How SCOSS Is Strengthening Global Open Access and Open Science Infrastructure

"What kind of collective, or coordinated, investment strategy and what kind of governance would the academic and research library community need to build and sustain its own core digital infrastructure?* One such initiative is SCOSS, the Global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services, which formed in 2017 to help essential, noncommercial services for open science in need of immediate financial support. In other words, SCOSS formed to address the imbalance of community overreliance on particular resources, with community underinvestment in their sustainability. SCOSS functions as a global crowdfunding call for vetted services. Open access and open science infrastructure providers apply for consideration and are evaluated by an expert advisory panel appointed by the SCOSS Board. If selected, SCOSS works with the provider to establish a three-year funding target meant to transition the service to stable funding. Then SCOSS leverages the participation of key organizations—primarily national consortia—to promote the funding call in their respective regions. SCOSS also strongly encourages the community governance of these structures. Last week, SCOSS met a major milestone, when one of the services recommended during its pilot funding cycle—the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)—met its funding goal of 1,370,000 euros. ..."