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OAPEN Library

OAPEN Foundation
Netherlands
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About

Launched: 2010
Record Updated: Nov 18, 2024
Digital library, collection or exhibit platform
Discovery system
OAPEN promotes and supports the transition to open access for academic books by providing open infrastructure services to stakeholders in scholarly communication. We work with publishers to build a quality-controlled collection of open access books and provide services for publishers, libraries, and research funders in the areas of hosting, deposit, quality assurance, dissemination, and digital preservation.
Research Organization Registry (Opens in new window)

Mission

OAPEN promotes and supports the transition to open access for academic books by providing open infrastructure services to stakeholders in scholarly communication.

We work with publishers to build a quality-controlled collection of open access books and provide services for publishers, libraries, and research funders in the areas of hosting, deposit, quality assurance, dissemination, and digital preservation.

OAPEN’s goals are:


  • to build a branded collection of open access peer-reviewed titles;
  • to increase the visibility and retrievability of high-quality publications;
  • to promote open access book publishing.

Key Achievements

  • 2013: OAPEN launches the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB, https://doabooks.org ) which later, in 2019, becomes it own independent not-for-profit foundation.
  • 2020: OAPEN launches the OAPEN OA Books Toolkit - a public information resource about OA book publishing and co-launches the OA Books Network - a place to discuss open access books.
  • 2019: OAPEN (jointly with DOAB) is selected for the SCOSS second funding cycle.
  • 2022: OAPEN becomes the scientific coordinator of the EU funded PALOMERA project - aligning policies for OA books.
  • 2023: OAPEN now hosts over 30,000 peer-reviewed open access books from several hundred publishers.

    • Technical Attributes

    Maintenance Status

    Actively Maintained

    Open Code Repository

    In Progress

    Technical Documentation

    Implemented
    Website (Opens in new window)

    Open API

    Implemented
    Website (Opens in new window)

    Open Data Statement

    Implemented
    Website (Opens in new window)

    Open Product Roadmap

    In Progress

    Technical Attribute Statements

    Technology Readiness Level

    • Actual system proven in operational environment

    Content Licensing

    Content licences are applied by the publishers. Most licences (more than 90% of the books have a Creative Commons licence, around one third have a CC-BY licence)

    Standards

    Service Providers

    Integrations

    See https://www.oapen.org/librarians/13678551-services-libraries

    • Webscraping (for instance Google Scholar, Unpaywall, Unglue.it)
    • Harvesting (for instance BASE, CORE, OpenAIRE)
    • API (for instance OpenBCP, Open Syllabus)
    • Metadata feeds (for instance EBSCO, Exlibris/Clarivate, OCLC)

    Community Engagement

    Community Engagement

    Implemented

    Community Statements

    User Contribution Pathways

    • Contribute funds
    • Contribute to code
    • Contribute to working groups or interest groups

    More About Community Engagement

    Community Engagement Activities:

    Annual meeting for supporting libraries, sharing our technical roadmap to invite libraries to provide suggestions for new development and to give general feedback.


    • Managing a library working group.
    • Coordinating a funder forum.
    • Serving as Executive Assembly member of OPERAS
    • Serving on the Board of Stewards for the Open Book Collective
    • Serving the Think.Check.Submit Committee
    • Serving on a number of advisory boards and other committees
    • Writing articles and blogs and giving 50+ presentations at conferences and webinars annually - see engagement in our annual stakeholder report

    Principles for Open Scholarly Infrastructure, POSI - https://oapen.hypotheses.org/524

    Policies & Governance

    Governance Summary

    The OAPEN Library is an initiative of the OAPEN Foundation. The Foundation is governed by a Supervisory Board and an Advisory Board.

    Policies

    Bylaws

    Implemented
    Website (Opens in new window)

    Commitment to Equity & Inclusion

    Implemented
    Website (Opens in new window)

    Privacy Policy

    Implemented
    Website (Opens in new window)

    Web Accessibility Statement

    Implemented

    Governance Records

    Implemented
    Website (Opens in new window)

    Governance Structure & Processes

    Implemented
    Website (Opens in new window)

    Transparent Pricing and Cost Expectations

    Implemented
    Website (Opens in new window)

    Policy Statements

    Board Structure

    • Advisory board or steering committee

    Community Governance

    • Formal

    Additional Information

    Organizational History

    The OAPEN Library was developed as a 30-month targeted project co-funded by the EU in its eContentplus-program (2008-2010). The goal of the project was to build a platform for peer-reviewed open access academic books and to explore publication and business models for open book publishing. After the close of the project, OAPEN continued its activities as a not-for-profit and independent foundation (a Stichting - cannot be sold or acquired by law).

    Read the story of OAPEN here: https://doi.org/10.3998/jep.3303

    Organizational Structure

    Business or Ownership Model

    Non-profit organization

    Current Affiliations

    Funding

    Funding Needs

    OAPEN’s primary role is to ensure smooth distribution of books from publishers to readers, most often through academic libraries. Maintaining and developing this core part of the infrastructure to accommodate the needs of publishers and libraries is an increasingly more challenging task as more books are sent to the OAPEN Library and the demands among institutions increase. As research funders develop OA book policies, OAPEN's service provision to the funders also needs developing.

    Funding will help maintain existing open services and develop new services to enable seamless access to thousands of scholarly books for millions of readers worldwide. Additionally, funding will enable OAPEN to pursue equity for publishers worldwide by providing global distribution services to any publisher who fullfills the basic requirements of peer review and open access. OAPEN is proactively reaching out to publishers in all regions of the world to make them aware of these possibilities.
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