Funding Milestone Reached: DOAB and OAPEN Successfully Achieve SCOSS Target
OPERAS 2021-09-01
OPERAS member organizations, The Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) and Open Access Publishing in European Networks (OAPEN) — joint applicants in SCOSS’s (Global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services) second funding cycle — have met a significant milestone by reaching their three-year funding goal of 505,000 Euros in about 18 months.
DOAB provides and operates the OPERAS “Certification Service”, which certifies open access (OA) book publishers, based on their publishing practices, in particular their peer review (PR) procedure and their licensing policy. The service is intended to certify publishers at both publisher level and individual publication level. It thereby supports trust in open access book publishing — among readers and the service providers working with them (e.g. libraries) — by improving transparency around quality assurance of open access book publishers and their publications. The service furthermore makes the certified monographs from around the world available through a single access point.
SCOSS and DOAB/OAPEN express their gratitude to the global funding community of 89 institutions from 14 countries that have contributed to this campaign despite the Covid-19 related challenges. Moving forward, Niels Stern, Director of OAPEN and Co-director of DOAB assures the community that DOAB/OAPEN is committed to sustaining this crucial financial support:
Starting our SCOSS journey early in 2020, we are thrilled to have reached our SCOSS target by now and wish to thank all contributing institutions for their support of our services. Despite pressing times, the libraries and consortia across the world have stepped up and demonstrated their interest in sustaining non-profit and affordable open infrastructures for books, benefiting the scholarly community and society at large. We look forward to continuing our engagement with these institutions and the community at large towards a long-term success for open access to books.
DOAB/OAPEN are now the second SCOSS endorsed Open Science Infrastructure that has successfully reached its target. This accomplishment highlights a promising movement, sustained by institutions worldwide, to ensure that open science infrastructures remain non-profit, community-driven, and truly open. Vanessa Proudman, Director of SPARC Europe, and SCOSS Executive Group Chair:
Investing in considerable community engagement activities was a strategic decision right from the outset of DOAB and OAPEN’s relationship with SCOSS; this was commendable. The focus on building partnerships with its users and funders and great strengths in communication have been critical for DOAB and OAPEN’s success in solidifying their path to sustainability and to maintain their status as strong and highly used Open Science infrastructures.
Reaching this milestone is just a first step on a long journey of building meaningful, long-lasting relationships with their supporting institutions. In this short interview with SCOSS, Stern shares insights about how DOAB/OAPEN accomplished their goal, lessons learned from the experiences and advice for future SCOSS applicants.
Find here the post published by SCOSS.