Introducing the National Open Access Transition Programme project

Twitter PowerPoint National Open Access Transition Programme

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Posted by Michelle Doran

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10 March 2023

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Blog | News

In this blog post, Lucy Hogan, Project Manager at the Royal Irish Academy for the NORF-funded Priority Action targeting Open Access (OA) Transition in publishing, introduces the work of the project and invites stakeholders to engage with the project through upcoming surveys, webinars and events so that the result is community-driven serving the need of authors, readers, publishers and funders in Ireland. Led by the Royal Irish Academy, with its executive partner, Trinity College Dublin, this consortium of 18 institutional and organisational partners addresses the call in Theme 2 of the NORF National Action Plan for Open Research 2022–2030 to achieve “100% open access to research publications”.

Why Open Access?

The COVID-19 pandemic changed our working lives in many ways. We moved from hard copies to soft copies, from in-person training to webinars, and from closed research to Open Research. The speed and success of vaccine production boosted via shared Open Research caused a clamour for Open Access to publications and the removal of paywalls that keep scholarly output away from those who cannot afford to view it.

This shift in publishing practice has been recognised and encouraged through the government’s National Action Plan for Open Research 2022–2030 with the aim of democratising knowledge. The plan sets the ambitious target of achieving 100% open access to publicly funded scholarly publications by 2030, and the government recognised the need for the publishing community (authors, readers, publishers and funders) to receive support to achieve this.

Publish OA Ireland

Responding to this need, the National Open Access Transition Programme project hosted by the Royal Irish Academy in conjunction with its executive partner, Trinity College Dublin, and its partners from universities and libraries, north and south, and international advisors, was established. It was granted funding by NORF in November 2022 and in January 2023 began its work in earnest under a new moniker: ‘Publish OA Ireland’.

Publish OA’s key objective is to conduct a feasibility study on establishing a comprehensive Diamond OA digital infrastructure designed to meet the needs of authors, readers, publishers and funders in Irish scholarly publishing. (Diamond OA simply meaning no fees are charged to authors to publish or readers to view scholarly publications.)

How is the project structured?

This is a community-driven project, split into five work packages – the first, WP1, on governance; the next four on the feasibility study for the platform (standards (WP2); technical spec and pilot (WP3), business models and sustainability (WP4), and the last on reporting, archiving and communications (WP5)).

Each work package is driven by a working group of experts. And we are incredibly lucky to benefit from the knowledge, enthusiasm and goodwill of these experts on OA, publishing, scholarship and communication.

Publish OA Ireland has a website (publishoa.ie), comprising a simple public-facing landing page with a private Moodle log-in area in which working group members can collaborate, share research and exchange ideas. Project kick-off meetings took place in January, with monthly meetings scheduled for the rest of the project’s lifespan – those for February already having taken place.

In addition, each working group recognises the importance of engaging with the publishing community in Ireland so that the project’s deliverables will reflect the needs and concerns of that community. Therefore, we are in the process of mapping out events aligned to each of the feasibility study’s work packages.

What are the project’s deliverables?

A digital directory of Irish publishers (due to be published on Bloom’s Day 2023)
A Diamond OA pilot platform and feasibility report (informed by surveys)
A feasibility report for a sustainable Diamond OA publishing platform (including technical specification and funding models)
A national set of OA publishing principles and standards for publishers (adopted the Library Association of Ireland’s principles)
A communication and dissemination plan
A publisher engagement, mentoring and support programme (in process)
A landscape report of Irish scholarly publishing and of the requirements of publishers to transition, in whole or in part, to Diamond OA (informed via surveys)
A national set of OA principles on publishing for authors and standards for authors developed in consultation with scholars

Next steps

As mentioned above, we’ve started with working group meetings and desk research, but to realise all these deliverables we need, and, more importantly, want engagement with stakeholders to assess the current status of publishing in Ireland in relation to OA and to collate the community’s concerns. Based on the information gathered, the project team will suggest solutions and test if these solutions are technologically and financially viable within Ireland.

In March, we will be hosting the members of Publishing Ireland and encouraging them to complete our mini surveys which will be rolled out over the coming months once ethical approval has been granted. We are also in the early stages of setting up a series of webinars that we hope will inform the community and us, and build project momentum. And in June, on Bloom’s Day, our first key deadline arrives – publishing the digital directory of Irish publishers.

As is the case the world over, publishers, authors, readers and funders in Ireland are at different stages in their OA journeys. Some have tread more gingerly along this path than others, but this NORF-funded project aims to smooth the transition of all stakeholders by guiding them along the path with us.

We shall be in touch with regard to surveys and events, so keep an eye on NORF.ie and PublishOA.ie for updates. And feel free to contact us at publications@ria.ie

Acknowledgements

As mentioned above, we have greatly benefited from the drive and energy of our working groups and project partners, and the enthusiasm of the publishing and OA community at large. ‘Open Access’ has not just referred to openness to share scholarly publications but to a genuine enthusiasm and openness to sharing knowledge and networks that may benefit this project. Our colleagues in other NORF-funded projects have also been generous and provided food for thought in our own project, and pointed to potential avenues for closer collaboration. A final thank you to NORF itself which has provided invaluable guidance and support, which is greatly appreciated.