Subscribe to Open (S2O) is an innovative OA business model designed to transition scholarly publications from traditional subscription-based access to open access (OA) without authors or their institutions facing publication charges.
Under S2O, academic libraries continue to renew their subscriptions with the promise that, if enough libraries participate, the journal’s content will be made freely accessible to all readers. So if a quota of libraries continue to subscribe, the content is made OA for everyone, if subscriptions fall below the quota, the content is not made OA, and only libraries with subscriptions can access it.
IReL Deals with S2O Elements
IReL has embraced the S2O model in several of its agreements. These agreements reflect IReL’s commitment to advancing open access and supporting the global research community and are aligned with the NORF Action Plan’s vision of OA working on a sustainable and inclusive basis.
The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) adopted a Subscribe to Open (S2O) subscription model for its six primary research subscription-based journals in 2025.
All 51 Annual Review journals have been published OA with the S2O model since 2023.
MUSE’s Subscribe to Open initiative has reached its sustainability goal for 2025. This will make more than 100 journals’ 2025 volumes, from 27 publishers, openly accessible on the MUSE platform.
Sage has an active Subscribe to Open pilot on two law journals – Medical Law International and Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, and two IOS Press journals – Information Services and Use and Environmental Policy and Law. The pilot commenced in 2023. Further information.
T&F are piloting S2O with three journals: Legal Reference Services Quarterly (WLRS), Technical Services Quarterly (WTSQ) and Journal of LGBTQ Issues in Counseling (WLCO).
Currently, two AIP Publishing journals are S2O: Journal of Applied Physics and Physics of Plasmas.
- American Physiological Society (APS)
10 APS journals participate in S2O.
The Microbiology Society recently announced that, thanks to the support of subscribing institutions, they have successfully met their sustainability target for the Journal of General Virology and the Journal of Medical Microbiology under the Subscribe to Open (S2O) model for 2025. All content published in these titles in the next year will be published as permanently Open Access (OA).
For more information on Subscribe to Open, see the Subscribe to Open Community website and their list of journals converted with S20.
“S2O offers an immediate, transparent and equitable conversion to open access, resulting in existing subscription spend having a greater impact. IReL immediately understood this, and their early adoption and support of the S2O model, which was greatly appreciated by Annual Reviews, has allowed their member institutions to align their collection budgets with their open access values, without any additional costs.”
– Mark Greene, Sales & Business Development Manager, Annual Reviews
“Project MUSE is delighted to announce a major achievement in its quest to advance open access. Working with IReL on the Subscribe to Open offer at the 2022 IFLA in Dublin, Aaron Binchy provided extensive feedback on our preliminary concept that led to the successful offer we presented in 2024. Thanks to the unwavering support of libraries and institutions worldwide, MUSE’s Subscribe to Open (S2O) initiative has reached its sustainability goal for 2025. This remarkable accomplishment will make more than 100 journals’ 2025 volumes, from 27 publishers, openly accessible on the MUSE platform.
-Tricia Miller-Chareun, Senior Manager, Sales and Library Relations, Project MUSE
This success reflects a collective commitment to ensuring that vital humanities and social sciences scholarship is accessible to everyone, free from paywalls. The S2O model, rooted in equity and collaboration, allows subscription journals to annually transition to open access without relying on Article Processing Charges (APCs). By leveraging MUSE’s long-standing journal collections model, this initiative represents a sustainable approach to broadening access to essential scholarly works.”