Category Archives: oa.oaspa

Webinar – Funding Open Access after the Transformation | 23 May 2023 | OASPA

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“At its launch in 2018, cOAlition S announced that its members would, for a “transition period,” fund open access fees for journals covered by “transformative” agreements. …As cOAlition S recently communicated, the transition period is ending; beginning in 2025, funders adhering to Plan S will no longer support the agreements. What is more, a growing chorus of stakeholders, including the Ivy Plus librarians in the US and a coalition of UK-based researchers, are calling for an alternative, collective funding model for OA. At the same time, collective funding experiments as well as conditional open models (such as Subscribe to Open)—in which neither authors nor readers pay—are reporting promising results around the globe.  This webinar features perspectives on the emerging landscape of collective and conditional open models from publishers and will be followed this year by a second webinar focusing on the perspective of funders. The webinar will be chaired by Raym Crow of SPARC and Chain Bridge Group.  Panellists: Vivian Berghahn of Berghahn Books, Evgeniya Lupova-Henry of Quartz OA and Judith Fathallah of Lancaster University. With thanks also to Demmy Verbeke of Leuven University for organising this webinar. …”

Fully OA Publishers

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“The Fully OA blog was born out of the OASPA Interest Group of Fully OA journal organizations. The purpose of the group is to provide a platform for exchange of ideas and, where appropriate, collaboration amongst publishers that only publish Open Access. The aim of the group – and now of this blog – is to provide unity, not by creating a single voice, but by bringing together a diversity of different voices and perspectives that share one commitment: full Open Access.

Whilst we share, in essence, a single aim – a transition to fully open scientific communication – we are a broad church, with differing paths and approaches to achieving that aim.

The intention of the Fully OA blog is to shine a light on projects, people and organizations that are dedicated to Open Access and work towards removing barriers to a fully OA future. We welcome proposals for posts from anyone fully committed to OA….

“Fully” OA is defined as publishers who publish 100% of their journal content OA and are not mixed model [not hybrid] nor in any kind of transition to OA….”

OASPA response to NIH RFI 2023 – OASPA

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“This is OASPA’s response to the Request for Information based on this policy (with revisions) from the NIH as released on 21 Feb 2023.

OASPA (the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association) represents a diverse community of organizations engaged in open scholarship and encourages and enables open access as the predominant model for scholarly outputs. 

OASPA wishes to ensure that open access is equitable and inclusive and is keen to explore with its publisher members and library stakeholders ways to increase equity in open access publishing. Why? Because the inclusion of all researchers, including authors from developing and transition countries, and indeed from all backgrounds and life stages, is essential for advancing human knowledge and also for a successful transition to open access. Without the development of new and more equitable approaches to open access, we will not benefit from its full potential….”

Report from Equity in Open Access workshop #2: Why do professors pick paywalls? – OASPA

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“Following workshop #1, OASPA’s second ‘Equity in OA’ workshop was held on 28 March 2023. The report from workshop #2 was published last week by Alicia Wise and Lorraine Estelle of Information Power. 

Researchers’ preferences for publishing behind paywalls was a recurring topic in workshop conversations, and our reflections on ‘Equity in OA’ workshop #2 are linked to the assertion that professors do pick paywalls – at least sometimes. But do they really want to? Drawing on discussions in workshop #2 and other sources, here are some thoughts on why this might be and what can be done about it….”

OASPA Equity in OA Workshop 2 Report | Zenodo

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“The second OASPA workshop in the Equity in Open Access series took place on 28 March 2023, with publishers, librarians, funders, and other stakeholders. Participants came from a wide range of countries: Austria, Bangladesh, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Kenya, Mozambique, Netherlands, Panamá, Portugal, South Africa, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and the United States.

Participants built on the first workshop in which participants discussed why equity is important, current challenges to global equity, examples of good practice, and priorities for increasing equity in OA.

In the second workshop we explored ways to increase equity in two categories of OA models: those where transactions are per-article or where prices are based on article volume, and those where there are no author fees and prices are de-coupled from article numbers. We also explored ways to reassure researchers around the world that OA publishing is as credible as other forms of publishing.”

An Interview with Lyrasis on Joining OASPA – OASPA

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“Lyrasis recently joined OASPA as member in the Infrastructure & Services (Non-Commercial) category. Lyrasis joins a growing list of almost 220 OASPA members.  We asked  Sharla Lair, Senior Strategist, Open Access & Scholarly Communication Initiatives, a few questions so we could learn more about Lyrasis and the decision to become an OASPA member….”

We’re hiring! New opportunity for a Business Operations Manager at OASPA – OASPA

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“We are looking for a Business Operations Manager to join the OASPA staff team!

OASPA is a not-for-profit membership organisation comprising a diverse community of organisations engaged in open scholarship. OASPA’s work to run mission-supporting activities is led by a small but dedicated and enthusiastic staff team, overseen by a Board of Directors.  We’re looking for someone who works well independently and will enjoy contributing to the growth of this small, mission-driven organisation.

The OASPA Business Operations Manager will be responsible for working with the Executive Director to ensure that OASPA is run effectively and soundly, in accordance with the financial and legal requirements for operation in the UK and Netherlands.”

Webinar – Scholarly Communication in Crisis: Research Integrity and Open Scholarship – OASPA

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“Research integrity and ethical standards for publication underpin the research endeavor, ensuring that researchers can confidently build on the outputs of others and ensuring public trust in research. The integrity of scholarly communications is dependent on the trust of the research community in the peer review and publication processes that are part of it. However, this confidence is starting to break down, due to a significant rise in unethical research and publication practices, fueled by academic incentive structures heavily skewed toward certain types of publication metrics. These practices, including “paper mills” and “peer review rings” are happening at scale and systemically undermine publication processes, striking at the heart of what publishers do as the custodians of the research record. 

