OPERAS Members (OAPEN and PKP) and OPERAS Service (DOAB) are Supported by SCOSS Funding

OPERAS is pleased to announce that DOAB, a dedicated service of OPERAS, and OAPEN, an OPERAS Core Group member, have jointly been selected for the second funding cycle by SCOSS together with Public Knowledge Project (PKP), an OPERAS member. The Global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services (SCOSS) is a network of influential organisations committed to helping secure Open Access and Open Science infrastructure well into the future.

OAPEN and DOAB have proven their worth over time and SCOSS can now help them on their path to a strong sustainable life cycle. SCOSS selected PKP due to its ambition to scale up its hosting and publishing services to cross-subsidise the development of its open source software and infrastructure thereby helping sustain and develop this innovative scholarly publishing infrastructure.

OPERAS is looking forward to this new funding opportunity for its members and its service.

In the first funding cycle organised by SCOSS, more than 1.5 million euros have been pledged by more than 200 institutions worldwide to help secure the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and SHERPA Ro/MEO. Apart from OAPEN, DOAB and PKP, the second funding cycle includes OpenCitations.

Eelco Ferwerda, director of OAPEN and co-director of DOAB, said:

Being vetted and selected for the new funding cycle by SCOSS is hugely important for us. It underlines our position as important Open Access infrastructure provider in the area of Open Access books, and it will help us with our main challenge: to reach the scholarly community and secure financial support. We are very grateful to SCOSS.

How to get involved for the second funding cycle and to support DOAB and OAPEN?

Please contact Eelco Ferwerda: e.ferwerda[a]oapen.org.

Find more information to support PKP here.

About DOAB

(The Directory of Open Access Books)

DOAB is a digital directory of peer-reviewed Open Access books and Open Access book publishers. The primary aim of the service is to increase discoverability of Open Access books so that they can reach a broader audience. DOAB harvests books’ metadata, which is used to maximise dissemination, visibility and impact. Aggregators can integrate this metadata into their commercial services while libraries can do the same into their online catalogues, making it easier for scholars and students to discover the works. The directory is open to all publishers of academic, peer-reviewed books that are published Open Access and that meet academic standards. All publishers included in DOAB are screened for their peer review procedures and licensing policies.

About OAPEN

(Open Access Publishing in European Networks)

The OAPEN Foundation was established in 2011 to support the transition to Open Access books. The OAPEN Library hosts one of the largest collections of freely accessible academic books. While DOAB is a directory that provides links to open access books, the OAPEN Library is a repository of freely accessible academic books. OAPEN works with publishers and research funders to continue building a quality-controlled collection of Open Access books and provides services for publishers, libraries and research funders in the areas of deposit, quality assurance, metadata enhancement, dissemination and digital preservation.

About PKP

(The Public Knowledge Project)

Founded in 1998, the PKP is a research and open source software development initiative that seeks to improve the quality and reach of scholarly publishing. Its Open Journal Systems (OJS) software is used by over 10,000 journals around the world to increase the efficiency of their production and reduce the cost of publication. Other PKP applications include Open Monograph Press (OMP) for books, Open Conference Systems (OCS) for conferences, and current work on an open source preprint server system.

About OPERAS

(Open Scholarly Communication in the European Research Area for Social Sciences and Humanities)

OPERAS is the European research infrastructure for the development of open scholarly communication in the social sciences and humanities. Its main goal is to coordinate and pool university-led scholarly ­communication activities in Europe in the social sciences and humanities, in view of enabling open science as the standard practice. OPERAS currently counts 40 members from 16 countries and is led by a Core Group of 9 institutions.