4 December 2024
In a world of digital abundance, and over a million articles being published open access in 2023, vast quantities of scholarly outputs remain locked behind paywalls, and many scholars across the world are blocked by dominant models of open access publishing. Blockers include funding systems that uphold paywalls, opaque pricing and discounting practices, and labyrinthine workflows reinforcing cumulative advantage.
OASPA has published a set of recommended practices that can mitigate exclusion and make an inequitable system less harmful by tackling workflow and financial barriers to open access publishing. Five headline goals urge publishing organisations, and those who pay for, purchase, and invest in publishing services, to evolve practices, build trust through greater transparency, and coordinate efforts to enable open access for all scholars, regardless of their location, affiliations or other circumstances.
“Open Access is not just about being able to read and re-use scholarly content; all should be able and welcome to participate fully, and we care about an inclusive transition to OA” said Claire Redhead, Executive Director of OASPA, who went on to explain: “Most scholarly outputs have two or three expert reviewers; our draft was reviewed by over 30 selected experts plus respondents to an open consultation. The resulting work is shaped by input from every continent and from different types of publishing organisations, as well as institutions and infrastructure services.”.
Evidencing this thorough process, OASPA’s recommended practices are accompanied by a post about what changed from the original draft, and why. Wanting to make the resource as practical and applicable as possible, a detailed compendium of living examples of inclusive OA practices has also been published, and will be updated and added to over time. “We want this to be a source of ongoing inspiration for publishing organisations and others.” said Malavika Legge, Program Manager for OASPA.