Category Archives: oa.project_muse

Opening the Future at CEU Press: an update on progress

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“A brief look at our progress so far, since launching our OA funding programme in 2021

Central European University (CEU) Press, in partnership with the COPIM project, are proud to share the first insights into the global reach of open access (OA) titles funded by their Opening the Future (OtF) initiative. This collective subscription model gives libraries access to a selection of the Press’ backlist and uses the membership fees to publish new OA titles to increase readership. A forthcoming report, based on Project MUSE usage data, looks in detail at the usage of these OA books – below we outline a few highlights from the report.

WHAT did we achieve so far?

The model, launched in 2021, has grown its membership continuously and we already have the funding for more than 35 OA titles over the next few years.

HOW did OA book usage grow?

Looking at usage data on the Project MUSE platform between December 2021 and December 2022, we compared the ten OtF-funded OA books to ten similar closed titles. Similar titles were chosen on the basis of close publication dates and subject scope.

Project MUSE host the gated backlist packages as well as the new frontlist OA titles and we can see that the readership of our books has risen substantially with the introduction of OA, which is no surprise. Since 2021 our OA books funded by Opening the Future have been downloaded 36 times more frequently than similar gated titles. 

In fact, for the same time period, the overall download numbers for all CEU Press books on Project MUSE also show not only significant increase in usage across all titles, but more specifically a strong growth in the usage of OA books….”

Project MUSE Announces Strategic Organizational Changes | May 16, 2023

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“…To better align with the changing scholarly communications landscape, MUSE has created a new department for Library & Publisher Partnerships. With many of our partner publishers now reporting to libraries, and many libraries now delving into publishing activities, MUSE seeks to create more connections between these two key constituencies. Kelley Squazzo has been appointed Director of Library & Publisher Partnerships, and will oversee both the current publisher relations and library sales teams at MUSE. …

As the information landscape becomes increasingly complex, MUSE has also created a new department to ensure its ability to provide robust updates in real time, and elevate the global impact of the scholarship on the platform. The growth of open access content and new channels for discovery require that MUSE effectively engage with broader and more diverse audiences than ever before. Melanie Schaffner will lead this department in the newly-created position of Director of Communication, Marketing, and Engagement, managing the internal and external marketing resources for the organization….

Project MUSE has also expanded its capacity in business operations and intelligence by welcoming back Lance Tieperman, in the newly-created position of Business Operations Manager. Tieperman was previously with MUSE in an inside sales and library support role, and also has experience in procurement with Johns Hopkins University and as a buyer/analyst with T. Rowe Price….”

Project MUSE Hosts New Interactive, Open-Access, Born-Digital Chapter

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“Project MUSE is pleased to host a new interactive, open-access, born-digital chapter, “The Web of History” from A New Vision for Islamic Pasts and Futures by Shahzad Bashir published by the MIT Press. The chapter of the publication hosted on MUSE mirrors the content from the born-digital product’s primary site, and is intended to provide an additional pathway to discovery, as well as spotlight the MUSE platform’s suitability for hosting robust and innovative digital humanities works.

A New Vision for Islamic Pasts and Futures brings together the MIT Press’s global publishing experience and the Brown University Library’s digital publication expertise. The groundbreaking scholarship decenters Islam from a geographical identification with the Middle East, an articulation through men’s authority alone, and the assumption that premodern expressions are more authentically Islamic than modern ones. Aimed at a wide international audience, the publication consists of engaging stories and audiovisual materials that will enable readers at all levels to appreciate Islam as an aspect of global history for centuries. The book URL is islamic-pasts-futures.org.”

Project MUSE Offer for Subscribe to Open (S2O) Journals Targeted for 2025

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“Following a year of research and community engagement funded by a planning grant from the Mellon Foundation’s Public Knowledge Program, Project MUSE is preparing a Subscribe to Open (S2O) offer across multiple journal titles and participating publishers that will begin with the 2025 calendar year subscription term.

 

With more than 700 current journals in the humanities and social sciences on its platform, from close to 200 non-profit publishers, Project MUSE is uniquely positioned to develop and deploy a Subscribe to Open business model at scale. The collective support of an S2O offer by MUSE’s community of thousands of libraries worldwide has the potential to equitably open a wealth of vital scholarship, in disciplines frequently not well served by other open access (OA) models.

S2O is an equitable alternative to “author-pays” OA models, expanding both author and reader access. The S2O model works by converting traditional gated subscriptions into annual payments that make open journals sustainable. Eliminating financial barriers for authors and readers is a major step forward and a foundational imperative to achieving an equitable, just, and inclusive world….”

Knowledge Unlatched Presents Open Access Heroes 2022

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Knowledge Unlatched (KU), the international initiative for Open Access (OA), is pleased to announce OA Heroes 2022, highlighting the countries, institutions, publishers, disciplines and scholarly titles seeing the most usage worldwide. The number of total user interactions (including downloads and views) for KU titles has grown year on year by 16 percent and now stands at a total of 16.2 million. On average, each title unlatched through KU gets 5,450 user interactions.

