Miami University Libraries is pleased to announce our participation in the Knowledge Unlatched project as a charter member. The current system for publishing scholarly material is in crisis. Knowledge Unlatched is pioneering a new, experimental model for the publication of scholarly monographs–instead of every academic institution purchasing a single title whose use is limited to that institutional community, a large cooperative of institutions pay into the cost of a title fee to a publisher. In return for this payment, the book is made freely available for anyone in the world to access on a Creative Commons license as a fully downloadable PDF. Because the number of participating institutions was much higher than originally predicted, the cost per book per institution dropped drastically.
As of April 2014, 22 of the 28 titles in the pilot phase of this project are now available for anyone to download on the OAPEN platform. The remaining 6 titles will be published and made available over the remainder of 2014. As a charter member, Miami University Libraries will be involved in the project’s governance going forward, and will have the option to continue participating on a title by title basis.
Titles cover a variety of subject areas, primarily in the humanities and social sciences. A list of the available titles can be found on the OAPEN platform.