OA Book Usage Data Trust | Data Provider Community Consultation

In this community consultation, the OA Book Usage Data Trust (OAEBUDT) effort invites feedback on principles drafted to ensure trust in the usage data providers participating in the OAEBUDT.

Written comments can be submitted through this form until September 15, 2023: https://forms.gle/n4nuqp6mqBSkegzV8 

Submitted comments will be discussed among the OAEBUDT project team, including advisors and the OAEBUDT community governance. Unattributed submissions will also be published on the project’s Zenodo community. By submitting comments through this form you agree to the publication, sharing and reuse of your comments under a CC0 license or CCBY license.

Contact: For any questions please contact Ursula Rabar, OAEBUDT Community Manager, at ursula.rabar@operas-eu.org. 

The OA Book Usage Data Trust effort enables the community-governed sharing of quality, interoperable, Open Access (e)Book Usage (OAEBU) data. Our governance abides by Guiding Principles for OA Book Usage Data Services as we develop a data space for public and private organizations that create, combine, and innovate with OA book usage data. Our Board of Trustees is a working board composed of elected Trustees led by an executive committee of board officers. As noted in the data trust’s governance documentation, trustees share responsibility for: strategy and direction setting, fiduciary oversight of project financials and fiscal sponsorship arrangements, and supervision of the effort’s executive director.

Community Consultation Background: Multiple challenges exist for those who would like to share generated OA book usage data with others (data creators), and for those who rely on such data to provide reporting or services analytics (data users). Currently, individual organizations encounter challenges when aggregating OA book usage data to make strategic decisions about their OA publishing and OA programs. They individually manage, compile, and link usage data metrics making it time-consuming. Additionally, they may face resource challenges in adopting COUNTER, instead relying on tools such as Google Analytics that further complicate usage data interoperability. While many deliver audited, trusted usage metrics through COUNTER-compliant reports, aggregating usage metrics across platforms is not common. Finally, some organizations are often unable to provide their raw usage data to competitors due to dynamics that cannot be resolved by trust alone. 

Such challenges extend beyond scholarly communications. To address such issues across industries in an interoperable way, European agencies have fostered International Data Spaces (IDS) infrastructure for data sharing through a neutral intermediary that is as open as possible, but as controlled as necessary. The IDS aim is to provide a digital infrastructure to foster the exchange and computation of data among public and private competitors, to generate value through: 1) increased interoperability, 2) trust in secure and transparent exchange, and 3) multiparty data governance through usage controls and community-based accountability measures. 

The OAEBUDT is piloting the Industry Data Space (IDS) model in scholarly communications, building upon emerging design principles, technical architectures, and standards. Supported by the Mellon Foundation, the OAEBUDT is developing ‘Governance Building Blocks' for its IDS, to guide the rules and accountability measures for OAEBUDT participation. To inform the development of model standard contractual clauses, this project is developing an OA Book Usage Data Exchange and Stewardship Rulebook to specify the principles that generate trust through OAEBUDT participation, usage data management, processing, and provision.

You can preview this consultation in full prior to submitting your comments at https://bit.ly/OAEBUDataProviderConsultationPreview