Event: Support community led open access publishing: Help shape the future of scholarly communications. Oct 26, 2023 from 2pm (BST) | Jisc

Libraries are an important part of the open access publishing landscape. To achieve the open access future we’d like to see, we need to be acting now.

International Open Access Week is an opportunity for the global research community to learn about and share the benefits of Open Access, and to inspire wider participation in helping to make Open Access a new norm in scholarship and research.

This year’s theme is ‘Community over Commercialisation’ and with this in mind, Jisc and the Open Institutional Publishing Association have joined forces to discuss how libraries can come together as a community and support open access publishing initiatives.

Jisc set up the Open Access Community Framework (OACF) in response to community calls to make it simpler for libraries to support open access publishing – and other similar schemes are beginning to emerge too.

In this webinar, we will ask ‘what’s stopping us?’ and we will consider the levers that are at our disposal, as a strong and active community, including library and publisher perspectives.

 

 

Beyond article-based charges: working group established | Plan S

“cOAlition S, in partnership with Jisc and PLOS, are delighted to announce the establishment of a multi-stakeholder working group, tasked to identify business models and arrangements that enable equitable participation in knowledge-sharing.

Following an open call for applicants, we received over 60 high-quality applications. After a thorough review process, with a focus on ensuring that the group represents a diverse range of stakeholders who are committed to supporting a more equitable publishing business model, we are pleased to announce that the following organisations have been invited to join the group.”

Complying with the UKRI open access policy for publishers – Jisc

“Most major research funders now have policies that require research outputs acknowledging their funding to be made open access (OA). Jisc is working with publishers to offer authors compliant routes that meet a range of different funders’ requirements. We are contacting publishers that have published one or more UKRI funded research article per year on average over the past five years to ensure that all UKRI funded authors have the option to publish in their journal of choice….”

Progress towards open access is slow—it’s time for a kickstart – Research Professional News

“This June marked 20 years since the academic community first agreed a set of open access (OA) research publishing principles.

Known as the Bethesda Statement, it acknowledged the pivotal role of free and open research for the creation and dissemination of new ideas and knowledge for the public benefit.

Driven by funder policy and institutional demand for a publishing ecosystem that is affordable, fair and transparent, the UK has been a leader in the transition to OA. But two decades on, overall progress in transitioning hybrid journals to fully OA and the elimination of paywalls has been slow.

We know the UK higher education institutions Jisc represents in sector negotiations with publishers are frustrated with the pace of progress. They are also keen to ensure that open access not only removes paywalls but allows everyone to participate in open scholarship.

It’s time to take stock and decide what happens next. To kickstart this process, Jisc has launched a review of the OA landscape in the UK and its transitional agreements (TAs)….”

Jisc launches critical review of open access and transitional agreements | Jisc

Jisc launches critical review of open access and transitional agreements.

To kick start the slow shift towards fully open access academic publishing, Jisc has launched a review.

Commissioned and governed by Jisc’s strategic groups with input from Deltathink, an open access data and analytics company, the aim is to gather evidence, agitate discussion in the higher education sector and make recommendations for action.

Exploring the open access landscape in general and the particular role of transitional agreements (TAs), the review findings will be published early in 2024.

Jisc’s head of research licensing, Anna Vernon, explains why the review is necessary:

“The UK has been a leader in the transition to open access, driven by funder policy and institutional demand for a publishing ecosystem that is affordable, fair and transparent.

“However, two decades on from the first talks on open research, overall progress remains slow.

“We know the UK higher education institutions Jisc represents in sector negotiations with publishers are frustrated with the status quo.

“We hope this review will kick-start the process by supplying the evidence to drive sector consensus on what future open access publishing models should look like.”

[…]

 

Taylor & Francis Launches New Open Access Books Initiative with Jisc Agreement for UK Institutions – Taylor & Francis Newsroom

“Taylor & Francis announces a new international collective funding pilot, Pledge to Open, which aims to publish 70 open access (OA) books on a broad range of global issues, including climate change, mental health, women’s rights, and race.

All higher education institutions in the UK can take part in the OA scheme thanks to an agreement struck with Jisc, the UK’s higher education library consortium.

Institutions can support one or more of seven interdisciplinary themed collections, each comprising 10 frontlist research books. If funding targets are met, the books will be published open access for everyone to read online, download and share….”

Pledge to Open Pilot – Librarian Resources

“Taylor & Francis is delighted to announce the launch of ‘Pledge to Open’, a new collaborative funding open access books initiative, in conjunction with Jisc and other international member partners, to ensure the widest possible dissemination and impact of our research book titles. The ‘Pledge to Open’ pilot aims to transform 70 front list research book titles into open access….

Participating institutions can choose which collection or collections they would like to pledge for and pay a one-off fee per collection to support its transformation to open access. In return, they receive perpetual unlimited multi-user access for the titles of the collections they pledge for, irrespective of any funding thresholds being met for this pilot….”

Moving away from APCs: a multi-stakeholder working group convened by cOAlition S, Jisc and PLOS – The Official PLOS Blog

“cOAlition S, in partnership with Jisc and PLOS, are seeking to establish a multi-stakeholder working group to identify business models and arrangements that enable equitable participation in knowledge-sharing. The aims of this working group and the eligibility criteria that interested parties must meet in order to apply are outlined below.

