University of Michigan Press

Since 2021, the University of Michigan Press has been developing a business model we call “Fund to Mission.” This model aims to reduce dependence on Book Publishing Charges (BPCs) for open-access book publishing by spreading the costs of producing books across a wide range of institutions and libraries. The promising result of this initiative is that we never require authors to pay BPCs to publish open access. Still, we always request a contribution to our costs if it is available from the parent institution or other funder of the author’s work.

It is worth noting that presses invest considerable resources in producing and publishing any monograph. In 2016, we participated in creating a report from ITHAKA S&R on “first copy” costs for academic monographs and also conducted a check study in collaboration with Indiana University Press. We calculated the average cost of producing an academic monograph (including all associated staff activities) for our university press at around $27,000. Traditionally, the press would hope to recover that investment through sales alone. When a book is published using open-access distribution models, the press must consider how those costs will be covered, usually through a combination of print sales revenue, subvention from the author’s institution or a third-party funder, and other sources of support such as our internal funds. In our publishing model, the press will have spent substantial staff time and paid honoraria to peer reviewers while developing an author’s work to be its best. This is why we ask for a 12-month embargo on the Author Accepted Manuscript even before it has been copyedited and typeset.