Report of the Workshop on Alternative Open Access Publishing Models | Digital Agenda for Europe

The workshop was addressed by Jean-Claude Guédon, a professor of comparative literature at the Université de Montréal and an expert in open access publishing, and Roberto Viola, Director-General of DG CONNECT, as well as librarians, academics and publishers who presented their novel publishing models. The Commission also encouraged discussion beyond the walls of the workshop, by webstreaming the event and encouraging comments there and on Twitter (#AlterOA), and, since the workshop itself, on the Digital4Science platform, which is still open for comments and discussion on alternative open access publishing models. This report is an analysis of existing trends and issues relating to alternative open access publishing models. Brief summaries of the individual presentations are available in the annex. This report is split into three main sections: the challenges for the European Commission, the pressures on researchers, funders and librarians that are caused by today’s system of academic publishing and the resulting themes emerging from the alternative open access publishing models. All the presentations given during the workshop are available via this link. Full recording is also available.