Open Access agreements with smaller publishers require active cross-stakeholder alignment, report says | Plan S

“Open Access agreements between consortia/libraries and smaller independent publishers are used worldwide increasingly since 2020, signalling a potential for further growth, highlights an independent report released today (June 9, 2021) by Information Power. The report was commissioned by cOAlition S and the Association of Learned & Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) as a follow up on the outcomes of the Society Publishers Accelerating Open access and Plan S (SPA-OPS) project, published in autumn 2019.

The report indicates that during 2020 there was a clear increase in the number of open access (OA) articles published in hybrid journals, which reverses the downward trend between 2016 – 2019, and deems likely a further increase over the next few years, partly driven by new OA agreements.

Smaller independent publishers – for example, society publishers without a larger publishing partner, university presses, library presses, and small independent commercial presses – support open science, and they would like the journal articles that they publish to be open to people all over the world. However, due to their scale, a full transition to OA is a serious challenge. A single OA agreement with an institution is much easier for a smaller independent publisher to administer than many article transactions, unless of course each library or consortium wants a different sort of agreement. Libraries and consortia invest hugely in making agreements with publishers happen; however, there can be far less awareness within these organizations of how challenging the agreements are to implement highlights the report.

Practical collaboration in a number of targeted areas is needed to align on shared principles, license language, data exchange, and workflows, followed by engagement with standards bodies, intermediaries, and platform providers to ensure these can become embedded in practice.

The transition to OA requires change on the part of all stakeholders. The report argues it is particularly crucial that active cross-stakeholder alignment focuses on enabling smaller independent publishers to transition successfully. Among other things, the authors strongly recommend funders take steps to enable universities to aggregate all their expenditure with publishers via the library. They also encourage publishers who closely link the price of OA agreements to article volume to think carefully about more equitable models….”

Open Access agreements with smaller publishers require active cross-stakeholder alignment, report says | Plan S

“Open Access agreements between consortia/libraries and smaller independent publishers are used worldwide increasingly since 2020, signalling a potential for further growth, highlights an independent report released today (June 9, 2021) by Information Power. The report was commissioned by cOAlition S and the Association of Learned & Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) as a follow up on the outcomes of the Society Publishers Accelerating Open access and Plan S (SPA-OPS) project, published in autumn 2019.

The report indicates that during 2020 there was a clear increase in the number of open access (OA) articles published in hybrid journals, which reverses the downward trend between 2016 – 2019, and deems likely a further increase over the next few years, partly driven by new OA agreements.

Smaller independent publishers – for example, society publishers without a larger publishing partner, university presses, library presses, and small independent commercial presses – support open science, and they would like the journal articles that they publish to be open to people all over the world. However, due to their scale, a full transition to OA is a serious challenge. A single OA agreement with an institution is much easier for a smaller independent publisher to administer than many article transactions, unless of course each library or consortium wants a different sort of agreement. Libraries and consortia invest hugely in making agreements with publishers happen; however, there can be far less awareness within these organizations of how challenging the agreements are to implement highlights the report.

Practical collaboration in a number of targeted areas is needed to align on shared principles, license language, data exchange, and workflows, followed by engagement with standards bodies, intermediaries, and platform providers to ensure these can become embedded in practice.

The transition to OA requires change on the part of all stakeholders. The report argues it is particularly crucial that active cross-stakeholder alignment focuses on enabling smaller independent publishers to transition successfully. Among other things, the authors strongly recommend funders take steps to enable universities to aggregate all their expenditure with publishers via the library. They also encourage publishers who closely link the price of OA agreements to article volume to think carefully about more equitable models….”

How to enable smaller independent publishers to participate in OA agreements

Abstract:  This work was carried out by Information Power on behalf of cOAlition S and ALPSP. The objective of this project was to measure progress on Open Access (OA) agreements since the SPA-OPS project ended in early 2020. The focus was on OA agreements between consortia/libraries and smaller independent publishers who face challenges in trying to negotiate and implement transformative OA agreements.

How to enable smaller independent publishers to participate in OA agreements

Abstract:  This work was carried out by Information Power on behalf of cOAlition S and ALPSP. The objective of this project was to measure progress on Open Access (OA) agreements since the SPA-OPS project ended in early 2020. The focus was on OA agreements between consortia/libraries and smaller independent publishers who face challenges in trying to negotiate and implement transformative OA agreements.

Member Webinar – Transformative Agreements: Where are we now?

“Transformative (also referred to as transitional agreements) are becoming increasingly important in the OA landscape, particularly as UKRI is due to announce the outcome of its consultation on open access in the second quarter of 2021 .

What is involved in negotiating a transformative agreement?  
What does a library look for in a transformative agreement? 
How should you manage the agreement once it is in place?…”

Virtual Training – Strategy and Pricing for Open Access Journals

“Are you involved in developing or executing OA publishing strategy? Do you have responsibility for implementing an OA programme? Do you need to inform your strategic planning of OA with a practical perspective?

This course will equip participants with the tools and insights to inform their OA strategic thinking and decision making. It will take people through the complexities and challenges of OA, highlighting the ways in which OA publishing is deeply different to subscription publishing (and some ways that it is the same!).

The course, aimed at senior managers, is an intensive half-day looking at the strategic aspects of overseeing and developing OA journals. There will be group discussion, case studies and scenarios to prepare delegates for meeting the challenges of planning and running OA journals. We will explore the issues encountered in setting strategy, budgets and pricing; the policy and competitive landscape; and sales and marketing….”

