This framework was developed as part of an independent project by Information Power. The project was funded by Wellcome and UK Research & Innovation on behalf of cOAlition S to engage with stakeholders to develop a framework for the transparent communication of Open Access (OA) prices and services. cOAlition S aims to help make the nature and prices of OA publishing services more transparent, and to enable conversations and comparisons that will build confidence amongst customers that prices are fair and reasonable. Ultimately, it seeks a framework which enables publishers to communicate the price of services in a way that is transparent, practical to implement, and insightful.
During the project we consulted widely with stakeholders to gain an understanding of concerns and needs and worked to gain the voluntary engagement and support of publishers, presented a draft framework, and proposed ways in which it could be implemented. It consists of 24 pieces of metadata about platforms or titles providing OA publishing services. The metadata are clustered into three sections: the first for high-level information about the title itself, the second for a range of metrics that together convey a sense of the nature and quality of the title, and the third to indicate the percentage of the total price apportioned to publishing services.
Implementing this framework will require changes in practices, closer alignment between stakeholders, effort, and infrastructure. These metadata would be most conveniently made available by platforms and publishers via the CrossRef service, and from there surfaced via an open licence for ingest and use in a wide array of services. Many relevant services operate now, and there is also potential for new services.
This framework will be piloted in the first quarter of 2020.