Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association
Encyclopedia
The Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) is an industry association which aims to promote open access publishing (also known as Gold Open Access) and to establish best practices in the field. It brings together the major open access publishers on the one hand and independent — often society
- or university-based — publishers on the other, along with some hybrid open access publisher
s. While having started out with a focus on open access journal
s exclusively, it is now expanding its activities to include matters pertaining to the open access publishing of books as well.
.
s, publishing platforms, peer review
modes, and distribution channels.
OASPA encourages publishers to use Creative Commons licenses
, particularly the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY), which is in line with most definitions of "open", e.g. the Open Definition by the Open Knowledge Foundation
. The organization also engages beyond Gold Open Access, e.g. for free access to scholarly works that have been awarded Nobel Prize
s.
Within the context of the ongoing debate on the relative merits of Green versus Gold open access, OASPA has also been criticized for promoting Gold in a way that may be at the expense of Green.
Learned society
A learned society is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline/profession, as well a group of disciplines. Membership may be open to all, may require possession of some qualification, or may be an honor conferred by election, as is the case with the oldest learned societies,...
- or university-based — publishers on the other, along with some hybrid open access publisher
Hybrid Open Access journal
A newly popular variation on open access journals is the Hybrid Open Access Journal. This refers to a journal where only some of the articles are open access...
s. While having started out with a focus on open access journal
Open access journal
Open access journals are scholarly journals that are available online to the reader "without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself." Some are subsidized, and some require payment on behalf of the author.Subsidized journals...
s exclusively, it is now expanding its activities to include matters pertaining to the open access publishing of books as well.
Mission
The mission of OASPA is to support and represent the interests of open access publishers globally in all scientific, technical, and scholarly disciplines, and to advocate for Gold Open Access in general. To this end, it provides a forum for professional exchange on matters of open access publishing in scholarly contexts, it engages in standardization efforts and outreach, identifies and promotes best practices for scholarly communications by open access, and supports the continuous development of viable business and publishing models.History
With the growth of the open access movement, the interactions between different open access publishers intensified, as they met each other at a multitude of trade or scientific conferences, workshops or similar events. Yet open access publishing and its peculiarities with respect to traditional publishing or scholarly communication were rarely in the focus of such gatherings, which brought about the need for a dedicated forum. With the intention to provide that, OASPA was launched on October 14, 2008 at an "Open Access Day" celebration in London hosted by the Wellcome TrustWellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust was established in 1936 as an independent charity funding research to improve human and animal health. With an endowment of around £13.9 billion, it is the United Kingdom's largest non-governmental source of funds for biomedical research...
.
Activities
OASPA organizes an annual Conference on Open Access Scholarly Publishing dedicated to scholarly open access publishing. The conference covers the whole spectrum of open access publishing, including business modelBusiness model
A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value...
s, publishing platforms, peer review
Peer review
Peer review is a process of self-regulation by a profession or a process of evaluation involving qualified individuals within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards, improve performance and provide credibility...
modes, and distribution channels.
OASPA encourages publishers to use Creative Commons licenses
Creative Commons licenses
Creative Commons licenses are several copyright licenses that allow the distribution of copyrighted works. The licenses differ by several combinations that condition the terms of distribution. They were initially released on December 16, 2002 by Creative Commons, a U.S...
, particularly the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY), which is in line with most definitions of "open", e.g. the Open Definition by the Open Knowledge Foundation
Open Knowledge Foundation
The Open Knowledge Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that promotes open knowledge, including open content and open data. It was founded 24 May 2004 in Cambridge, UK...
. The organization also engages beyond Gold Open Access, e.g. for free access to scholarly works that have been awarded Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
s.
Members
There are four types of OASPA members:- Open access professional publishing organizations
- Open access scientist/scholar publishers
- Other organizations
- Associate (non-voting) members
Criticism
Criticism has focused on OASPA's self-declared role as the "stamp of quality for open access publishing", because it is apparently at odds with OASPA's application of its own criteria for membership.Within the context of the ongoing debate on the relative merits of Green versus Gold open access, OASPA has also been criticized for promoting Gold in a way that may be at the expense of Green.
See also
- Association for Learned and Professional Society PublishersAssociation for Learned and Professional Society PublishersThe Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers is an international trade association of non-profit publishers created in 1972 It is the largest association of scholarly and professional publishers in the world, claiming "more than 360 members in 36 countries". It was granted in...
- Association of Publishing AgenciesAssociation of Publishing AgenciesThe Association of Publishing Agencies is a not-for-profit trade body that promotes the interests of companies involved in the production customer publishing.-Structure:...
- Directory of Open Access JournalsDirectory of Open Access JournalsThe Directory of Open Access Journals is website maintained by Lund University which lists open access journals. The project defines open access journals as scientific and scholarly journals that meet high quality standards by exercising peer review or editorial quality control and "use a funding...
- International Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical PublishersInternational Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical PublishersThe International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers is an international trade association organised and run for the benefit of scholarly, scientific, technical, medical and professional publishers...
- International Publishers AssociationInternational Publishers AssociationThe International Publishers Association is an international publishing industry federation of national Publisher associations representing book and journal publishing. It is a non-profit and non-governmental organization, founded in 1896 to promote and protect publishing and to raise awareness...
- Periodical Publishers Association
- Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources CoalitionScholarly Publishing and Academic Resources CoalitionThe Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition is an international alliance of academic and research libraries developed by the Association of Research Libraries in 1998 which promotes open access to scholarship. They currently have over 800 institutions in North America, Europe, Japan,...