Focus: taking stock of OpenEdition’s Freemium programme

Over ten years after the launch of the OpenEdition Freemium for Books offer enabling university libraries and institutions to acquire digital books published on the OpenEdition Books platform, which now boasts 14,800 books and 120 publishers, OpenEdition, UGA Éditions, ENS Éditions and Presses Universitaires de Rennes got together to provide some perspective and feedback on the Freemium programme and changes in content access policies.

The people who took part in this interview are: Marie Pellen (M.P.), Director of OpenEdition, David Beorchia (D.B.), Co-Manager of the Freemium service at OpenEdition, Julie Sorba (J.S.), Scientific Director at UGA Éditions, Stéphanie Trine (S.T.), Editorial and Administrative Director at UGA Éditions, Isabelle Boutoux (I.B.), Manager of ENS Éditions, Sandrine Padilla (S.P.), Manager of Publishing & Promotion at ENS Éditions, and Yves Picard (Y.P.), Manager of Digital Services at Presses Universitaires de Rennes (PUR).

• One of the objectives of OpenEdition’s Strategic Plan is to transition to open access through stable yet diversified economic models. The OpenEdition Freemium programme is designed for libraries and institutions, to encourage them to play an active role in developing open access. How does the programme work? And how does it support the diamond open access model?

M.P. The programme is based on Freemium open access publishing, a model that addresses two major challenges: publishing in open access mode (the full text is available in HTML format immediately) and providing partner libraries with related services.

It goes without saying that OpenEdition decided to place libraries at the centre of its content dissemination strategy. Making sure we listen to and recognize the importance of long-established stakeholders, and treat the key players in a complex publishing industry with consideration, has always seemed crucial to us at a time of digital transition and growth in open science.

In signing up to the Freemium programme, libraries remain key to the dissemination of scholarly books and support publishers that choose to commit to the open access movement, by helping them finance their publications. Partner libraries benefit from related services: downloading without digital rights management (DRM) or download quotas for PDF and ePUB formats, certified Counter 5 statistics, acquisition suggestions, customized acquisition management software, training and support, and so on.

Two thirds of the revenue generated by the programme is transferred back to publishers. The remaining third is used by OpenEdition to cover expenditure such as management costs.

The programme relies on an infrastructure that enables each publisher to make its works available under the diamond open access model – no APCs, and content can be accessed immediately. For over ten years, it has been offering libraries and institutions the possibility of playing an active role in developing open access through renewed support. This regular support for open access is crucial, because opening up access by fits and starts does not provide publishers with the means to set up a durable open access policy.

• What changes have taken place over the last few years in book access policies on OpenEdition?

D.B. What we’ve noted is that most publishers have cleared the first digital and open access hurdles, even if it sometimes proved difficult and complex for professionals from the scholarly publishing sector.

The teams adjusted remarkably well to this new set-up and learnt new skills, despite the challenges of restricted employment or funding. At the start of 2024, over 40 publishers on OpenEdition Books had the capacity to simultaneously produce print and digital versions of their new publications. You could count them on the fingers of one hand when the book platform was launched in 2013. And that’s largely down to the tools and methods developed and shared by the Métopes infrastructure.

These new production capabilities have grown alongside a finer-grained understanding of the challenges of digital publishing. What was often seen as nothing more than an extra workload, is now perceived as a means of increasing readership and revenues. Publishers are now equipped to launch strategies for publishing on several media and opening up access to their books.

• What is OpenEdition’s policy in terms of opening up access to content? How is it implemented?

M.P. OpenEdition’s policy is somewhat strict, yet attractive too. Publishers sign an agreement to make at least half of their titles available under an open access model on their Open Edition Books website. At the start of 2024, we noted that 35 publishers had made all their books available under the Freemium open access model, and 16 had done so under the full open access model. If we combine these two categories with the publishers that make works available under a mix of both models, the total number of publishers choosing to make all their books available under an open access model is 70 out of 131. This brief overview reveals that most publishers voluntarily decide to go above and well beyond the 50% threshold set by OpenEdition. If we look at the other end of the spectrum, only ten or so publishers apply a closed access model to 40% or 50% of their catalogue.

D.B. In terms of the OpenEdition Books catalogue, 15% of books are available under a restricted access model compared to the 85% available in open access mode. We still need to convince the reluctant few of the benefits of publishing content under an open access model. The objective findings of the study carried out as part of the SO PUR project should illustrate that digital and print versions are complementary in nature rather than being a threat to each other. We hope it will encourage publishers to take the plunge and embrace more openness for the sake of readers. Expanding the visibility of the humanities and social sciences in this way contributes to a better understanding of the world, as well as the development of informed opinions.
In terms of turnover, we estimate that income from the Freemium programme for books represents between 10% and 50% of revenues for publishers that also publish works in print.

