From: Emily L Paquin-Abbas <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 2020 19:09:14 +0000

Hello,

I'm excited to announce that the MIT Press <https://mitpress.mit.edu/>
has published its first open access (OA) monographs on the MIT Press Direct
<https://direct.mit.edu/books> platform. Supported by a generous grant from
the Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter
Baldwin, the project is part of a larger initiative to explore alternatives
to the traditional market-based business model for professional and
scholarly works on specialized subjects.

In 2019, the MIT Press received a three-year $850,000 grant from the Arcadia
Fund <http://www.arcadiafund.org.uk>to perform a broad-based monograph
publishing cost analysis and to develop and openly disseminate a durable
financial framework and business plan for OA monographs. As part of the
project, the Press will also undertake a pilot program to implement the
resulting framework for scholarly front and backlist titles.



The following open access books are currently live on MIT Press Direct, the
Press’s institutional eBook platform, with many more slated to be released
in the coming months:

·         *The Immigrant-Food Nexus: Borders, Labor, and Identity in North
America*
<https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/4614/The-Immigrant-Food-NexusBorders-Labor-and-Identity>
edited
by Julian Agyeman and Sydney Giacalone

·         *Sulphuric Utopias: A History of Maritime Fumigation*
<https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/4653/Sulphuric-UtopiasA-History-of-Maritime-Fumigation>
by Lukas Engelmann and Christos Lynteris

·         *When Things Don't Fall Apart: Global Financial Governance and
Developmental Finance in an Age of Productive Incoherence*
<https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/3634/When-Things-Don-t-Fall-ApartGlobal-Financial>
by
Ilene Grabel

·         *The Cybernetics Group
<https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/4664/The-Cybernetics-Group>* by Steve
Joshua Heims

·         *Turtle Geometry: The Computer as a Medium for Exploring
Mathematics*
<https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/4663/Turtle-GeometryThe-Computer-as-a-Medium-for>
by
Harold Abelson and Andrea diSessa

·         *The End of Ownership: Personal Property in the Digital Economy
<https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/4662/The-End-of-OwnershipPersonal-Property-in-the>*
by Aaron Perzanowski and Jason Schultz

Amy Brand, Director of the MIT Press, sees this partnership as a way to
experiment with transformative open access models. “Publishing academic
monographs through a durable OA model allows us to increase the impact of
research and uphold our mission to disseminate high-quality scholarship to
the widest possible readership," says Brand. "The publication of the
first Arcadia-funded books on the MIT Press Direct platform marks an
important step in this project, and in our broader efforts to develop
sustainable models for open access scholarly publishing, at a time when public
access to knowledge is especially important.”



At the conclusion of the Arcadia grant, the MIT Press will openly share a
robust, blended OA model that the university press community can adopt and
adapt. This information will help to pave the way for the many scholarly
monographs published each year by university presses and other
mission-based scholarly publishers to be more readily discovered, accessed,
and shared.

###

*About the MIT Press*

Established in 1962, the MIT Press is a not for profit, university-based
publisher aligned with the values and mission of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. With offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and
London, the Press is one of the largest and most distinguished university
presses in the world and a leading publisher of books and journals at the
intersection of science, technology, art, social science, and design.
*www.mitpress.mit.edu* <http://www.mitpress.mit.edu>



*About Arcadia*

Arcadia is a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin. It
supports charities and scholarly institutions that preserve cultural
heritage and the environment. Arcadia also supports projects that promote
open access and all of its awards are granted on the condition that any
materials produced are made available for free online. Since 2002, Arcadia
has awarded more than $663 million to projects around the world.
*www.arcadiafund.org.uk* <http://www.arcadiafund.org.uk>



*Media Contact:*

*Emily Paquin Abbas*

*Communications Coordinator*

*The MIT Press*

One Rogers St

Cambridge, MA 02142

617-715-5412

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mitpress.mit.edu

@mitpress <https://twitter.com/mitpress>