Moira Marsh, Librarian for Anthropology, Folklore, and Sociology, shares the good news: “Because another regular anthropology journal became open access last year, I had funds to spare in anthropology serials.” Marsh continued, “We are happy to announce that the IUB Libraries is now a collection-level subscriber to Berghahn Open Anthro.” IU Libraries’ electronic resources are constantly changing. What makes this Berghahn subscription exceptional is the “open” label. 

In 2020, Berghahn made 15 of its primary anthropology journals open access. Marsh states, “Indiana University Bloomington is one of 41 institutions worldwide who subscribe to the complete Open Anthro collection.” The journals in this collection include the Cambridge Journal of Anthropology, Focaal, Museum Worlds, Social Analysis, and many more. Marsh explains, “Berghahn’s subscribe-to-open model makes this content accessible to the world without the hefty author publication charges (APCs) that other publishers demand to put single articles outside their paywalls.” Instead of relying on authors, subscribe-to-open relies on libraries to subscribe one year at a time. If the collective income allows for open access, a journal's content is open for that year.

According to their website, the Berghahn Open Anthro collection journals have published over 400 open access articles since this program began. “For the price of one APC, a single library can help fund the entire Berghahn Open Anthro collection for multiple years,” Marsh explains. “Our opportunity to join this model project came when the Taylor & Francis journal Annals of Human Biology flipped to open access, freeing subscription funds. It seemed right and proper to use the money saved in one open access initiative to help support another.”