Open Access publishing is often said to be the future of academic journals, but the actual move from a subscription model to an Open Access model is not easily achieved. Fair Open Access provides a model for flipping subscription journals to Open Access. This model has 3 main features:

1. It is discipline-based: within each academic discipline, a foundation is established that helps flipping journals from subscription to Open Access. Linguistics in Open Access (LingOA) is an example of such a foundation. Existing networks within the discipline are exploited to influence editors to flip their journal to OA. In linguistics, three international journals have moved from their traditional publisher to a new open access publisher, moving their entire editorial staff, authors, and peer reviewers from the traditional subscription model to Fair Open Access.

2. There are no author-facing charges. Article Processing Charges (APCs) for articles published in the flipped journals are paid by a 5-year temporary fund established by the foundation. The foundation pays for APCs during the transition from subscription to Open Access, and also covers any legal costs and advice associated with flipping the journals. APCs are kept as low as possible, and ownership of the journal lies with the editors of a learned society.

3. Long term sustainability. After 5 years, journals join a multi-disciplinary broader association such as the Open Library of Humanities (OLH), which pays for APCs through its worldwide consortium of 200 contributing libraries. These libraries pay an annual sum for the APCs of flipped journals. The libraries also have a say in which journals are admitted to the OLH. As a result, they can abandon the subscriptions for the journals that have flipped and pay much lower APC-contributions to OLH instead. In this way, the flip from subscription to Fair Open Access comes full circle.