Category Archives: oa.no-fee

Proudly nonprofit | Science

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“And Science has a different view of open access publishing compared to commercial journals. Consistent with its commitment to put the scientific community first, AAAS does not favor a publishing ecosystem driven by article processing charges—the fees that authors must pay so that their articles are freely available once published (“gold” open access). An environment dominated by this approach drains laboratory resources and favors well-funded investigators, institutions, and disciplines. These inequities are coming into ever starker contrast, including through a recent AAAS survey of over 400 researchers in the United States. Rather, AAAS favors an ecosystem that does not put the cost burden for access on scientists. It has become an open access publisher by adopting a “green” policy for its subscription journals, including Science, whereby accepted manuscripts are made immediately available in repositories of the author’s choice. This approach—one that AAAS is excited to pursue alongside the American Medical Association— is consistent with open access policies in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States. But for now, AAAS still has one gold open access journal, Science Advances, as an option for scientists or funders that prefer this mechanism.”

Global Summit on Diamond Open Access: Schedule

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“The purpose of the Global Summit on Diamond Open Access is to bring together the Diamond OA community of journal editors, organizations, experts, and stakeholders from the Global South and North, in a dialogue that seeks to implement collective action in the spirit of the Recommendations on Open Science from UNESCO and BOAI 20 years, where Equity, Sustainability, Quality and Usability are the pillars of our journey.

For the first time the global OA Diamond community will meet in Toluca, Mexico to exchange and coordinate actions to better support equity in scholarly communication practices. The summit, co-organised by Redalyc, the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico, AmeliCA, UNESCO, CLACSO and the Action Plan for Diamond Open Access, will combine two conferences during Open Access Week….”

Diamond Open Access: Researcher’s Best Friend or just a Distant Relative? | Septentrio Conference Series

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“The costs of Open Access publishing increase year by year (e.g. Zhang et al. 2022). Diamond Open Access (OA), in which journals and platforms do not charge fees to either authors or readers, has been hoped to provide solutions for the current situation. Also, the Council of the EU highlights the importance of Diamond OA in the recent Council Conclusions (8827/23). Various incentives, such as Action Plan for Diamond Open Access, DIAMAS and Craft-OA are established to support the development of Diamond OA. However, do researchers really use Diamond OA publication venues? Is Diamond OA a researcher’s best friend or just a rarely met distant relative?…”

Forte supports action plan for diamond open access – Forte (English)

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“The Diamond Action Plan is one of several pieces of the puzzle in the development towards open access for scientific articles, books and journals. It has so far been signed by over two hundred signatories worldwide. Now Forte, as the first Swedish research council, also signs the action plan.

The Diamond Action Plan (DAP) has been developed by the organisations Science Europe, cOAlition S, OPERAS and the French research council ANR. So far, 125 organizations and 145 researchers have signed the plan. Now Forte, as the first Swedish research council, also signs and thereby supports the action plan….” 

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

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“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.”

USC Press and University Libraries launch open-access publishing platform – Office of the Provost | University of South Carolina

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“The University of South Carolina Press and University Libraries are embarking on a new collaborative venture: Open Carolina, an open-access publishing platform….

That’s where University Libraries enters the picture. Many ventures into open scholarly resources are planned as temporary pilot operations because they are funded by time-limited grant pools. Thanks to consistent funding from the Libraries, Open Carolina has a sustainable model that will allow scholars with limited publishing funds to share their research via the platform, partially or totally foregoing associated fees. In its inaugural year, the Libraries aim to fund four full-length books and support is in place to make the program sustainable for years to come and allow Open Carolina to grow steadily.

 

Open Carolina will offer opportunities to a wide range of scholars and researchers regardless of university affiliation. Proposed works will undergo the same intensive peer review and editorial processes as traditionally published books and articles, allowing the university to maintain high standards and join the conversation with other Research 1 institutions that prioritize equitable, open access publishing….”

EU council ‘no pay’ publishing model is realistic – Olivier Pourret

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“According to Katharine Sanderson, “publishing-industry representatives warn” that May’s EU Council call for a “no pay” academic publishing model is “unrealistic and lack[ing] detail”. However, the proposal is already being implemented via several approaches:…

Many of these are already supported directly by institutions, governments, or private funders, and they are here to stay. 

 

It is up to us, researchers and policy makers, to make sure we support “no pay” solutions where they exist. Scientific knowledge is a public good, and it should be treated as such.”

