Join Us
A better kind of open
Lever Press is a membership-based university press that aims to produce the highest quality scholarship in an economically sustainable model, embody and reflect the values of the liberal arts, and lead the way in establishing best practices for born-digital, peer reviewed, open access monograph publishing at no cost to our authors or their academic institutions.
The Membership Model
Lever’s funding model is designed to share the costs of running Lever Press equitably among our members. Our annual budget includes expenditures for acquisitions, book production, and overhead including staff salaries (including annual raises for staff), outreach, marketing and member management. We also receive in-kind support from Michigan Publishing, but member pledges reflect almost all of the actual total costs of running an open access press; Lever is not subsidized by Michigan or by an existing scholarly press.
Members make 3-year pledges to support Lever, a membership term that we believe is short enough to not burden members with a lengthy financial commitment yet long enough to provide us with a stable, foreseeable budget to keep operations running smoothly and to anticipate the number of publishing contracts we can commit to for the next several years.
Each member’s annual cost will not exceed the amount committed to in their 3-year pledge, but may be less. It is anticipated that a net membership gain during the pledge cycle will lead to reduced annual cost allocations for all members in years 2 and 3 depending on the total budget needed for those years.
The budget is developed by the Oversight Committee each August for the following calendar year, and announced to the membership in September along with each member’s contribution for the coming year. After a brief period of time for member comment, the budget is approved by the Oversight Committee. The Oversight Committee is composed of member representatives, and all members have the opportunity to run for election to the Oversight Committee and are encouraged to provide input into the budgeting process.
| Annual Library Collections Budget | Contribution Rate |
|---|---|
| Less than $300,000 | $500 annually |
| $300,000 - $499,999 | $2,000 annually |
| $500,000 - $749,999 | $4,000 annually |
| $750,000 - $1,499,999 | $6,000 annually |
| $1,500,000 - $2,999,999 | $8,000 annually |
| $3,000,000 - $5,999,999 | $10,000 annually |
| More than $6,000,000 | $12,000 annually |
| Tier | High Income | Upper Middle Income | Lower Middle Income | Low Income |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doctoral | $6,000 | $3,600 | $1,500 | $600 |
| Master's | $4,000 | $2,400 | $1,000 | $400 |
| Baccalaureate | $2,000 | $1,200 | $500 | $200 |
| Associates | $500 | $300 | $125 | $50 |
Benefits of Membership
Lever Benefits Scholars
Equity at every level
Support for Authors
With no APCs, there are no barriers for an author to publish with Lever Press, and a $1,000 honorarium sets the standard in the industry.
Access and Equity
By paying our editorial board and peer reviewers, we are democratizing the scholarly communication system.
Diamond Open Access
We don’t just unlock books, we produce open books from the start of the publishing process.
Lever Benefits the Classroom
Better resources make better teachers
Savings for all
We publish books that are intended to be used in the classroom, and the Open Access editions come with zero costs to the student or teacher.
Collaborating with students
Our student-contributed titles include Open Access Musicology and Women of Trachis.
Innovation in Teaching
We publish books that offer alternative pedagogical approaches, like Public Feminisms: From Academy to Community and Academic Pipeline Programs: Diversifying Pathways from the Bachelor's to the Professoriate.
Lever Benefits Libraries
Value for your values
Your university press
You’re not just supporting a university press, you ARE the press. Join our Oversight Committee—nominations are now open—and make your voice heard.
Measurable impact
We capture quantitative and qualitative impact data. We’ve seen over 170,000 book uses across 172 countries and have received hundreds of positive reviews of our publishing program from readers all over the world since 2020.
Why Lever? 10 reasons to choose Lever Press
- Quality, reach, and innovation
- Alignment with mission and ethos of liberal arts institutions
- Adherence to highest level peer-review practices
- Metrics, tracking, and discoverability built into publishing platform
- Research openly available to all, contributing to the democratization of scholarship
- Platinum OA ensures authors access to publication venue regardless of ability to pay publication fees
- Opportunities to transcend disciplinary boundaries and create new models of scholarship
- Publications that blend research with teaching and learning resources
- Lever’s fully open access model means works are freely available online immediately upon publication
- Rich media digital books published on sustainable and durable digital platform, simultaneously available in print
To see more reasons to support Lever, download Making the Case for Lever Press.
Testimonials
“We are very proud to be able to support Lever Press. We increasingly see supporting diversity and transformation in academic publishing as part of our mission, we see this as the natural successor of collection building, so we are very happy when we can find places to invest this money."
“My colleagues and I—all from liberal arts colleges—want to make this rich, 17th-century French novel accessible to a new generation of students and faculty working in the digital humanities. In keeping with the ethos of Lever Press, the edition is completely free, so it can be used by as wide a variety of readers as possible.”
Lever Press advances the value of liberal arts and the value of an open access press, as central to equity and inclusion. Lever Press is an equalizer.
"I'm a PhD student on health leave. I have wanted to keep up with developments in the field and it has been difficult without access. Free resources like this are a lifeline! Thank you!"
