The Open Library of Humanities announced the launch of their platform with an editorial by directors Martin Paul Eve and Caroline Edwards. Launched after more than two years of planning, with supporting membership funding, OLH represents “the seed of a scalable model for journal transition to open access in the humanities that does not rely on payment from authors or readers” and that attempts to counter “staunch resistance in the humanities to open access.” As Martin and Edwards write:
For this initial launch, six journals have moved from their existing homes to our new model: 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long-Nineteenth Century; The Comics Grid; Orbit: Writing Around Pynchon; ASIANetwork Exchange; Studies in the Maternal; and The Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry. These publications span the range of journal types that the platform can support: those publications that are already open access but that rely on unsustainable volunteerist labour; those that are open access but that rely on unsustainable article process charges; and those that are currently subscription-based but that want to achieve open access. Applications are now open for other journals that wish to join the platform.
dh+lib Review
This post was produced through a cooperation between Leigh Bonds, Rebecca Dowson and A Miller (Editors-at-large for the week), Caro Pinto (Editor for the week), Sarah Potvin (Site Editor), Caitlin Christian-Lamb, Roxanne Shirazi, and Patrick Williams (dh+lib Review Editors).