European University Presses take the initiative to develop an Open Access model for peer reviewed books in Humanities and Social

Sciences

The Consortium

• Six countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and the Netherlands)

• Seven university presses as content providers• Two universities, as technology and research

partner• Aimed at SME publishers in Humanities and

Social Sciences • Building a network around OA publishing for

stakeholders within the academic community

Some facts

• Duration: 30 months• Start: September 1, 2008• Lead partner/coordinator: Amsterdam University Press,

the Netherlands• Building on an OA publication model for peer reviewed

academic books in HSS

Actions undertaken under the eContentplus Programme (2005-2008)

to make digital content in Europe more accessible, usable and exploitable

Key objectives

• To improve the accessibility, impact and relevance of European research in HSS through the promotion of OA for primary publications

• To create and aggregate freely available peer reviewed HSS publications from across borders within an Online Library

• To engage stakeholders in the publication process

• To develop common funding models• To adopt common standards and metadata to

improve retrievability and visibility of HSS publications

Work packages

1. Management & Project Coordination

2. Dissemination & Awareness3. Focused Studies4. Open Access Publication Model5. Publication Services6. Online Library

Main Deliverables

• OA funding model for e-books• Specifications on e-publication model and

content aggregation• Services plan and business plan for OA books

and services• OA repository, with multi lingual search• Contract for licensing content• Agreement for partnerships and services• Tools and services for e-publication, digital

printing (PoD), marketing and digitization

Goal

Creating the largest freely available collection of current

peer reviewed books in European languages in various

fields of HSS

Project Management

External S tak eho ld ers G ro up

W P T eam s

Pro ject M anagm ent T eamPro ject L ead er

S cien tifi c Bo ard

C o nso rtium Bo ard EC

Content The initial consortium will contribute the following digital

content to the project

AUP 300

UGOE 100

MTP 200

MUP 250

PUL 150

FUP 150

UL 125

Total 1275

Success IndicatorsIndicators Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

Publishers providing OA publications/joining OAPEN

7 11 17

Commercial publishers involved in OAPEN 1 3 5

Countries represented within OAPEN's network

6 9 12

Languages covered by OAPEN's network 8 11 15

HSS publications available in OAPEN 750 1500

Unique visitors OAPEN's Online Library 4000/m

8000/m

Downloads of OA publications 1000/m

2000/m

Technical solution to be used

• XML and PDF Publishing infrastructure

• European Repositories infrastructure (‘virtual library’)

• Multi Lingual Search (to be selected)

WP1: Management & Project Coordination

• Consortium Board (CB): The CB acts as Steering Committee to direct and advise the Project Management Team (PMT). Responsible for assessment, quality control and evaluation of the project

• Project Management: The Project Manager (PM) ensures exchange of information, organizes and chairs meetings and oversees work between and within activity areas.

• Scientific Management: Overall scientific coordination concerning scientific aspects in particular within the research cluster.

• Technical Management: Overall technical coordination in particular interoperability and standards.

• Main deliverables:– Overall Project results, Annual Reports, Sustainability Report and

Architecture and Standards Report.

WP2: Dissemination & Awareness

• PR & Networking• Promote focused information materials within relevant

stakeholders communities. Attend key events to develop an information network and offer expertise in workshops

• Marketing of Content & Services• Improve visibility of high-quality OA products in HSS

community• Provide advice on new models of OA• Expand network and aggregate OA content

• Main deliverables: – PR & Dissemination Plan– Advocacy Material– Report on Target Groups/Key success indicators– Strategic Marketing Plan

WP3: Focused Studies • Study on User Needs• Identify specific needs in HSS publishing. Overview of attitudes and

needs of stakeholders, survey among specific target audiences including a synthesis of existing studies on the subject. Study based on interviews with representatives of users in different countries and disciplines, meeting with ESG

• Study on OA Models for books• Basic inventory of initiatives and attitudes towards OA book

publishing. Desk research, interviews with stakeholders and experts, meeting with ESG

• Main deliverables:– Workshops and Roundtables on OA Models (including other scientific

domains)– Reports on User Needs and Best Practices & Recommendations– Report on OA Models– Seminar on Focused Studies

