OASPA today announces the founding of a new neutral, independent intermediary to enable shared infrastructure and bring transparency, efficiency and cost effectiveness to the open access ecosystem.
The OA Switchboard will ensure
1. Clearer data
2. Savings via efficiency (time and manual work) and cost effectiveness
3. The opportunity for better service – for authors/researchers and for institutions and funders
The OA Switchboard initiative is a not-for-profit collaboration between funders, institutions and publishers to provide essential infrastructure, standards and back office services to achieve a breakthrough in the transformation of the market such that Open Access is supported as the predominant model of publication.
OASPA has been involved since the initial discussions in 2018, by initiating and overseeing the 2020 project. 2021/2022 is regarded as the ‘launch phase’ in which we’ll closely work with customers and stakeholders to further build a solid basis, both in terms of functionality and service level, but also in operational adoption of funders, institutions and publishers.
We are delighted that the following organisations have already confirmed their support by signing up as early adopters, launching customers or founding partners starting 1 January 2021:
Publishers: AboutScience, American Physiological Society, Berghahn Books, EDP SCiences, eLife, Hindawi, John Benjamins Publishing Company, JMIR Publications, MDPI, Microbiology Society, PLOS, The Royal Society.
Institutions/consortia: California Digital Library, CERN, Iowa State, Jisc, Max Planck Digital Library, VSNU/UKB.
Launching sponsor: Aries systems.
Continued funder support has been committed by Austrian Science Fund (FWF), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Dutch Research Council (NWO), UKRI and Wellcome Trust.
The OA Switchboard will be financed via a self-sustaining business model and participation and involvement is open to all who meet the OA Switchboard’s purpose and criteria. When the OA Switchboard moves to the operational stage as of 1 January 2021, it will be run from the newly founded Stichting OA Switchboard.
More information about The OA Switchboard can be found at www.oaswitchboard.org or from the project manager Yvonne Campfens
