Berlin, 2 May 2019. Knowledge Unlatched (KU) the central funding platform for Open-Access (OA), launches its sixth funding round today. Libraries worldwide can support 17 projects across many scientific disciplines by pledging within the central Knowledge Un-latched marketplace. The projects have been assessed and selected by librarians based on their attractiveness for funding, including 180 subject experts on the KU Selection Committee who have curated the content for KU Select 2019 Books. This year’s offering consists of Open Access books, journals and services from a variety of partners, all of which should be made freely accessible to users all over the world upon completion of the funding process.

“Librarians wish to support the transformation of publishing models for the benefit of science,” says Dr. Sven Fund, Managing Director of KU, “the KU models help to build a bridge between publishers and libraries in order to make this transformation as efficient and risk-free as possible.”Until the end of November 2019 libraries worldwide can pledge their financial support for those initiatives which best suit their profiles. Provided enough institutions take part in the process, these initiatives enable researchers to publish Open Access at no cost, while fellow scholars benefit from unrestricted access to the content. “Open Access has long been a major discussion topic around the world. The KU funding model now provides a practical solution for supporting change, and offers a sustainable alternative for authors and users”, adds Fund.

All offers for this year can be viewed on www.knowledgeunlatched.org. 1,250 books and 19 journals have already been made Open Access through the KU initiatives to date. All information about the content of past collections can also be found on the website.

About Knowledge Unlatched (KU): KU offers every reader worldwide free access to scholarly content. The online platform enables libraries worldwide to centralize their support for Open Access models from leading publishers and new initiatives in favor of Open Access.

Contact:
Philipp Hess, Publicity & Communications
philipp@knowledgeunlatched.org