WP4: Open Access Publication Model

• Publishing Model: To develop a basic reference model for OA books

• Processes & Workflows: To analyze the main processes of publishing and description of workflow systems

• Business & Costs Models: To create a business model (including basic calculation) for e-publishing services

• Legal Models & IPR Issues: To analyze legal aspects of e-publishing and work towards a basic reference model

• Main deliverables:– Report on OAPEN Model– Roundtable Conference– Services Plan for OA Books and Services– Business Plan for OA Books and Services– Contract for Licensing Content– Agreement for OAPEN Partnership

WP 5: Publication Services

• Marketing Services: Integration of software component to inform about resources of OAPEN via data export and alerting mechanisms

• Print-on-Demand: Integration of software component to support data export to service providers

• Digitization & Conversion: Integration of software component to support digitization of materials of OA books. Evaluation of workflows for e-books

• Publication Tools: Internal architecture, specification and implementation of software components for automatic production of standard components of books; software solutions for automatic XML will be analyzed and tested

• Main deliverables: – Selection set of re-usable software/service – Reports on Marketing Services, PoD Services, Digitization

Services and Publication Tools

WP6: Online Library• E-Publication Model: Specification of e-publication model integrating

specific needs of HSS books• Virtual Collection Service: Internal architecture, specification and

implementation of software component to build a virtual collection of OA books

• Full text aggregation: Collection of OA publication within the Online Library. Definition of basic collection policies and technical infrastructure to support policies (including automatic quality control

• Multi lingual Search: To enable multi lingual search and merging of result sets. Selection and implementation of solution

• Statistics: Requirements and test implementation of usage statistics for OA books based on established standards

• Main deliverables:– Online Library Design Report– Usability Report– OA Repository– Content Aggregation Report– Multi Lingual Search.

Dissemination & Awareness

• Branding: OAPEN will be used as a brand name for its network, publications of the consortium and for the joint list of publications available through the virtual Online Library.

• Building a network: OAPEN will involve publishers and other stakeholders to create a network.

• Aggregating content: OA publications will be identified with OAPEN's label and presented as a joint list of the consortium through OAPEN's harvester and repository.

• Cooperating with other partners: To ensure effective communication with target audiences Sparc Europe, AAUP, APE are involved in communication and dissemination activities.

Means of communication• Publications:

– Leaflets– Newsletters– Conference proceedings and articles based on the project results– Reports, fact-sheets and project descriptions

• Online:– Website: www.oapen.net – Automated Power Point presentation and specific presentations– European Digital Library: links to the project results

• Conference: about goals, activities, results and remaining issues

• External meetings: workshops, seminars and roundtables • Participation in events: AAUP conferences, APE Berlin,

STM seminars, London Book Fair, Frankfurter Buch Messe and requests by EC

• Collaboration with related projects funded by EC

User involvement and feedback

• Authors: Involvement and role: Research partners, member ESG, subject of focused study

• Readers: Involvement and role: Subject of focused study• Libraries: Involvement and role: Partners, providers of

infrastructure and services (repositories), member ESG, subject of focused study

• Publishers: Involvement and role: Partners and customers• Research councils/policy makers: Involvement and role:

Member ESG, subject of focused study• Universities: Involvement and role: Partners, member ESG

• OAPEN addresses these needs through focused studies– interviews with representatives of different categories of users– feedback from the workshops with the ESG and roundtables

Project Management Structure and

responsibilities• Consortium Board (CB)– Steering Committee: evaluation and assessment– Project Coordinator is the chair of the CB

• Project Management Team (PMT)– Overall management: technical, non-scientific and scientific– Project Manager is the chair of the PMT

• Work Package Teams (WPT)– Coordination of Work Packages– Led by Work Package Coordinators

• Scientific Board (SB) – Scholarly council: progress monitoring, guarding main objectives,

advising the CB and PMT– Chair of the SB: Sijbolt Noorda

• External Stakeholders Group (ESG)– Representatives from target audiences: feedback from future

beneficiaries– Chair of the ESG: Kurt de Belder

Website: www.oapen.org