Opening the Future: A New Model for Open Access Books

Sign up to subscribe as a member
Watch our 60 second explanation video

Sign Up

Card image cap
History Package

History of the former communist countries is a strong feature of CEU Press’s publication program and this premier collection of books covers topics from medieval times to the fall of communism. Title…

View More Information
Card image cap
Political Science Package

Interest in Central and Eastern Europe over the past 30 years has been intense. The region experienced political, economic, social and cultural changes on a scale not seen elsewhere. This scholarly c…

View More Information
Card image cap
Editors' Choice Package

For those libraries that would like to acquire a broad selection of books about the region covering its literature, history, economics and culture. This package includes issue-focussed books in gende…

View More Information
Card image cap
Library Selection

This package contains 50 books selected by an independent panel of librarians. This selection is a cross-section of the other three packages and represents those CEU Press titles that might be of int…

View More Information
View All Packages (5 total)

Central European University Press

Established in 1993 and reflecting the intellectual strengths and values of the Central European University, CEU Press is a leading publisher in the history of the region, communism and transitions to democracy. It is widely recognised as the foremost English language university press dedicated to research on Central and Eastern Europe and the former communist countries. It publishes over 30 new monographs and research-based edited collections a year with a backlist of over 500 titles. 

The diversity of the region is reflected in the Press’s publications and its commitment to bring new voices to the world. Stringent peer review, editorial and production standards are a feature of the press.


Learn more about the programme

The New Model

This new model brings publishers and librarians together to ensure that quality monographs are published open access affordably and sustainably. It ensures that collections can grow at vastly reduced rates and demonstrates that funding future OA books can cost a fraction of closed monographs.

We aim to make 25+ frontlist titles per annum OA on publication through a funding model that is based on an annual subscription to a package of 50 key backlist titles, converting to perpetual ownership after three years. Tiered pricing for all sizes of institutions is part of this novel variant of the subscribe to open model (S2O). 

Membership of the OtF community - without subscribing to the backlist - is also available. See our FAQs.

Shortlisted jointly with COPIM by ALPSP for their Innovation in Publishing award 2021.

Open Access for Books

Open Access for us refers to the works that are the foundation blocks of Humanities and Social Sciences and without which our civilisation stands little chance of becoming fairer, more equitable and more inclusive. 

Open access for books is now high on the international policy agenda. Many models are prohibitive, though, for authors who do not have funding. Book Processing Charges (BPCs), for example, worsen inequality by favouring the most wealthy institutions and authors, whereas collective library funding models like ours seek to spread the funding of OA books so that no single institution bears a disproportionate cost. The move to OA monographs must be a sustainable and bibliodiverse one - it must be sustainable for presses like ours and also for libraries.

Find out more