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.

In the Summer of 2022, cOAlition S will launch the Journal Comparison Service (JCS), a secure online platform that will help registered users from the research community better understand if the publishing fees they pay are commensurate with the services delivered, and to gain better insight into the elements of those services. Ahead of this date, publishers will be invited to register with the JCS, sign the participation agreement and share their 2021 price and service data through the platform.

Publisher applications will be accepted until the 31st October 2022.

UK universities have reached a three-year agreement with Elsevier providing both unlimited open access publishing and access to paywalled journal articles for a significant reduction on current institutional spend.

Knowledge Unlatched (KU), the central platform for Open Access (OA) financing models recently acquired by Wiley, is pleased to announce the results of the 2021 pledging round, which ended in December 2021 and saw hundreds of libraries worldwide support KU’s initiatives, including 34 institutions pledging for the first time and several new publishing partners joining the KU community. Over 670 institutions worldwide have supported KU initiatives to date. By the end of this year, KU’s total impact will number around 3,500 unlatched books — a significant jump from last year’s 2,700 — and over 60 journals flipped to OA.

Some publishers’ practices still cause difficulties for authors who wish to exercise their right to make their Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) open access immediately on publication using the Plan S Rights Retention Strategy. cOAlition S requests that publishers make their policies and contracts more transparent at the outset of the submission process. The request outlined in the letter that was sent to a large number of publishers is intended to make publisher submission workflows and processes as clear and straightforward as possible for authors and to help them meet their pre-existing grant conditions.