• UGA Éditions recently decided to make all its new publications available under the Freemium open access model. Why?

J.S./S.T. UGA Éditions adapts its publishing choices to reflect the needs of its communities: researchers, the general public, students, professionals.

We have always prided ourselves on publishing research-based books, which are still a core part of our catalogue. Publicly funded research work is meant to be shared with the widest possible audience in an effort to democratize information and boost innovation. That’s why UGA Éditions has been making all its scholarly journals available under a full open access model on the OpenEdition Journals and Prairial platforms since 2017.

Where books are concerned, we are now able to share them in a cost-effective way, which is why we opted for the Freemium open access model for the digital versions of books aimed at researchers. UGA Éditions thereby meets all the goals set by the University of Grenoble Alpes as part of its commitment to developing open science. By continuing to make the print versions of these books available in bookstores too, readers are free to choose the version best suited to their needs.

Otherwise, we are also testing the complementary nature of print and digital versions by making several new books that are not aimed specifically at researchers available under the Freemium open access model.

• ENS Éditions had a similar experience overall and it decided to switch fully to a Freemium open access model during the pandemic. How many works were involved?

I.B./S.P. Because we have been applying the Métopes process within ENS Éditions since 2012, we have the option of publishing all our new publications on a variety of media. That’s why we can now systematically publish the digital version of our books online at the same time as making them available in bookstores. The advantage is that readers can access content in different ways, on various media and in a variety of formats – print, HTML, portable (PDF and ePUB) – thereby encouraging complementary reading practices that are adapted to different audiences.

The challenges related to publishing and diversifying access modes have also become inextricably linked with the issues associated with opening up publications and developing open access. In light of the major drive to open up access to research-based publications, ENS Éditions’ publishing policy naturally aligned itself with this national effort to make publications available to the widest possible audience.

The Covid-19 pandemic acted as a catalyst and, in this exceptional context, we decided to respond to the call for proposals launched by the Couperin Consortium in spring 2020 asking publishers to open up access to their publications. Since autumn 2020, all our books have been made available immediately on publication, with no embargo, on the OpenEdition Books platform under the Freemium open access model. There are 370 titles currently available under the Freemium model on the platform.

Despite only having had a few years to observe trends, we haven’t noticed any change to the overall sales of print versions so far, nor the number of titles sold. These findings concur with those of the study carried out by PUR as part of the SO PUR project, which established that there is no obvious correlation or causal link between opening up access to digital versions of books and the sales of print versions. Each format seems to be evolving independently within the various distribution channels, meeting usage needs and practices that are complementary, yet very different too.

The highly specialized nature of books stemming from research work, characterized by a slow turnover, requires more diverse forms of access. Although the income from print versions represents 90% of revenues, the sales figures for print books are not the only criteria for evaluating the publishing activity of a publicly funded publisher, whose primary goals are to promote and disseminate research work, publish quality, peer-reviewed texts, provide authors with support, carry out editorial tasks, publish and promote books, and so on. That’s why disseminating research-based books under an open access model makes complete sense, and acts as a pledge to publish research in a mutually beneficial way.

• Why has Presses Universitaires de Rennes (PUR) chosen the Freemium programme?

Y.P. For PUR, the Freemium programme is way of promoting the merits of open access as well as the importance of print books and bookstores. It’s a diverse form of publishing that seeks to reconcile the different ways in which a book can exist. Just one format is no longer sufficient, which means publishers have to go beyond the publishing medium and guarantee access to scholarly texts in multiple formats. In addition, even though there seems to be a clear separation between the different distribution channels, we need to make sure that open access does not become one more silo among the other silos.

The benefits of open access are unquestionable today. Closed content continues to disappoint. Interviews we carried out with our readers clearly illustrate the increasingly hybrid use of print and digital versions: science itself is also benefiting from these new practices.

Freemium enables publishers to provide sometimes reluctant authors with more precise information on the different types of digital offer (open access, teaching, sales, archiving, etc.) and their features.

• What conclusions have you now drawn at PUR from applying this economic model?

Y.P. The study undertaken thanks to the SO PUR project, which David Beorchia referred to earlier, shows that digital versions of books create revenues in addition to print, along with new forms of usage, as I mentioned just now. We’ve had a hunch about Freemium not affecting bookstore sales for several years at PUR. The figures provided by the study have confirmed that hunch.

Making books available online and on bookstore shelves on the same day is now our standard publishing practice for all our research-based book series. Our income still largely depends on print books, but both versions will bolster each other over time and balance each other out in terms of revenue.

However, it doesn’t prevent other book formats from being published (mass-market paperbacks, illustrated books, guides) or other forms of publication, such as print only, or open access for all formats. It’s up to us, as publishers, to imagine and suggest different possibilities and futures for books on the humanities and social sciences.

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