OASPA is launching a major new project for 2025, bringing together publishing organisations with those who pay for, fund and invest in scholarly communications. We’re delighted to be partnering with Research Consulting in delivering this work over the coming months.
This project will build on OASPA’s research and outputs of the past few years, most notably following over 3,000 downloads of OASPA’s recommendations on financial and workflow barriers.
Our latest output, published in Katina, is about asking the right questions to complete the open access transition; here we explain how although about half of the transition to open access is done, the other (arguably tougher) half is yet to be navigated. Our article urges cross-stakeholder participation in a process of evolution and course correction.
This mirrors views expressed by Maurice York of the Big Ten Academic Alliance in his keynote talk at OASPA’s annual conference in 2024. Maurice explained that when it comes to completing the transition to open, we – libraries, consortia, funders, and publishing organisations together – need to agree that a “different conversation” is required. The new conversation needed is one focused on the paradigm shift we are joining forces to enable (rather than the current year’s version of cost-saving / revenue-based negotiations).
OASPA has been engaging members and listening to feedback from the global community about the progress and proliferation of open access. We have also been in active conversations with many OASPA members in recent months. We are talking to libraries, consortia and funders as well, discussing their visions for the future of open access funding. OASPA also had the opportunity to participate in this year’s B17 meeting. We thank all our members and other stakeholders who have been taking the time to share inputs with us.
The ‘Next 50%’
What OASPA is hearing is that delivering open access seems more complicated, more challenging and more precarious than in the last decade. We believe we can help by convening conversations between stakeholders.
In embarking on this new project we intend to explore that “different conversation” Maurice referenced, and seek consensus and pathways forward for the ‘next 50%’ of the open access transition. This is not just about doing more open access, or converting more paywalled content to open access, but about navigating the transition to openness in a fuller sense as set out in our piece in Katina. We suggest that the true transition is not moving from 50% to 100% open access, but transitioning to a system that is open for all scholars, and all ways of knowing.
While this overarching ambition is big, our scope for the ‘Next 50%’ conversations will be focused so we can enable constructive and meaningful progress across stakeholder groups, and inform transition journeys to publishing and supporting open access.
We will explore the multiple routes to open access, their contributions to date, and the roles they may play in shaping the next 50% of the transition. The project will acknowledge and actively engage publishing organisations across a variety of models and disciplines, many already delivering 100% open access. Sector-wide transition includes those operating on APCs and Read & Publish/Transformative open access publishing deals; those using Subscribe to Open and other forms of collective action; free to read, free to publish open access enabled through grant, society, library, or other funding; as well as open infrastructures and platforms. Libraries, consortia, and funders who pay for, support and invest in publishing are vital partners, and will be involved as well.
How to get involved
We are excited about working with Andrea Chiarelli, Katie Fraser and Rob Johnson of Research Consulting, and are now collecting expressions of interest – please complete this quick form by Monday 28th April to let us know if you would like to contribute and have a say.
We look forward to pulling in your inputs about the transition to open access – either in a forthcoming survey (which will be open to all) or in one of our ‘Next 50%’ workshops (for OASPA members, as well as libraries, consortia, and funders).
Our ‘Next 50%’ effort will feed into and feature during the OASPA2025 annual conference this September, where we will be embracing the complexity around 100% open access.
If you would like to know more about our ‘Next 50%’ effort, please contact David or Malavika at OASPA.