Project MUSE introduces AI-based links, powered by UNSILO, for related content

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“Project MUSE is partnering with UNSILO, a Cactus Communications (CACTUS) brand that develops artificial intelligence(AI)-powered solutions for publishers, to implement robust new AI-driven content recommendations throughout its massive collection of books and journals in the humanities and social sciences. UNSILO recently completed the initial indexing of the Project MUSE content collection and enhanced related content recommendations appear throughout the platform.

The UNSILO Recommender API automatically identifies links to relevant content from the MUSE content corpus for any selected document (book chapter or journal article). The indexing is updated every 24 hours as new content is added to MUSE. Links are delivered to the platform in real time, enriching the user experience and providing relevance-ranked discovery that augments the learning experience. Over 250 concepts are extracted from every document, and then matched by rank with related material. …”

Open for business! Opening the Future goes live. · COPIM

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“COPIM Work Package 3, in partnership with Central European University (CEU) Press is pleased to announce that our Opening the Future platform is now fully live, and member access to the programme’s curated backlist of books is available from Tuesday 19th January, through Project MUSE.

Opening the Future gives member libraries subscription access to portions of the Press’s highly-regarded backlist and uses the revenue to fund future/new publications in an Open Access (OA) format. We’ve been working hard with our platform partner, Project MUSE, to set up a simple sign-up and payment process, and technical access to the books. We’re pleased to say that this is all ready to go and already accepting memberships….”

Open Access On MUSE

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“Project MUSE offers open access (OA) books and journals from several distinguished university presses and scholarly societies. Through our open access hosting programs, we are able to offer publishers a platform for their OA content which ensures visibility, discoverability, and wide dissemination. These books and journals are freely available to libraries and users around the world….”

Project MUSE to Re-Launch Enhanced Journal Hosting Service – peter.suber@gmail.com – Gmail

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“Project MUSE is pleased to announce expanded and enhanced journal hosting services for 2021. Originally introduced in 2015, MUSE’s hosting service has provided an option for publishers to place journals on the MUSE platform outside of its renowned Journal Collections Program….

The changes to the program result directly from consultation with both current client publishers and prospective participants, in an effort to assess the 5-year-old program. “We’re thrilled that publishers are already responding enthusiastically,” said Kelley Squazzo, Director of Publisher Relations and Content Development for Project MUSE, of the re-tooled program. “I’m especially excited for the opportunity to grow our MUSE Open program with more open access (OA) journals.” Project MUSE anticipates a number of new OA journals to launch in 2021….”

Free Resources on MUSE During COVID-19

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“In response to the challenges created by the global public health crisis of COVID-19, Project MUSE is pleased to support its participating publishers in making scholarly content temporarily available for free on our platform. With many higher education institutions moving into an exclusively online learning environment for the foreseeable future, we hope that easy access to vetted research in the humanities and social sciences, from a variety of distinguished university presses, societies, and related not-for-profit publishers, will help to support teaching, learning, and knowledge discovery for users worldwide.

Read the full announcement about free access to MUSE content. Please contact MUSE Customer Support with any questions….”

JHU Press celebrates Open Access Week by releasing 100 out-of-print titles online for free | Hub

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“Johns Hopkins University Press is marking International Open Access Week this week with the release of 100 newly digitized open access books, including many seminal works by distinguished scholars that have been unavailable in recent years. The works are accessible for free through Project MUSE, the massive online collection of scholarship based at Johns Hopkins, which now offers opportunities for publishers to host free and open access content.

The release also represents the halfway point of the Hopkins Open Publishing: Encore Editions initiative, which aims to create open access digital editions as well as print-on-demand paperback editions of more than 200 titles drawn from the Press’s backlist of noteworthy but currently out-of-print titles. The initiative is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities….”

Open Access Books Program

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“Project MUSE’s Open Access (OA) Books Program offers publishers the ability to have their open access content available on the MUSE platform. The OA books are fully integrated with all the features and functionality of subscriber-only books and journals on Project MUSE….

Project MUSE charges a modest, one-time fee to cover the costs of publishing and supporting open access books on the platform. For a limited time in 2019, publishers can take advantage of the MUSE Open Access Books Program free of charge….”

Project MUSE offers nearly 300 “HTML5” open access books on re-designed platform | JHU Press

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“Nearly 300 open access (OA) books are now available from Project MUSE, the highly-acclaimed online collection of humanities and social science scholarship, on a newly designed platform that represents a major step forward in OA publishing in these fields.  The books will be delivered in a highly-discoverable and adaptable format using user-friendly HTML5, rather than static PDFs, and will include titles from Johns Hopkins University Press, Cornell University Press, Duke University Press, University of Hawai’i Press, University of Michigan Press, Syracuse University Press, The MIT Press, and Temple University Press….

The initiative was made possible by a two-year grant of nearly $1 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which concluded this summer.  Funds were used to develop an open source workflow for transforming epub files into HTML5 and, most importantly for users, launch a scholar-informed redesign of the Project MUSE interface that emphasizes simplicity, accessibility, and personalization. The redesigned platform includes robust support for discovery and linking, along with preservation with trusted third parties, assuring wide dissemination of OA book content on MUSE. The platform’s enhanced analytics services will help publishers understand the impact of making books freely available….”