Monographs are the cornerstone of scholarly research in the humanities and social sciences, but have long been under siege. Shrinking library budgets and rising costs result in higher prices. The upshot is that presses must reduce the number of titles they publish, regardless of the merits of the work.

In the current system, distribution is limited to a few hundred purchases of each monograph. Libraries can’t build comprehensive collections, and readers can’t find or access important scholarly work. And new forms of digital and multimedia scholarship can’t flourish in a print-first/only model. It’s time for a breakthrough.

Open Access offers the potential to exponentially increase the visibility and impact of scholarly work by making it globally accessible and freely available in digital formats. Costs are covered up front through subventions, breaking down barriers of access at the other end—for libraries and for individual readers anywhere in the world.

Open Access provides our framework for preserving and reinvigorating monograph publishing for the future.