Improving Open Access Equity | Iowa State University - OpenISU | Dec 01, 2022 | Curtis Brundy

"The Iowa State University Library has pursued open access through our journal negotiations and agreements since 2018. Today, approximately one third of our subscription spending has been shifted to support open access through a variety of open business models, including Read and Publish, Subscribe to Open, and cooperative Diamond approaches. Our strategy, however, continues to evolve as the landscape continues to evolve. The Nelson OSTP memo, for example, will no doubt lead to changes that will require adjustments to our approach. And there will no doubt be other tweaks ahead as we work with our campus stakeholders to ensure Iowa State’s future research publications do not wind up behind a paywall, limiting social impact and exacerbating information inequity. But the equity focus during the OA transition can’t be limited to the reader. We must also ensure equity for authors....

We now bring up waiver and discount programs during our negotiations. Specifically, we ask publishers to commit to following these unofficial best practices:

• Waiver and discount eligibility criteria meets unfunded and underfunded author need regardless of discipline, country, institution, or affiliation...."