Over the past 20 years, Open Access publishing has evolved from an aspirational idea into a widely accepted practice in scholarly communications. For those just getting started in publishing and scholarly communications, it can seem like everyone just “knows” what is meant by open access. But how OA is defined and how widely it is adopted differs among institutions, regions, and disciplines. Understanding how open access is funded, how it is operationalized, and to what extent content is truly “open” can vary widely depending on the stakeholder—librarian, funder, publisher, or researcher.
Join us for our newest Open Access seminar, “Open Access: Understanding the Mission, the Models, and the Mindsets,” happening July 21, from 10-1:00 pm ET. Registration for the event remains open with a discount available for SSP members.
Highly interactive, this workshop will be of interest to both early-career professionals as well as those more experienced in scholarly communications who want to enhance their understanding of the latest developments in open access publishing and their contexts in the wider academic ecosystem.
Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, seminar instructor, and Coordinator for Information Literacy Services and Instruction & Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, took the time to answer questions about the event:
Who is the intended audience for this seminar and why should they attend? This workshop is conceptualized as “open access 101” and it’s for those who are new to the topic or those who have picked up various bits of information over time but would like to ensure they have a comprehensive foundation of knowledge. We’ll be particularly focused on journals and journal articles but of course, the concepts also apply to monographs, book chapters, and other kinds of publications as well.
Why do you think this topic is important and timely? We are in a transitional time as scholarly publishing transitions from a predominantly subscription model to open access models. As such, we are seeing a great deal of experimentation, innovative business models, and evolving terminologies. Keeping up on the evolution is a challenge for even the most expert in this arena but is especially difficult if one does not have an overall conceptual map of the terrain or is new to scholarly publishing.
Is there a particular topic you’re looking forward to seeing discussed? As complicated and at times confusing as it can be, I do enjoy discussing the colors, precious metals, and gems terminology that is used in open access discussions — e.g., green, gold, diamond, platinum, bronze, and black! I think it is very empowering when people get a handle on jargon and definitions — it means they can more easily make sense of what they read or hear in a presentation and enables them to participate in the dialogue more confidently.
What can participants expect from the seminar? I’m really excited for the active learning approach we will be taking in this workshop — it is going to be “hands on” not “talking heads.” I’ve been teaching online courses for more than 20 years and there are so many tools we can use now compared to when I started to create a really robust and vibrant learning environment online.
Specifically, the workshop will cover:
- A brief history of open access and its position in the broader context of Open Science
- Different types of open access and how these definitions are contested
- Affordances and limitations of open access
- Perspectives of different stakeholders
- Approaches to funding models: transformative agreements, pure publish agreements, memberships, subventions, and micro-payments
- Ways that open access may develop in the future
What do you hope participants will take away from the seminar? Attendees of this introductory workshop will learn about the history and evolution of open access, from the Budapest Open Access Initiative to Plan S, and explore the evolution from the original green and gold OA models to the latest transformative agreements and other business models.
In addition to knowledge, I hope participants leave with increased confidence in their understandings and abilities to engage in the transition from subscription to open business models.
News contribution by SSP member, Heather Kotula. Heather is the Vice President of Marketing and Communications for Access Innovations, Inc.
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