Through programs and services like Direct to Open and MITops, the MIT Press seeks to encourage experimentation and make scholarship accessible to all
Encouraging experimentation and offering new alternatives for scholarly communication are values that are deep in the bones of the MIT Press, made clear by our continued support of open access publishing.
This year for Open Access Week, we are proud to share a few of our open access initiatives. These programs and services bring the latest scholarship to communities that need it most, provide publishing services for open access research, and advance key academic fields making major changes in the world today.
Democratizing access to trustworthy information has never been more critical than it is now. Read on to explore just some of the ways that the MIT Press is ushering forth the vital scientific research we need to address global challenges—and consider supporting our open access initiatives.
MIT Open Publishing Services (MITops)
MIT Open Publishing Services (MITops) is a scholar-focused, MIT-branded hosting and publishing services operation. In collaboration with our partner, Knowledge Futures, MITops presents a suite of premier publishing services tailored for mission-driven partners. The MITops vision goes beyond just hosting and publishing. We see a future where the true potential of institutionally governed infrastructure is unlocked by pairing innovative publishing technologies with economic incentives. This approach not only empowers academia but also paves the way to reclaiming the scholarly communication marketplace.
“This isn’t just a change in how we publish — it’s a revolution,” said Amy Brand, director and publisher of the MIT Press. “As we lessen the academy’s reliance on large global information service providers, we ensure that our services resonate with the genuine needs of researchers, authors, and readers.”
The Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science (OECS)
Earlier this year, the MIT Press officially launched the Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science (OECS), a dynamic, comprehensive, and openly accessible web reference developed to guide the next generation of exploration in cognition and intelligence. With the recent publication of its first 50 articles, OECS stands to become the new benchmark in the field—made possible by generous funding from James S. McDonnell Foundation and the Allen Institute for AI—and will be one of the most contemporary, authoritative, and comprehensive reference works in the cognitive sciences currently available.
“Cognitive science is a multi-disciplinary, global field, so for researchers and students, it’s very important to have a reference for the many different concepts, methods, and theories that they may encounter,” said Michael C. Frank, coeditor of OECS. “The Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science is designed to fit this need by providing everyone—especially those without costly journal subscriptions or university library access—with accessible articles on key topics written by top researchers in the field.
“We hope these peer-reviewed, authoritative articles will empower experts and non-experts globally to broaden their knowledge about complex topics in cognitive science, help reduce misinformation, and inspire people to learn more about the field,” said coeditor Asifa Majid.
Direct to Open (D2O) and open access book publishing
Direct to Open (D2O) is the MIT Press’s sustainable and scalable collective action model for open access book publishing, harnessing the collective power of libraries to support open and equitable access to vital, leading scholarship. D2O was developed over two years with the generous support of the Arcadia Fund, in close collaboration with the library community. Since launch in 2021, Direct to Open has empowered us to make hundreds of books open to the world, reflecting and amplifying the values of an educational institution that places a premium on experimentation and open knowledge.
Open access journals
The Press’s award-winning journals program is a leader in open access publishing. We are proud that all of our active journals offer some form of open access support, which means our journals make it easy for authors to comply with open access publishing and science requirements from funders or institutions and ensure their scholarship reaches the widest global audience possible. The Press now publishes 14 fully open access journals including:
- Imaging Neuroscience
- Rapid Reviews \ Infectious Diseases
- Harvard Data Science Review
- American Journal of Law and Equality
- Journal of Climate Resilience & Climate Justice
- Quantitative Science Studies
Knowledge Futures and PubPub
Founded in 2018 as a partnership between the MIT Press and the MIT Media Lab, Knowledge Futures builds sustainable tools and technologies for libraries, presses, museums, activist organizations, researchers, and others whose knowledge work seeks to serve collective understanding and the public. What began as a handful of grad students working on publishing tools has grown into an independent, nonprofit organization that builds products that demonstrate an effective, equitable, and sustainable knowledge economy is possible. Their platform, PubPub, offers open source technology for creating full-stack knowledge infrastructures for communities of all types.