Following the completion of our 2026 program cycle for Direct to Open (D2O), the MIT Press is pleased to announce the opening of our 2027 funding cycle, inviting libraries worldwide to support the innovative diamond open access model.
In 2026, library participation enabled a new collection of rigorously researched MIT Press scholarly books to be made openly available worldwide. This achievement reflects the ongoing commitment from more than 260 library partners to support collaborative models that expand access to high-quality monographs for those communities that need it most.
“We’re deeply grateful to all of our library partners who have invested in Direct to Open,” said Amy Brand, director and publisher of the MIT Press. “Reaching our full funding threshold for fiscal year 2026 demonstrates what’s possible when libraries and publishers work together to support equitable access to scholarship. We’re excited to build on that success as we move into our next fiscal year and adapt to the realities of modern scholarly publishing.”
Since its launch in 2021, Direct to Open has strived to evolve with the changing landscape in scholarly publishing. The original D2O model was designed to cover partial direct costs of the monographs included in the collection. However, since the model’s inception, publishing costs have risen significantly. As these costs continue to soar, every institution’s support bolsters our mission to deliver valuable monographs and edited collections to readers worldwide.
As the program enters its next funding cycle, the MIT Press is dedicated to securing D2O’s long-term sustainability. But more importantly, the open access books published under D2O will continue to make a lasting impact in the community, winning awards (like those listed below) and receiving up to 20% more citations than their non-open counterparts.
Recent award-winning Direct to Open books:
- The Future Is Present by Philip Glahn and Cary Levin: Winner of the 2025 Frank Jewitt Mather Awards from the College Art Association
- The Equitably Resilient City by Zachary B. Lamb and Lawrence J. Vale: Winner of the 2025 Best Book In Urban Affairs Award
- Transforming School Food Politics around the World edited by Jennifer E. Gaddis and Sarah A. Robert: Winner of the 2024 Gourmand Awards, Best School Meals Book in the World, and the 2025 ASFS Book Award, Edited Manuscript category
- Data Rules by Cristina Alaimo & Jannis Kallinikos: Winner of the 2025 European Group for Organizational Studies Book Award
- Cloud Policy by Jennifer Holt: Winner of the Katherine Singer Kovács Book Award from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS)
- Trans Technologies by Oliver L. Haimson: Winner of the LaborTech Book Award
- Archiving Machines by Amelia Acker: Joint winner of the ASIS&T Best Information Science Book Award; 2026 PROSE Award Winner: Computing and Information Sciences
- Let Geography Die by Alison Mountz and Kira Williams: Winner of the 2026 AAG Meridian Book Award for Outstanding Scholarly Work in Geography
- Playframes by Celia Pearce: Winner of the 2026 Erving Goffman Award for Outstanding Scholarship in the Ecology of Social Interaction
- The Patina of Distrust by Eugenia Mitchelstein, Pablo J. Boczkowski, María Celeste Wagner and Facundo Suenzo: Joint winner of the 2026 ASIS&T Best Information Science Book Award; Winner of the 2026 AEJMC-Knudson Latin America Prize
The MIT Press would like to thank the libraries who supported D2O this year and enabled open access to critical scholarly research. More than 500 open access titles can be read on the MIT Press Direct platform, and libraries can activate these OA titles in their discovery layer using free MARC records on our website. Libraries interested in contributing to MIT Press’s open access initiative can learn more on our website, or contact our Library Relations team at mitp-library-relations@mit.edu.
Member News Release submitted by The MIT Press on 09/08/2026.
