MIT Press recently announced the second round of funding to flip existing subscription journals to diamond open access. Funded by Arcadia and the National Science Foundation, shift+OPEN “seeks to catalyze needed change in journals publishing, introduce authors to new readerships, and increase the reach of vital scholarship that has previously been locked behind paywalls.” In order to be eligible, journals must have been publishing in English for at least three years. Journals from all disciplinary fields are welcome, and applications are due April 30 to: mitpress.mit.edu/shiftopen.
Such open access publishing initiatives compliment others that are currently available to Illinois State University editors, scholarly society leaders, and editorial board members. ISU ReD, the institutional repository of the University, currently hosts four peer-reviewed, open access journals. A member of the University community is affiliated with each of these titles as editor, editorial board member, or member of a board of directors.
According to Dr. Jennifer Friberg, director of scholarly teaching and Cross Endowed Chair in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Center for Integrated Professional Development, and professor of communication sciences and disorders, “Having access to ISU ReD as a host for Teaching and Learning in Communication Sciences and Disorders has been transformational in that anyone anywhere in the world can access content in our journal and contribute to important conversations about how to best prepare future speech-language pathologists and audiologists.”
Study after study has confirmed that articles published through open access have more readers and more impact within and outside of their disciplines. Dr. Tamra Connor, associate dean in the College of Business confirms the positive impact of open access publishing via Milner Library’s repository. “The exposure that the International Journal for Business Education receives through our affiliation with ISU ReD has increased both the quality and quantity of submissions to the journal,” Connor said. “It is exciting to see the body of literature grow in the discipline.”
Milner Library’s Scholarly Communication Team would love to learn more about your publishing needs and discuss how ISU ReD might enable your society or organization to make its journal openly and persistently available. Contact us at isured@IllinoisState.edu. Additional scholarly communication articles are available for those interested in more information.
