptions you need. It may also impact how m...
Keep in touch!
The guide was first published in February 2025. However, we recognise that publishing changes, Open Access changes. We therefore welcome any and all comments on the content included in the Copim Compass. Any observations can be sent directly to info@copim.ac....
Comments from current users of Opening the Future
Hear from staff at Central European University Press and Liverpool University Press, who have both been using the model since its inception in 2020. CEU Press implemented the Opening the Future model in 2021, and has been running it successfully for the ...
10. Open Book Collective
The Open Book Collective are a UK registered charity (charity number: 1206287) that brings together publishers, publishing service providers, and scholarly libraries to secure the diversity and financial futures of open access book production and disseminatio...