The OpenEdition Freemium programme

Summary

OpenEdition Freemium is a programme offered by OpenEdition, a digital infrastructure for scholarly communication in the humanities and social sciences.

Its purpose is to support the development of open access scholarly publishing in the humanities and social sciences.

The programme comprises two complementary offerings:

OpenEdition Freemium for Books: includes three purchasing options and two types of licence.
OpenEdition Freemium for Journals: an annual subscription to OpenEdition’s Freemium journals package.

Promoting organizations

The OpenEdition Freemium programme is promoted by OpenEdition (through the OpenEdition Center, UAR 2504), a research infrastructure dedicated to open-access digital publishing in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The OpenEdition Center is jointly supported by CNRS, Aix-Marseille Université, EHESS and Avignon Université, which act as the project’s partner and host institutions.

Objectives

The programme offered by OpenEdition aims to build an innovative and sustainable business model in which all revenue generated is reinvested in the development of open-access digital scholarly publishing.

It seeks to address two needs: to make the open access publishing model as attractive as possible while also ensuring significant income for journals so they can cover the costs of scholarly publishing.

In addition, the programme is based on a business model that combines free open access to publications with the sale of value-added (premium) services.

Beneficiaries and stakeholders

The programme is offered exclusively to institutions such as libraries, university campuses and research institutes.

These institutions benefit from the ability to download content in PDF or ePub formats, without DRM or download limits, while general internet users can access the content in HTML.

Participating institutions also benefit, among other services, from support and training for librarians and institutional customisation.

Results

With OpenEdition Freemium, a sustainable business model for open access publishing has been built in collaboration with libraries.

The programme has given institutions the opportunity to participate and play an active role in developing this global open access ecosystem for both researchers and students.

OpenEdition Freemium has succeeded in developing an open access publishing model that offers a third route through libraries.

Challenges

The challenges identified include sustaining institutional funding and ensuring that libraries continue to contribute: free web reading remains openly accessible, while payment covers add-ons (PDF/ePub downloads, usage statistics, support, and integration services). In addition, the programme must stabilise revenue streams and scale its infrastructure internationally.

Evidence of success

It is considered a good practice because it provides a sustainable model to fund open access scholarly publishing in the HSS: content is openly available in HTML, while libraries fund premium services (PDF/ePub downloads, usage statistics, etc.). In 2024 it maintained around 175 subscribing libraries for journals and reached 168 institutions in Freemium Books. Since 2013 it has generated €9.93M and more than €6.36M has been redistributed to publishers/editors.

It is transferable because it shifts support for open access from author-facing charges to institutional agreements: libraries/consortia fund open publishing and receive value-added services (PDF/ePub, tools and statistics), while keeping HTML access open. The model is already scaled: more than 230 institutions support it, joining via consortia such as Couperin (France), CIFNAL (USA/Canada), BICFB (Belgium) or BCI (Canada). In addition, agreements such as EIFL’s have expanded free access to the journals package in 28 countries (184 journals + 17 bonus titles) until December 2026, demonstrating adaptability to different contexts. It can inspire other platforms/universities provided they ensure revenue transparency and reinvestment/redistribution.