MIT joined four other universities in launching a new “Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity” on September 15, 2009. The goal of the compact is to allow subscription-based journals and open access journals to compete on a more level playing field by providing equitable support for the processing-fee business model for open-access journals.

To support this goal, universities pledge to support fees for open access publication. Specifically, the universities commit to “the timely establishment of durable mechanisms for underwriting reasonable publication charges for articles written by [their] faculty and published in fee-based open-access journals and for which other institutions would not be expected to provide funds.”

In addition to MIT, the other initial signatories were Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, and the University of California at Berkeley.

MIT’s fund, the MIT Open Access Article Publication Subvention Fund (OAAPSF), was established in May, 2010.