"This project is an admirable response to the current crisis in scholarly publishing and to the rapid shift from print media to electronic media."

J. Hillis Miller, UC Irvine

In recent years, the price of journal subscriptions has skyrocketed while humanities book lists have dwindled. As a result, researchers at all but a few institutions are finding it increasingly difficult to get hold of the materials they need to participate in the scholarly dialogue.

Open access (OA) publishing has sprung up in direct response to this crisis. The basic idea is simple: making peer-reviewed literature permanently available, free of charge and freely redistributable by taking advantage of the low cost and wide access of internet distribution.

People's general fear is that standards will suffer, but this is clearly unfounded. Academic quality is ensured through peer-review. Distribution is an entirely independent issue. Requiring that every article be printed on paper is not just unnecessary, it's unsustainable.

Unimpeded communication between researchers is fundamental to rigorous scholarship. We all gain from the wider readership and greater impact our work has if it is freely available to anyone who is interested. After all, the exchange of ideas is at the heart of our what we do.
Beyond The Institutional E-Press

A number of forward-looking presses and libraries have begun rethinking the university press model in light of digital distribution. Naturally, we are supportive of and excited by these institutional initiatives, but they often include institutional goals that may be ancillary to open access and, indeed, to scholarship.

After looking at the various efforts underway, we concluded that an editorially-driven international press, focused on building respect through its brand, is what is required to tackle the digital 'credibility' problem. With OHP, we aim to emulate the strengths and flexibility of commercial presses, while avoiding the institutional limitations of the university-based e-presses.

In 2009, we partnered with the University of Michigan Library's Scholarly Publishing Office (SPO) to publish open access monographs, still the 'gold standard' in humanities disciplines. Our partnership thrives on the complementary strengths of the groups — SPO has infrastructure, scale, and experience; OHP draws together self-organizing editorial teams of senior scholars in various fields of the humanities to provide the editorial functions and peer review.

We are actively seeking partners to collaborate and help us think about, refine, and extend the model. In order to effect a broader change in attitudes to open access, we are more effective working together.