Project to explore open access agreements between society publishers and library consortia in developing and transition economy countries

The new project will run during the first half of 2020. It is supported by Wellcome Trust, led by Information Power, and brings together a range of stakeholders involved in scholarly communications.

Three learned society publishers — the European Respiratory Society, IWA Publishing, and The Company of Biologists – will work with EIFL (Electronic Information for Libraries) to explore whether and how OA agreements might be piloted to support a global transition to OA.  EIFL is a not-for-profit organization that works with libraries to enable access to knowledge in developing and transition economy countries.

Researchers in developing and transition economy countries are important members of the global research community who may be interested in disseminating open research publications. Learned Society publishers are organisations that promote a scholarly discipline or group of disciplines and as well as looking for sustainable paths to transition to OA, wish to expand their engagement with the global research community.

The project will use the free Toolkit developed during the Society Publishers Accelerating Open access and Plan S (SPA-OPS) project. The project will explore and if agreed secure equitable OA arrangements between participating society publishers and EIFL members. The project steering group includes representatives from each participating organisation and also a representative from Research4LIfe. Outcomes will be communicated as the project progresses.