SCOSS - SPARC Europe

"Support for open access to published research and data continues to grow. Also growing are high-level efforts  — from the likes of the EU and funding bodies like the Wellcome Trust — to make the open sharing of research findings conditional to funding.

While such policy directives are essential to advancing open access, so too is an infrastructure that can support a publishing landscape steadily migrating to a state where “Open” is the default.

Many key services that now comprise the existing infrastructure, which has evolved over time, are non-commercial and far from financially secure. Some could even be described as “at risk”.

Being that many of these services are now fundamental to implementing Open Access and Open Science policies and supporting these workflows, securing them has become a growing concern of the broader OA and OS community.

The formation of the Global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services (SCOSS) represents a community-led effort to help maintain, and ultimately secure, vital infrastructure.

This recognition of the cruciality of such infrastructure, and of securing it, is what led to the formation of the Global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services (SCOSS).

Groundwork for the coalition was laid by the Knowledge Exchange, which presented many of the foundational ideas for it in its 2016 report Putting Down Roots, Securing the Future of Open Access Policies."