What is Subscribe to Open?
Subscribe to Open (S2O) is a model that some publishers are using to move their journals to fully open access for a particular year when they receive enough Library subscriptions.
From a researcher’s perspective, when a journal is part of an S2O agreement, the current year’s publications are available open access, and any author publishing an article in the included journals will have their work published open access with no article processing charges (APCs).
How does Subscribe to Open work?
S2O model is activated when the publisher reaches a set target of library subscriptions for their journal(s) in a particular year.
If the publisher's subscription target is reached, for that calendar year:
If the publisher’s subscription target is not reached for that calendar year, the publications will remain behind a paywall.
In 2024, ANU Library is supporting the S2O agreement with Annual Reviews through the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) as well as independent publishers and Project Muse.
A number of publishers are trialling S2O models in 2024. When selecting a journal to publish in, you may come across S2O agreements that are not financially supported by ANU Library. Check the details of the agreement on the publisher's website to see if you are eligible to publish open access with no APC.
Advertising & Society Quarterly is the participating journal in the MUSE Subscribe to Open program. Starting in 2025, in any year that the S2O program is successful, all new content from the journal will be open access immediately upon publication.
AIP Publishing is excited to announce Journal of Applied Physics and Physics of Plasmas are fully open access journals in 2024 through their Subscribe to Open (S2O) program. The two journals are now free to read by all regardless of subscription status. All content for 2024 is made openly available under a Creative Commons license of the author’s choosing at no cost to that author.
2025 journal volumes are currently in production, and will convert to OA as they publish under a Creative Commons license. Please check their publishing schedules on
Environment and society - Under this agreement, authors retain the copyright in their Article and may select one* of three Creative Commons licenses for its publication: CC BY, CC BY-ND, or CC BY-NC-ND. Where no choice is made explicit, the default Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license at no cost to authors and will be freely available to readers.
Museum worlds - Under this agreement authors retain the copyright in their Article and may select one* of three Creative Commons licenses for its publication: CC BY, CC BY-ND, or CC BY-NC-ND. Where no choice is made explicit, the default Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license at no cost to authors and will be freely available to readers.
New Hibernia Review is the participating journal in the MUSE Subscribe to Open program. Starting in 2025, in any year that the S2O program is successful, all new content from the journal will be open access immediately upon publication.
Latin American Theatre Review is the participating journal in the MUSE Subscribe to Open program. Starting in 2025, in any year that the S2O program is successful, all new content from the journal will be open access immediately upon publication.
Linguistic Typology - Starting with Volume 27 (2024), all current content will be published under a Creative Commons License (CC-BY 4.0) at no cost to authors and will be freely available to readers.
Linguistics - Starting with volume 60 (2022), all current content will be published under a Creative Commons License (CC-BY 4.0) at no cost to authors and will be freely available to readers.
There are no article processing or submission charges for Early Theatre authors. The complete issue in which a piece has been published will be behind a one year subscribers-only paywall. Readers can access the entire issue through a personal subscription or an institutional subscription to Early Theatre. After one year, the entire issue becomes completely open access via their website (earlytheatre.org). For more details, please check publisher policy and submission guidelines.
From 2022, Astronomy & Astrophysics is published under a Subscribe to Open model (S2O). S2O is an alternative subscription model which enables libraries to use their collections budgets to support open access publishing. Every year, existing library customers are asked to continue to subscribe, and when subscribers commit, Astronomy & Astrophysics publishes that year’s content in open access without charging authors an APC. An announcement is made in the first quarter of every year, following the subscription renewals cycle, regarding the status of the journal. A&A is a community journal sponsored by a board of member countries. While subscriptions fund the publishing costs of the journal, the editorial costs are funded both by the contributions from member countries, and page charges for authors of non-member countries. More detailed information on page charges is available here. In addition, under the S2O model, if A&A receives enough subscriptions to go open access in a given year, all articles will be published open access that year. No additional charges (article processing charges) apply.
