Our annual round up of all things open access at EDP Sciences – part one

We are pleased to support International Open Access Week which this year addresses “It Matters How We Open Knowledge: Building Structural Equity”. And it really does matter... Fortunately, a number of choices are available to us in open access publishing, some of which, we would argue, offer a better path to structural equity than others.

According to the 2021 Open Access Week Advisory Committee “This year’s theme intentionally aligns with the recently released UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science, of which Open Access is a crucial component…” It is the first global standard-setting framework on open science and guides the implementation of open research practices. It also calls for equitable participation for all producers and consumers of knowledge.

Subscribe-to-Open (S2O) – a fair and sustainable open access model

cOAlition S encourages publishers to seriously consider the Subscribe to Open Model as a model for achieving full transformation to open access publishing and Plan S compliance.”

Subscribe-to-Open (S2O) is an innovative, transformative model that aims to transition subscription journals to open access in a fair and sustainable way without relying on Article Processing Charges (APCs). First introduced by Annual Reviews and later endorsed by cOAlition S, S2O has been embraced by a number of organisations which have come together in the S2O Community of Practice.

The S2O Community of Practice includes a number of well-known publishers and organisations such as the Gates Foundation. “We welcome participation from librarians, publishers, funders and others with an interest in opening scholarly information for the public benefit.” (S2O Community of Practice) As an open access publisher and advocate of open science, it is only natural that we should actively support the Community of Practice. We enjoy and are guided by the shared experiences and lively debate around S2O and would encourage anyone with an interest in S2O to get involved.

Back at EDP Sciences, Astronomy & Astrophysics, one of the world’s top astronomy journals, and our maths journals have adopted S2O so far. We will gladly help other journals to transition to open access, including under S2O, when they are ready. We feel S2O, in particular, offers a fair and sustainable path to open access in which libraries play a welcome and essential role. Our top reasons for supporting S2O are:

  • It provides a rapid route to open access without relying on Article Processing Charges (APCs)
  • It is inclusive and encourages diversity - anyone can publish research and access content regardless of their financial situation
  • Transparency is a cornerstone of S2O and allows objective decision-making
  • It is based on collective responsibility and enables libraries to support open access publishing using existing subscription workflows and channels

“…the Subscribe-to-Open model is a very attractive solution for Research4Life authors because they don’t even have to worry about asking for a fee waiver.” Andrea Powell, STM Outreach Director and Publisher Coordinator, Research4Life”

Along the way, we have been privileged to work in a very collaborative, cross-community way with organisations such as Knowledge Unlatched, Jisc and the Fonds national pour la science ouverte (FNSO). This has been a very rewarding experience. We encourage you to find out more about Subscribe-to-Open and to advocate for the model. New subscribers are welcome at any time and will help S2O to evolve and thrive as will journals from different disciplines as they adopt S2O. Let’s see – we’re enjoying the S2O journey so far!

In a second post tomorrow, we will explore some more partnerships and bring you up-to-date with our journals.

We hope you have enjoyed reading this post. If you’d like to comment on anything or find out more about S2O or our open access activities, please get in touch with This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Director of Marketing and Communications, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.