Review of OA agreements post SPA OPS Survey

“Thank you very much for agreeing to complete this short survey. We have been commissioned by the European Science Foundation, on behalf of cOAlition S, and ALPSP to review the progress of open access agreements around the world.

 

Transformative OA agreements are made between libraries and publishers and include both OA publishing services and reading services (if any content is paywalled). They remove the need for authors to pay Article Processing Charges (APCs) or other transactional charges for their open access publishing. Many types of transformative OA agreement initiatives operate today, including Read & Publish, Subscribe to Open, Community Action Publishing, and journal flipping programs via Knowledge Unlatched, Libraria, or SCOAP3.”

NISO Voting Members Approve Work to Update Journal Article Versions (JAV)

“The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) announced today that their Voting Members have approved a new work item to update the 2008 Recommended Practice, NISO RP-8-2008, Journal Article Versions (JAV): Recommendations of the NISO/ALPSP JAV Technical Working Group. A NISO Working Group is being set up, and work is expected to begin in early 2021. 

Publication practices have changed rapidly since the publication of the original recommendations. For example, preprints have become much more important as a publication type in many disciplines, and publishers are increasingly experimenting with new ways to publish, update, and keep research alive. All of these versions of an article are important and citable, making the concept of a single ‘version of record’ less relevant. These additional processes to support public availability make the consistent assignment of DOIs to one or more versions challenging. 

The NISO JAV working group will define a set of terms for each of the different versions of content that are published, as well as a recommendation for whether separate DOIs should be assigned to them. They will address questions such as: Should there be a single DOI for an article, regardless of version? Different DOIs for each version? How are the identifiers connected and used? How do we define a version? As with all NISO output, the group’s draft recommendations will be shared for public comment before publication….”

Standards Committee Votes – 11/8/2020 – Association for Information Science and Technology | ASIS&T

“1) Voted YES on Approval of Proposed New Work Item: Update NISO RP-8-2008, Journal Article Versions (JAV)

 

Question:

Do you approve of a Proposed New Work Item: Update NISO RP-8-2008, Journal Article Versions (JAV)?

Description:

This ballot is to approve a proposed new work item to Update NISO RP-8-2008, Journal Article Versions (JAV) [https://www.niso.org/publications/niso-rp-8-2008-jav] to take into account publication practices that have been adopted over the past 12 years, especially the increasing circulation of preprints and the application of DOIs across the landscape….”

ALPSP Awards for Innovation in Publishing 2020: Shortlist announced!

“The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers, is delighted to announce the shortlist for the ALPSP Awards for Innovation in Publishing 2020, sponsored by Publishers’ Licensing Services.

Applications for the awards were open to any new development, product, service or project which is both innovative and of significant value to scholarly communication. The winners must demonstrate excellence in terms of originality, innovation, value to the community, utility and long-term viability.

The ALPSP Awards finalists for 2020 are: 

Charlesworth WeChat Gateway
DataSeer
Jus Mundi
Open Library of Humanities
Rigor and Transparency Index powered by SciScore
Scholarcy
Select Crowd Review
WordToEPUB…”

Growing Successful Open Access Journals – Virtual classroom – 8 & 9 Sept

“Are you running a journal or journal programme to deliver on your Open Access publishing strategy? Do you have responsibility for implementing an OA programme? Do you need to inform your approach to OA with a practical perspective?

This course will equip participants with the tools to make a success of an Open Access journal or journal programme. We will do this by taking people through the complexities and challenges of Open Access, highlighting the ways in which OA publishing is deeply different to subscription publishing (and some ways that it is the same!).

The course will be a practical, hands-on exploration of launching, converting, running and developing Open Access journals. Delegates will participate in group discussion, will work through case studies and scenarios to develop high level strategies. We will cover the economics of Open Access publishing – considering costs, pricing and revenue and encouraging delegates to conceive of each rigorously in an era of greater scrutiny. Through the lens of a typical day for running an OA journal or journal programme we will explore the issues encountered including finances, ethics, operations, sales and marketing….”

Growing Successful Open Access Journals – Virtual classroom – 8 & 9 Sept

“Are you running a journal or journal programme to deliver on your Open Access publishing strategy? Do you have responsibility for implementing an OA programme? Do you need to inform your approach to OA with a practical perspective?

This course will equip participants with the tools to make a success of an Open Access journal or journal programme. We will do this by taking people through the complexities and challenges of Open Access, highlighting the ways in which OA publishing is deeply different to subscription publishing (and some ways that it is the same!).

The course will be a practical, hands-on exploration of launching, converting, running and developing Open Access journals. Delegates will participate in group discussion, will work through case studies and scenarios to develop high level strategies. We will cover the economics of Open Access publishing – considering costs, pricing and revenue and encouraging delegates to conceive of each rigorously in an era of greater scrutiny. Through the lens of a typical day for running an OA journal or journal programme we will explore the issues encountered including finances, ethics, operations, sales and marketing….”

Society Publishers Accelerating Open access and Plan S (SPA-OPS) project

“This collection contains the key outputs from the Society Publishers Accelerating Open access and Plan S (SPA-OPS) project. This project set out to identify routes through which learned society publishers could successfully transition to open access (OA) and align with Plan S.

This project was led by Alicia Wise and Lorraine Estelle of Information Power, and was commissioned by Wellcome, UK Research and Innovation, and the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP)….”