Supporting the Pluto Journals Open Access Collection
We are pleased that you are interested in supporting our collection, without support from libraries we will be unable to keep our valuable collection open for everyone. We hope that the information here will help you to decide what sort of support you can give.
Ask your library to sign up
If your institution does not currently support the Pluto Journals Open Access collection, we kindly request that you reach out to your librarian and encourage them to sign up. Please see a suggested template below. If you require any assistance or guidance in this process, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Dear Librarian/Library Acquisition Committee,
I am writing to recommend the Pluto Journals Diamond Open Access collection for your library’s collection. This collection includes over 20 Open Access titles that cover a wide range of topics in the social sciences.
I recommend the Pluto Journals collection for the following reasons [delete where appropriate]:
- I support Open Access because it provides free and unrestricted access to articles, ensuring that research articles and scholarly content is made freely available to readers without any paywalls or subscription fees. This unrestricted access allows a wider audience, including researchers, students, policymakers, and the general public, to benefit from the knowledge and findings presented in the research.
- I believe that Open Access is an equitable and sustainable model for publishing.
- I am an author of [Journal Title], affiliated with [University name].
- I will refer to the journals frequently for my research work, and I will regularly refer my students to the journals to assist their studies.
- I am also a contributor or member of the Editorial Board to a Pluto Journals title, so I have a personal investment in the success of this collection.
I urge you to consider including the Pluto Journals collection in your next serials review meeting.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Department]
[Your Position]
[Your Email]
What is Subscribe to Open (S2O) and how does it work?
Subscribe-to-Open (S2O) is a sustainable way of making journals Open Access (OA) without charging authors. Readers (or their institutions) do not have to pay to read journals, and authors (and their institutions or funders) do not have to pay to publish in them.
S2O is a form of Diamond OA. More specifically it’s a library partnership subsidy model. Libraries voluntarily support the publisher’s list of journals as a package or support individual journals from the list. To provide stability and encourage long-term planning, some libraries commit to a term of several years.
For Pluto Journals, S2O is the mainstay of journal income but it is supplemented by reader donations, grants, non-library institutional support and journal membership initiatives.
All Pluto Journal content is published under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 licence, maximising the potential for re-use of scholarship. To keep our supporters informed, we produce an annual report on our publishing programme, including readership and financial data.
The benefits of S2O and Diamond Open Access
- Diamond OA is the most equitable model in journals publishing to date because publishing in journals and reading them are both free
- As with other forms of OA the journals reach a new and important readership outside academia: policy-makers, NGOs, lawyers, commerce and of course the public
- Diamond OA may be the most, or even the only, reliable model for many HSS journals making the transition from subscription to OA
- It is already a recognized and important business model, with many institutions providing support for journals financially or in kind
- There is no pressure on editors to publish more, simply to boost income from author charges
- S2O and Diamond OA enhance bibliodiversity, which is vital to academia
- Libraries can make use of their existing workflows and their ordering and payment channels
What does S2O support for Pluto Journals cost?
Journals add substantial value in the publishing process. With digitisation and online publication there have many savings in costs but also the addition of some new ones. Journals’ costs include running editorial offices and managing peer review, copyediting, typesetting and proofreading, online hosting, navigational tools and archiving.
Pluto Journal has calculated the level of S2O support that would allow it to cover these costs for the long term. The annual supporter fees to support the full package of journals are as follows:
Pluto Journals Full Package Pricing 2023
| Sum of all journals | 1-year price | 3-year price per year | |
| EUR | €6,866 | €6,523 | €5,836 |
| USD | $7,759 | $7,371 | $6,595 |
| GBP | £5,973 | £5,674 | £5,077 |
Notes: Discounts only available for full package subscriptions to all 21 journals. 5% for a 1-year commitment and 15% for a 3-year commitment.
How to support the Pluto Journals collection through S2O
Libraries and Librarians
Pluto Journals works with Knowledge Unlatched, who have unparalleled experience of S2O in both book and journal publishing. Payments for S2O support can be made through the library’s existing subscription agent, with Knowledge Unlatched coordinating the process. You can contact Knowledge Unlatched at neil@knowledgeunlatched.org.
Pluto Journals also work with library consortia, for instance UK university libraries can sign up for S2O support through Jisc.
We welcome any questions you have, so please feel free to ask us.
