Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Demography's Funding Model

What is Subscribe to Open?

Subscribe to Open (S2O) is a business model that uses subscription payments to convert gated-access journals to fully open access (OA). S2O is not dependent on a voluntary donation approach but does accept donations to supplement the subscription revenue and help meet the annual threshold to open the content. Subscription fees support publishing costs, and articles will be made fully OA if the annual funding threshold is met by March 31. Each year’s current content remains gated and limited to subscribers until an annual S2O revenue threshold is met. If the journal reaches the S2O revenue threshold for the current year, the year’s volume becomes open access in perpetuity. 

Furthermore, S2O-subscribing institutions receive an additional benefit for their associated authors through an Open Access publishing guarantee. That is, articles with corresponding authors who are affiliated with current S2O-subscribing institutions are guaranteed to be open access in perpetuity.

What is the Demography S2O timeframe for 2026?

All payments from subscriptions active in the Duke University Press system before March 31, 2026 will count toward the S2O revenue threshold. If the S2O revenue threshold for Demography is met by that date, that year's volume will be made OA. Institutions can subscribe to Demography after March 31, 2026 but their subscription fee will no longer contribute toward making the current volume OA. If an institution subscribes after March 31, 2026, any article by an author affiliated with that institution accepted after the subscription is active in our system still qualifies for the OA-publish guarantee. 

What are the 2026 subscription benefits?

Benefits to libraries:

• Perpetual access to the purchased volume (2026).
• Once payment is processed, subscribers receive term access to Demography back content (1964–2020, 2024-2025). The 2021, 2022, and 2023 volumes are OA in perpetuity.
• OA-publish guarantee eligibility once an institution’s order is processed and the subscription is active in DUP’s system.
• Contribution towards making the current full volume OA in perpetuity for more equitable and broader dissemination of Demography’s content. The subscription must be ACTIVE in the Duke University Press system by March 31, 2026 to contribute towards opening the 2026 volume.  

Benefits to authors include the Open Access Publish Guarantee for corresponding authors from a subscribing institution as well as broad dissemination of scholarship.

How does the Open Access Publish Guarantee work?

The OA-publish guarantee benefit ensures that any article of Demography with a corresponding author affiliated with one of the current institutional S2O subscribers will be published OA. An institution must be an active subscriber at the time when the article is accepted. 

IMPORTANT: If an article qualifies for the OA-publish guarantee during the subscription year, it will be made OA even if it's published in a later year. The article does not have to be assigned to the current volume.

The 2025 subscribers are eligible for OA guarantee until March 31, 2026 even if the institution has not yet renewed. Any corresponding author from the 2025 subscriber list with an article accepted after March 31, 2026 will not be eligible if the institution has not renewed by that date.

When is my institution’s faculty eligible for Open Access Publish Guarantee?

As soon as your subscription is processed and active in the Duke University Press system. For new institutions, the date that the institution becomes an active, paid subscriber for the current volume year (2026) in Duke University’s system makes authors affiliated with the institution eligible for the OA guarantee once the article is accepted. For all renewing institutions only, articles accepted during the grace access period of January 1 through March 31 of each year will continue to be eligible for the OA-publish guarantee. 

What is a corresponding author?

The corresponding author is the one individual who signs the publication agreement and who takes primary responsibility for communication with the journal during the manuscript submission, peer review, and publication process.

I am the corresponding author of the accepted article. How do I know if my institution has subscribed to the journal?

Please visit the Demography Funders page to review the 2025 S2O subscribers to Demography. If you’d like to ensure that your article is published as open access, please recommend the journal to your institution.

If my article is not ultimately published as open access, can it meet funding requirements?

Yes. All authors may post their accepted article manuscript (AAM) non commercially, without embargo, on their personal website, in their university repository, and in other nonprofit or governmental open-access repositories, with copyright and source information provided along with a link to the published version as soon as it is available. Where required by their funder or institution, authors may also apply a Creative Commons license (BY 4.0) to the AAM. (This approach meets the OA requirements of UKRI and Wellcome, among other funders.)

How can institutions support Demography on top of subscription fees?

Institutional donations on top of subscriptions fees are welcome. All donations will count toward the S2O revenue threshold for the current year if received before March 31. For more information, please contact FundDemographyNow@dukeupress.edu.

How can individuals support Demography?

Individuals can support Demography through individual donations collected via Duke University Press Demography Fund. 

How is the S2O threshold set? 

Demography publishes the highest-quality original research of scholars in a broad range of disciplines that include anthropology, biology, economics, geography, history, psychology, public health, sociology, and statistics. In order to make the journal’s current volume openly available to the worldwide community of population researchers now and into the future and to ensure financial sustainability over time, a minimum number of subscriptions must be reached for each volume year to become open access. An annual threshold is set that will cover Duke University Press’s direct and indirect expenses.

Was Demography previously fully open access?

Upon leaving a commercial press for DUP in 2020, Demography flipped to fully open access beginning with the 2021 volume, entirely supported by a community funding model. The 2021, 2022, and 2023 volumes published under this model will remain fully open access. Beginning with the 2024 volume, Demography adopted the S2O model.

What are the benefits of early subscription?

All payments from subscriptions active in the Duke University Press system before March 31, 2026 count toward the S2O revenue threshold. If the threshold is met by March 31, 2026, that year's volume will be made OA. Subscribing early also widens the timeframe for OA-publish guarantee eligibility for authors affiliated with those institutions.

The date the institution becomes an active, paid subscriber in Duke University’s system makes an author affiliated with the institution eligible for the OA guarantee once the article is accepted. For example: If an institution becomes an active subscriber in the Duke University Press system on November 30, 2025, any article with a corresponding author affiliated with that institution and the article’s acceptance date is between November 30, 2025 and March 31, 2026, will be eligible to be published OA.

Is there a grace access period for renewing institutions?

Yes, all renewing institutions will receive grace access to the Demography content from January 1 to March 31. After March 31, if an institution hasn’t renewed, institutions will only retain access to the content that they purchased and affiliated authors will no longer be eligible for the OA guarantee.