This problem is a complex and interconnected one and this webinar brings together experts to explore the question of whether open scholarship practices and tools can help detect malpractices and be part of the solution. The speakers will approach this shared problem from a variety of angles, albeit all through the lens of open research and scholarship and how they are building open tools and evidencing the impact of their work.   

We welcome panelists Adam Day, Brian Nosek and Dorothy Bishop, and Chair Catriona MacCallum….”

OASPA Equity in Open Access Workshop 1 Report | Zenodo

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“This first OASPA workshop in the Equity in Open Access series took place on 7 March 2023, with publishers, librarians, funders, and other stakeholders. Participants came from a wide range of countries: Bangladesh, China, Finland, Germany, India, Japan, Malawi, Morocco, Norway, Rwanda, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Tanzania, the UK, the USA, and Zambia.

Participants discussed why equity is important, current challenges to global equity, examples of good practice, and priorities for increasing equity in OA.”

Report from Equity in Open Access workshop 1: the APC debate, reflections and rainbows – OASPA

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“One consensus view that emerged from the conversations was that APCs (Article Processing / Publishing Charges) are a barrier to participation in OA publishing for authors in every region. This was in line with the global views OASPA has been gathering that were shared earlier this year. 

OASPA notes a raft of evidence and views supporting the problematic nature of the APC, from this 2020 commentary to this 2022 review and this 2022 study stating that open access is leading to closed research. 

OASPA also notes this 2019 blog post that asserts “unfairness lies at the core of the APC problem”, and talks about particular disadvantages to scholars based in the Global South. This 2020 study examining content published by US-based researchers between 2014 and 2018 in over 25,000 academic journals reveals that, in general, the likelihood for a scholar to author an APC-OA article “increases with male gender, employment at a prestigious institution, association with a STEM discipline, greater federal research funding, and more advanced career stage (i.e., higher professorial rank).” Meanwhile, we know that authors from the Global South are underrepresented in journals charging APCs from this study in December 2021. 

The APC model, and publisher deals that rely on APC-based computation, are therefore in danger of reinforcing a pattern of exclusive participation in open access. OA done this way leaves out the vast majority of the world’s researchers….

In other words, if APCs are inequitable, then so are fully-OA agreements (pure-publish) and transformative agreements (Read & Publish) when these are struck without principles of global inclusion and equity at their core….”

An Interview with The White Horse Press on Joining OASPA – OASPA

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“The White Horse Press is a very small family-run scholarly press specialising in environmental humanities, particularly environmental history and environmental ethics.  We’ve been operating for more than 30 years, and though we are a tiny operation, we work to a very high standard and we have become a central support for the specific academic communities we serve. We publish five highly regarded journals as well as five or six books a year. While our press has worked on a traditional basis for most of its history, we strongly believe in the merits of Open Access. We are now working hard to transition to a fully OA business model.  Roughly 20% of our journal output and 50% of our book output is now Open Access, and these proportions are steadily improving. We aim to be fully OA within five years….”

Reviewing the Data on Knowledge Creation: Access, Governance and Equity

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“OASPA is pleased to announce our next webinar which will focus on the data that exists about scholarly communication. Such data includes anything that enables us to expose and analyse the processes, connections and entities involved in all aspects of research communication.

Most of the data we currently have, however, doesn’t fully cover the research output of the Global South and is unrepresentative and incomplete. We will address issues of inequity and discuss the challenges in sourcing data that is truly representative of global knowledge creation. We will also discuss the governance and funding it will take to create a coherent and equitable system. There is an innate conflict between proprietary and closed datasets that are available only to those who can afford them versus an open universe of data that enables all communities involved in knowledge generation to contribute, access and analyse data….”

Webinar – Reviewing the Data on Knowledge Creation: Access, Governance and Equity – OASPA

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“OASPA is pleased to announce our next webinar which will focus on the data that exists about scholarly communication. Such data includes anything that enables us to expose and analyse the processes, connections and entities involved in all aspects of research communication. 

Most of the data we currently have, however,  doesn’t fully cover the research output of the Global South and is unrepresentative and incomplete. We will address issues of inequity and discuss the challenges in sourcing data that is truly representative of global knowledge creation. We will also discuss the governance and funding it will take to create a coherent and equitable system. There is an innate conflict between proprietary and closed datasets that are available only to those who can afford them versus an open universe of data that enables all communities involved in knowledge generation to contribute, access and analyse data.

The webinar will be chaired by Iryna Kuchma and Catriona Maccallum with panellists Lucy Montgomery,  Ludo Waltman and Caleb Kibet….”

Working to create equity in open access – OASPA

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“The world of open access (OA) academic publishing is not a fair or inclusive space as recent conversations and older conversations show. OASPA recognises that OA at any cost is not acceptable, and is mindful of inequities introduced by the current (fully-OA and transitioning) publishing landscape; in removing the paywall to read we should not be building new walls that create inequitable barriers to publishing. APCs (Article Processing Charges) and TAs (Transformative Agreements aka Read & Publish or Publish & Read) are inequitable because they open articles only from a select set of authors. Similar problems arise with pure-publish agreements that provide access to OA publishing to authors at select institutions. At the same time, there are real costs to publishing, and these approaches are steps forward on the journey towards an OA future….”

OASPA and DOAJ Announce the Launch of an Open Access Journals Toolkit

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The Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA) and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) are pleased to announce the forthcoming launch of the Open Access (OA) Journals Toolkit, scheduled for launch in the second half of 2023. Research Consulting is supporting them in managing the Toolkit development process as well as in liaising with an expert Editorial Board.