Open access strategy: De Gruyter expands Subscribe to Open program to accelerate OA transformation | De Gruyter

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“Academic publisher De Gruyter is implementing the Subscribe to Open (S2O) model at scale to transform its journal portfolio to Open Access over the next 5 years. De Gruyter will gradually transfer about 85% of its currently 320 subscription journals to free online access via Subscribe to Open in close collaboration with journal editors and societies. De Gruyter is the first major academic publisher to use Subscribe to Open as its central open access transformation model.

Currently, De Gruyter offers 16 journals as open access via Subscribe to Open. Another five will follow in 2024, and the publisher plans to transfer around 40 journals to open access by 2025. By 2028 around 270 De Gruyter journals are planned to be available as open access titles via Subscribe to Open. In the pilot phase, De Gruyter has had a positive experience with Subscribe to Open as a sustainable transformation model, especially for humanities journals. The participation of subscribing institutions has been high, and responses have been positive.

Compared to other models, Subscribe to Open offers advantages for all stakeholders in the publication system. Authors can publish their articles in established journals on an open access basis at no additional cost. Libraries retain guaranteed access to journals through their subscription, while enabling the open access transformation of those journals without additional administrative effort or cost. Booksellers continue to organize journal purchases for their customers in the usual way.

In addition, unlike the APC model, which is widely established in the sciences, Subscribe to Open is suited to transforming all journal types in all disciplines, including in the humanities and social sciences (HSS). For De Gruyter’s journal portfolio, which is strongly focused on the humanities, Subscribe to Open is therefore a logical choice to function as the main way to open journals….”

COAR welcomes the Council of EU Conclusions on High-quality, Transparent, Open, Trustworthy and Equitable Scholarly Publishing – COAR

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“As a major voice for repositories at the international level, COAR joins other organizations in welcoming the Council of European Union’s Conclusions on high-quality, transparent, open, trustworthy and equitable scholarly publishing, which highlight the importance of not-for-profit, scholarly open access publishing models….

There are over 3,000 open access repositories in Europe (1) – mainly hosted by universities, research centers and government agencies – that are a critical component of a not-for-profit scholarly communications infrastructure; one that can and should be leveraged to achieve the aims of the Council’s Conclusions. Repositories are much more than a parallel system (collecting manuscripts of paywalled papers). They reflect an investment in public research infrastructure that can expand and support innovation in scholarly publishing by connecting repository resources to value-added services, such as peer review (see for example, the model adopted by HAL and Peer Community In)….”

Five years of Plan S: a journey towards full and immediate Open Access | Plan S

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“In September 2018, a group of national research funding organizations, with the support of the European Commission, rallied behind an initiative to make research publications openly accessible to all:  Plan S. These visionary organizations came together as cOAlition S, and adopted a set of 10 principles that were intended to function as a catalyst for the accelerated transition to full and immediate Open Access. For most cOAlition S members, the policies and tools that support the implementation of Plan S came into effect in 2021. 

Although the full impact of these policies will still take several years to unfold, it is a good moment to reflect on what has been achieved so far. I joined cOAlition S exactly one year after its inception, as its Executive Director, and have therefore been privileged to participate in the journey that the cOAlition S community – Experts, Leaders, Ambassadors, Supporters, and Office –  have undertaken, and the remarkable progress we have achieved together.

In five years, cOAlition S has grown from a dozen to a network of 28 funders. What is remarkable is that this reach extends beyond Europe, encompassing agencies from the US, Australia and South Africa. This expansion has sparked a ripple effect, with even non-cOAlition S funders developing policies that are largely aligned with Plan S. This is evident in the US with the August 2022 Nelson memo, Canada, India, Germany and elsewhere. Governments in Europe and beyond have also become more vocal about Open Access to research results, as evidenced in the European Council Conclusions and the G7 Science and Technology Ministers declaration of last May. Plan S and cOAlition S have certainly contributed to a consensus among research funding agencies worldwide that Open Access to research results is a priority that requires international alignment.

During those five years, publishers have changed tack as well. They seem to increasingly recognise that it is no longer about whether they should flip to Open Access, but how they should flip to Open Access. Some of them have made changes to their policies to comply with Plan S principles, or they are exploring new models such as Subscribe to Open, Diamond Open Access, and other non-APC models….”