We anticipate that the group will consist of a maximum of twelve individuals and will represent the three key stakeholders – funders, institutions/library consortia and publishers – in roughly equal proportions.

Once established, the working group is expected to convene up to six times. The key outcome from this collaborative effort will be the development of a model (or multiple models) that, if implemented, would enable equitable participation in knowledge sharing….”

Webinar #2 on collective funding models for open access books, 19 July 2023, 2pm (BST) | Jisc

This is the second event in the series where library colleagues will discuss how their libraries are adapting policies and practices to meet the challenges of supporting open monographs.

In August 2021, UKRI launched a new open access policy, which for the first time includes a provision for long-form scholarly works including monographs, book chapters and edited collections published from 1 January 2024. In preparation for policy implementation, Jisc and the Open Access Books Network have come together to hold a series of online events which will focus on different publishing models for Open Access books. This online event is the second in the series, and in it, three library colleagues working in scholarly communications and open research will speak about how their libraries are at various stages of success in adapting policies and practices to meet the challenges of supporting open monographs.

 

Moving away from APCs: a multi-stakeholder working group convened by cOAlition S, Jisc and PLOS | Plan S

“cOAlition S, in partnership with Jisc and PLOS, are seeking to establish a multi-stakeholder working group to identify business models and arrangements that enable equitable participation in knowledge-sharing. The aims of this working group and the eligibility criteria that interested parties must meet in order to apply are outlined below.

We anticipate that the group will consist of a maximum of twelve individuals and will represent the three key stakeholders – funders, institutions/library consortia and publishers – in roughly equal proportions.

Once established, the working group is expected to convene up to six times. The key outcome from this collaborative effort will be the development of a model (or multiple models) that, if implemented, would enable equitable participation in knowledge sharing.

Interested parties should apply using the form available at https://coalitions.typeform.com/MultiGroup….”

Significant Acceleration of Humanities and Social Sciences Open Access Through Taylor & Francis and Jisc Transformative Agreement – Taylor & Francis Newsroom

“The power of transformative agreements (TAs) to drive the transition to open access (OA), especially in the Humanities and Social Sciences, is revealed in a new report published by Taylor & Francis. Accelerating open access in the UK explores in detail the first two years of Taylor & Francis’ OA partnership with the Jisc consortium and how it has boosted the global impact of research from UK institutions.

Supporting Humanities and Social Sciences researchers to publish OA

One of the report’s standout findings is the benefit of the TA for Humanities and Social Science (HSS) researchers. In the last two years, 7,900 articles by HSS authors at participating UK institutions were published OA in Taylor & Francis journals, more than six times the number in 2019-20. This is a significant result because HSS researchers usually find it harder to publish open access, having less OA funding than their peers in STEM….”

New UKRI monographs policy is evolution, not revolution, of OA landscape | Jisc

by Caren Milloy

On 1 January 2024, a new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) policy comes into force. It takes the UK’s research sector further along the path towards a wider and more inclusive open access (OA) research landscape. It affects longer forms of research and aims to set broad guiderails for publishers and authors that will be refined and developed over time.

UKRI has funded Jisc to support the implementation of its policy. Our teams are working with the sector to develop new ways to approach longform research, leading to the wider adoption of open access for monographs and book chapters.

[…]

 

 

Adopting and managing institutional rights retention policies – Jisc

“Rights retention and the implementation of local policies is an opportunity for the sector to challenge the existing paradigm. Our institutional rights retention policy (IRRP) support project will create validated and prioritised use cases that represent sector pain points for IRRP adoption. This will clearly identify where Jisc should play a role in this space….”

PALOMERA: the case for open access academic books – Research

“In January 2024, a new open access policy from UKRI for monographs, book chapters and edited collections comes into force. Jisc is supporting the implementation of this policy, and we feel that participation in the PALOMERA project will be of mutual benefit to Jisc and its members as we start to build up knowledge of the open access (OA) books policy landscape across the European Research Area (ERA). We hope that our experience of implementing an OA books strategy in the UK will be of use to our colleagues in Europe.

PALOMERA stands for Policy Alignment of Open Access Monographs in the European Research Area. The project has been funded for two years (2023-24) under the Horizon Europe: Reforming and enhancing the European R&I System with the aim of understanding why so few OA funder policies include books, and how this can be changed. It will:

Collect and analyse a wide variety of data source related to open access book publishing and funder policies across geographies, languages, economies, and disciplines within the ERA, creating a Knowledge Base that will structure and make available knowledge to explain the challenges and bottlenecks that hold back open access to academic books
Create a forum for funders to focus specifically on OA books and related issues
Produce actionable recommendations and resources to support funder and institutional policies for OA books, with the overall objective of speeding up the transition to open access for books to further promote open science
Address all relevant stakeholders (research funders and institutions, researchers, publishers, infrastructure providers, libraries, and national policymakers), facilitating co-creation and validation events throughout the project to ensure that the views and voices of all relevant stakeholders are represented…”