Open books platforms DOAB and OAPEN reach funding milestone

The two infrastructures, as joint applicants, achieved funding target on SCOSS in 18 months

LC
Lorena Caliman
06 september, 2021≈ 4 min read

The DOAB (Directory of Open Access Books) and the OAPEN (Open Access Publishing in European Networks) platforms, both dedicated to academic books in open access, have just reached an important funding milestone. The two institutions, which are part of the OPERAS consortium, integrated by UC, reached in 18 months the three-year funding goal of 505,000 euros.

The funding was made possible through SCOSS (Global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science). The Coalition, formed in 2017, is a network of influential organisations committed to helping secure the Open Access and Open Science infrastructure well into the future. It aims to promote a new coordinated cost-sharing framework, enabling the Open Science/Open Access community to support the non-commercial services on which it depends.

SCOSS provides the framework and funding structure, vetting potential candidates based on a defined set of criteria. Only non-commercial services are eligible. The most eligible of those that pass the evaluation are then presented to the global Open Access/Open Science community of stakeholders with an appeal for monetary support in a crowdfunding-style approach.

DOAB and OAPEN received, as joint applicants, contributions from 89 institutions in 14 countries. According to OAPEN director and DOAB co-director Niels Stern, in an interview with Agata Morka (Sparc Europe), one of the lessons learned in the process is that there is an understanding, in many countries, of the need to maintain and sustain open science infrastructures. The platforms representative highlighted how the infrastructures can benefit from having an active engagement and a clear communication with the community about their mission - these points arise as advice for next participants at the third SCOSS pledging round.

In view of the organisations' achievement of their goal despite the Covid-19 pandemic, Stern underlined the impact of the pandemic on the perception of the importance of open science: "I think Covid-19 probably showed the world the need for open science, and open science includes open infrastructures. I think that message has resonated with libraries as well."

Besides making certified monographs available worldwide through a single access point, DOAB provides and operates the OPERAS Certification Service, aimed at publishers of open access books, based on their publishing practices. Coimbra University Press has some 600 books indexed in the directory.

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More information about the funding milestone on the OPERAS blog and the SCOSS website.

Watch the interview with Niels Stern at this link or in the featured video above.

Meet SCOSS - the Global Alliance for Sustainability of Open Science Services.