Shaping the future with Researcher-run Journals – Open Collective

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“Please join us for a 3-hr workshop covering startup and longevity planning for researcher-run Diamond Open Access journals.   The workshop will cover Diamond OA basics and the state of Earth Sciences publishing as well as “under the hood” details of community building, media and branding strategies, building for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in science publishing, and Open data/code principles applied to journal design.  Participants can expect a crash course in journal-building and will be invited to contribute to a future-looking white paper representing how we, the global research community, would like to see funding agencies support Open Access. There is no fee to participate.  Refreshments provided. Limited to 50 participants.”

Vacancy:  Open Science and Education Communication and Engagement Leader. End of play: Sept 15, 2023 | SPARC Europe

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As the SPARC Europe Communication and Engagement Leader, you will work closely with the SPARC Europe Director and with the Open Education Community Manager. You are responsible for effectively communicating and engaging on important Open Science and Open Education to a range of stakeholders to support our change efforts. 

You will do this by taking a targeted approach, strategizing and implementing that strategy in various communities, such as OA books, diamond OA, research data management, open infrastructure, open education and, of course, you will help disseminate the work of SPARC Europe and that of our partners to the relevant audience. 

Responsibilities and tasks 

Disseminating the work of SPARC Europe and its projects in a concise, creative, engaging and targeted way. 
Developing strategies to communicate and engage with our stakeholders effectively year on year. 
Developing and implementing knowledge-sharing activities such as community meetings, webinars, and other events, and using social media and other platforms to share news and good practice. 
Developing and implementing information campaigns to mobilise change or raise awareness. 
Progressing and supporting our networks to develop them into thriving communities of practice. 
Writing blog posts and newsletters as well as concise information materials. 
Conducting some stakeholder research 

Education, experience, knowledge, skills and ability 

A Bachelor degree or equivalent. 
At least 5-10 years communications / marketing experience serving the academic community. Experience with academic libraries is preferred. 
Excellent interpersonal communication skills, including strong writing, presentation, social media and meeting facilitation skills. 
Experience with advocating for Open Science and/or Open Education. 
Involvement in managing and growing networks or communities and in building trust in a changing environment. 
Ability to manage multiple projects at the same time, with a result-orientated focus. 
Driven yet empathetic, and flexible. 

In short, if you are interested in using your creativity with your strong communication skills and your passion for Open to support change on an international level for a more Open society, this position is for you. 

Remuneration and conditions of appointment 

We are offering a position of employment in an innovative sector for a respected Open policy and advocacy organisation. We are looking for support for 32-40 hours per week. You must be located in Europe. 

Initially it is a contract for one year with the prospect of an extension and a permanent contract. Salary depends on education and experience. We ask you to propose your expected net remuneration in your application. 

The post holder is required to work remotely 4-5 days a week between Monday to Friday, and may be expected to travel to certain meetings or conferences 2-3 times per year in Europe, although these will be limited. 

Further information and applications 

If you are interested in this position, then apply by sending your CV and please state why you are motivated to work with SPARC Europe and why you’re right for the position. How you communicate this motivation is up to you. 

Please send your application no later than Friday, 15 September 2023 to info@sparceurope.org 

The first round of interviews will take place online in September 2023. 

For questions about the vacancy, please contact: Vanessa Proudman, Director, SPARC Europe, info@sparceurope.org

 

 

Statement of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) on European Council Conclusions on “High-quality, transparent, open, trustworthy and equitable scholarly publishing”

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“In particular, the DFG underpins the propositions that scholarly publication channels ? should continue to evolve as high-quality, openly accessible, sustainably funded digital infrastructures for research; ? should be organised in such a way that they protect the principles of the freedom of research, contribute to research integrity and quality, and ensure the highest possible accessibility and re-usability of research results; ? must apply the highest standards to the quality assurance of publications, the trustworthiness of processes and the reliability and reproducibility of content; ? should make even more effective use of the innovative possibilities of digital publishing…”

DFG, German Research Foundation – DFG welcomes EU Council Conclusions on Scholarly Publishing

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“The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) welcomes the Council Conclusions on scholarly publishing adopted today, Tuesday 23 May 2023, by the Com-petitiveness Council of the European Union.

In the opinion of the largest research funding organisation and central self-governing body of the research community in Germany, the conclusions adopted under the title “On high-quality, transparent, open, trustworthy and equitable scholarly publishing” contain a series of trend-setting recommendations. These are commented on in detail in a statement issued simultane-ously by the DFG.

The DFG underlines that the academic publication system should continue to develop based on high-quality, openly accessible, sustainably funded digital infrastructures for research. It must be organised in such a way that the principles of the freedom of research are protected, scien-tific integrity and quality are guaranteed and the accessibility and re-usability of research re-sults are enabled….”