The University Grants Commission (UGC) has taken up the mammoth task of preparing a white list of approved journals to curb researchers from publishing in predatory journals. The UGC notified on January 2017 a list of journals in different disciplines where researchers, scholars and teachers can publish their papers. Only papers published in the approved journals will be recognised for granting points to teachers in colleges and universities at the time of assessment for promotion.

APC data is now available for over 12,000 journals with longitudinal data going back to 2010 for selected journals.

This dataset includes information on OA journals derived from publisher websites and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). It was developed as the base for a longitudinal study on the open access APC method used by about a third of OA journals. Data gathering and analyses will continue on an ongoing basis and will be published annually. The two most critical elements for matching data and merging datasets are the journal title and ISSN.

David Crotty, the Editorial Director, Journals Policy for Oxford University Press and Board member of the Society for Scholarly Publishing, calls into question the victimization of authors and academic incentives. Precisely, the true root of the problem is the academic career and funding system, and its lack of effort put to true evaluation and oversight. Then, the solution should come from academic institutions, as taking away the incentive for these publishing behaviors and predatory publishers  would lose the market niche they serve.

The arrival of a new preprint server for the social sciences called SocArXiv comes just after Elsevier has acquired the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), a preprint repository founded in 1994 by two researchers. SocArXiv is modelled on the physics preprint server arXiv, and describes itself as a free, open access, open source archive for social science research meant for rapid sharing of academic papers, mostly preprints. In this interview, its founder is asked if the newly reinvigorated preprint movement can gain sufficient traction, impetus, and focus to push the revolution the OA movement began in a more desirable direction.

The 15th anniversary of the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) is the opportunity to take stock of collective progress. A small working group was convened to synthesize the community feedback further to an open survey, and provide updated recommendations that reflect the current state of the movement. Jean-Claude Guédon, one of the original drafters and leaders of the BOAI, provides his perspective on where the open access movement has been and where it may be headed.

Issues in four thematic areas are analysed: OA policies and mandates, EU copyright reform, new OA publishing models and open science. The level of dependence in the UK on European developments is assessed and its contribution to Brexit issues identified. To conlude, Brexit presents challenges, but also opportunities which the UK could seize. The UK needs to consolidate its current activity and leadership, and ensure that, whatever the nature of Brexit arrangements, its freedom does not lead to isolation.

Jisc Collections has been piloting ‘offsetting agreements’ that explicitly link subscription and APCs, seeking to reduce one as the other grows. However, offsetting agreements have become increasingly contentious with institutions, advocates and publishers. With reference to issues such as cost, administrative efficiency, transparency and the transition to open access, this paper provides an update on the status of UK negotiations, reflects on the challenges and opportunities presented by such agreements, and considers the implications for the path of future negotiations.

After DOAJ implemented new criteria for inclusion of open access journals and invited all journals listed in the directory to reapply, a large number of journals was removed from the database, most for failing to submit an updated application within the deadline. Two DOAJ volunteers for Italy investigated if their contribution, and the contribution by DOAJ volunteers all over the world, was effective in trying to improve the quality of journals indexed in the directory. They are now publishing the results of this investigation.

Hilda Bastian, a member of the PLOS One Human Research Ethics Advisory Group, makes a month-by-month roundup of some of the major open access actions in 2016. A study in the biomedical literature database PubMed reveals a general trend: accessibility of publications seems to increase in waves, with those waves arriving in different intervals, geographically and by academic discipline: 2020 looks like the year to watch now.

The Max Planck Digital Library and Taylor & Francis Group have signed an agreement which enables researchers based in Max Planck institutes to publish open access in 2,390 journals, under a centrally funded arrangement. This applies to peer-reviewed papers in full and hybrid Taylor & Francis Group journals, including Routledge and Cogent OA titles.