As 2018 comes to a close, we thought we’d share a collection of important articles that expound upon “can’t miss” developments in the world of Open Access.
The Scholarly Kitchen: Are Mirror Journals a Better Path to the Open Access Flip?
Mirror journals are essentially new journals that piggyback off existing journals for the sole purpose of offering a fully-OA option in deference to Plan S requirements. Part A of a journal would be the already existing subscription or hybrid journal, and a new journal, part B, would be a fully-OA version of the same title. The journal twins would have the same editorial board, the same aims and scope, and the same editorial peer review policies.
cOAlition S: Guidance on the Implementation of Plan S
The coalition behind Plan S released an eleven-point implementation plan with guidance for authors, publishers, funders and institutions. One of the most important items to note is the acknowledgement that full implementation of Plan S will vary, but plans should be in place for all journal articles from January 1, 2020 and beyond. There will be a longer grace period for OA books and monographs.
ALPSP: Joint initiative to explore Plan S-compliant business models
ALPSP, in partnership with Wellcome and UK Research & Innovation (UKRI), seeks to engage the services of a consultant to explore a range of potential strategies and business models through which learned societies could adopt and thrive under Plan S.
The Scholarly Kitchen: Open Access, Academic Freedom, and the Spectrum of Coercive Power
Full freedom in publication and the coercion to publish under certain criteria (in essence, to relinquish copyright) are spectrum phenomena. The academic researcher is at the mercy of five bodies, in order or least to most powerful: journal, publisher, funder, employer, government.
ALPSP: OASPA Assessment of Single Journal Applications and DOAJ
Applications to OASPA have been rapidly increasing, in particular from single journals. Given the overlap in the screening criteria between DOAJ and OASPA, and that DOAJ is primarily an index of reputable open-access journals, the two organizations have agreed that, with immediate effect, all single journals that apply to OASPA will now be referred to the DOAJ if the journal is not already listed in DOAJ.
The Scholarly Kitchen: Better Together
According to this Nature survey, on average researchers spend more than a quarter of their time on administration — data storage (5%), writing grant applications (10%), and other tasks (11%). That’s almost half the amount of time they spend actually doing and writing up their research (38% and 16% respectively). Imagine how much more research could be carried out — faster — if we could halve the time spent on admin tasks, by improving the research infrastructure and making it easier for researchers and their organizations to share and reuse information and resources.