On the 20th anniversary of the first international declaration on open access (Budapest Open Access Initiative-BOAI, 2002), when the concept of “open access” was coined, the Open Access Initiative announces new international recommendations that aim to dismantle inequalities and achieve greater equity and inclusiveness in creating, contributing to, accessing, and benefiting from knowledge.

Access to the full text of the #BOAI20 Recommendations (in English/in Spanish).

While the concept of Open Access may appear simple, its execution is complicated due to the numerous operational and commercial models that must be considered. Not every OA model is suitable for every publication, and models therefore need to be assessed within the context of each business. Straive’s Whitepaper, ‘Key Aspects of Open Access,’ provides a brief overview of the essential aspects of Open Access.

Download the report.

The aim of the Framework is to provide a global, multidimensional framework for good practices in repositories that can be applied to different types of repositories (publication, institutional, data, etc.) and across geographical and thematic contexts.

This version contains Essential and Desired Criteria in eight sections: (1) Discovery, (2) Access, (3) Reuse, (4) Integrity and Authenticity, (5) Quality Assurance, (6) Preservation, (7) Sustainability and Governance, and (8) Other Areas. It includes some new criteria and clarifies the wording of others.

Direct to Full Text: COAR Community Framework for Good Practices in Repositories, Version 2

Aix-Marseille Université, cOAlition S, and Science Europe are pleased to announce that they are participating in a Horizon Europe project called ‘Developing Institutional Open Access Publishing Models to Advance Scholarly Communication’ (DIAMAS). The 3-year project, launched on the 1st of September 2022, receives funding in the context of the Horizon Europe call on Capacity-building for institutional open access publishing across Europe.

cOAlition S released the Journal Comparison Service (JCS), a secure, free and long-anticipated digital service, that aims to shed light on publishing fees and services. By depositing price and service data through the JCS, publishers can communicate the nature and price of their services in a transparent, practical, and insightful way. Such information will allow libraries, library consortia, and funders to understand better how the fees they pay are commensurate with the publication services they receive.

The Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) has been awarded a US$4 million grant from Arcadia for the COAR Notify Project. This project aims at developing and implementing a standard protocol for connecting content in distributed repository networks with peer reviews and assessments in external services, using linked data notifications. The funding from Arcadia will allow COAR to accelerate and expand current project activities, which have been underway since January 2021. “The Notify Project will reduce the so-called green/gold distinction by connecting repository contents with external review services”, says Kathleen Shearer, Executive Director of COAR.

En el marco del panel académico que sucedió a la presentación del nuevo portal de Latindex, la maestra Teresa Abejón del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) de España, hizo una interesante exposición de la aparición de revistas espurias  frente al establecido campo de las revistas confiables y de prestigio académico. Presentó el resultado de un grupo de trabajo que redactó y publicó la Guía para editores sobre revistas espurias. Expliando las recomendaciones para editores contenidas en el informe del IAP Lucha contra las revistas y los congresos académicos depredadores, anunció que existe un espectro de comportamientos, por lo que es necesaria una comprobación meticulosa de la revista, la composición del cuerpo editorial y la revisión por pares. Vease el video de la presentación.

The recording of OASPA webinar focusing on shadow libraries is now available.

Large segments of the scholarly literature, both from backlist catalogs and new publications, continue to be only accessible behind paywall infrastructures. An ecosystem of so-called “shadow libraries” has evolved, developing different strategies to make closed content accessible to a wide scholarly public.

You can find the recording, slides, resources shared in the chat.

The Transformative Journal (TJ) model is one of the strategies cOAlition S endorses to help subscription publishers transition to full and immediate Open Access (OA). As of June 2022, some 16 publishers – large and small, for-profit, not-for-profit, society publishers and university presses – totalling some 2304 journals, have enrolled in this programme. This blog post provides a summary of the first full year of the TJ programme, using data supplied by all participating publishers.

Transformative agreements (TAs) are useful tools to accelerate the growth in open access (OA) for small publishers with limited resources. The Royal Society, the Microbiology Society and the Geological Society observe an uptake in OA output with the increase in demand for TAs. While TA models differ across publishers, successful and sustainable models are characterized by transparency in pricing and data, simplicity, equitability and above all a transformation objective of achieving full OA. Collaboration with institutions and consortia is key to realizing mutual goals and managing the agreement and implementation of complex arrangements with limited resources.