All journals in its Subscribe To Open (S2O) programme are published as open access under a CC-BY licence for the 2024 subscription period. These journals include: Commentarii Mathematici Helvetici, Journal of Fractal Geometry, Journal of Noncommutative Geometry, Journal of the European Mathematical Society, L’Enseignement Mathématique, Quantum Topology, and Revista Matemática Iberoamericana.
Nabokov Studies is the participating journal in the MUSE Subscribe to Open program. Starting in 2025, in any year that the S2O program is successful, all new content from the journal will be open access immediately upon publication.
These 27 titles are the participating journals in the MUSE Subscribe to Open program. Starting in 2025, in any year that the S2O program is successful, all new content from these journals will be open access immediately upon publication.
European Journal of Language Policy is the participating journal in the MUSE Subscribe to Open program. Starting in 2025, in any year that the S2O program is successful, all new content from the journal will be open access immediately upon publication.
All 2024 articles in the 5 Mathematical Sciences Publisher publications are free to be read by everyone and with no author charges. Articles are published under a Creative Commons license (and authors are allowed to retain the copyright).
Levinas Studies is the participating journal in the MUSE Subscribe to Open program. Starting in 2025, in any year that the S2O program is successful, all new content from the journal will be open access immediately upon publication.
These 27 titles are the participating journals in the MUSE Subscribe to Open program. Starting in 2025, in any year that the S2O program is successful, all new content from these journals will be open access immediately upon publication.
The Subscribe to Open pilot on 2 law journals – Medical Law International and Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights continues in 2024. All articles published in these 2 journals will continue to be published on a fully open access basis with no APC to authors and under a Creative Commons licence.
China Review and Journal of Chinese Linguistics are the participating journals in the MUSE Subscribe to Open program. Starting in 2025, in any year that the S2O program is successful, all new content from these journals will be open access immediately upon publication.
These 4 titles, American Periodicals: A Journal of History, Criticism, and Bibliography, Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society, Narrative, and Victorians: A Journal of Culture and Literature are the participating journals in the MUSE Subscribe to Open program. Starting in 2025, in any year that the S2O program is successful, all new content from these journals will be open access immediately upon publication.
Journal of the Southwest is the participating journal in the MUSE Subscribe to Open program. Starting in 2025, in any year that the S2O program is successful, all new content from the journal will be open access immediately upon publication.
Southern Cultures and The Latin Americanist are the participating journals in the MUSE Subscribe to Open program. Starting in 2025, in any year that the S2O program is successful, all new content from these journals will be open access immediately upon publication.
Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature is the participating journal in the MUSE Subscribe to Open program. Starting in 2025, in any year that the S2O program is successful, all new content from the journal will be open access immediately upon publication.
Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies is the participating journal in the MUSE Subscribe to Open program. Starting in 2025, in any year that the S2O program is successful, all new content from the journal will be open access immediately upon publication.
Music and the Moving Image and The Journal of Aesthetic Education are the participating journals in the MUSE Subscribe to Open program. Starting in 2025, in any year that the S2O program is successful, all new content from these journals will be open access immediately upon publication.
Mechademia is the participating journal in the MUSE Subscribe to Open program. Starting in 2025, in any year that the S2O program is successful, all new content from the journal will be open access immediately upon publication.
The Missouri Review is the participating journal in the MUSE Subscribe to Open program. Starting in 2025, in any year that the S2O program is successful, all new content from the journal will be open access immediately upon publication.
These 20 titles are the participating journals in the MUSE Subscribe to Open program. Starting in 2025, in any year that the S2O program is successful, all new content from these journals will be open access immediately upon publication.
African Economic History and Luso-Brazilian Review are the participating journals in the MUSE Subscribe to Open program. Starting in 2025, in any year that the S2O program is successful, all new content from these journals will be open access immediately upon publication.
Information & Culture and Studies In Latin American Popular Culture are the participating journals in the MUSE Subscribe to Open program. Starting in 2025, in any year that the S2O program is successful, all new content from these journals will be open access immediately upon publication.
African Economic History and Luso-Brazilian Review are the participating journals in the MUSE Subscribe to Open program. Starting in 2025, in any year that the S2O program is successful, all new content from these journals will be open access immediately upon publication.