Author: Alastair Dunning - page 3

Innovating Scholarly Communication: TU Delft’s new fund for open publishing

Posted on by Alastair Dunning

At TU Delft Library, we’re taking bold steps to address the evolving landscape of scholarly communication. We are committed to advancing open access that not only shared knowledge, but is financially sustainable and supports innovation in scientific publishing.

 

This is why we are excited to introduce the Scholarly Communications Fund.

 

As we have written elsewhere, the current publishing environment is ripe for transformation. Many researchers and institutions, including UNESCO, the European Union, and the League of European Research Universities, are advocating for more equitable and open research dissemination. In alignment with these global movements, we aim to champion alternatives that offer greater autonomy and fairness in sharing research outputs.

 

A significant part of our strategy is the protection and promotion of small, non-commercial publishers, who play a crucial role in maintaining diversity and inclusivity in scientific communication. Equally important are the members of a bubbling ecosystem of new ideas for publishing – whether that be for testing the Publish, Review, Curate business model; exploring new forms of aggregation, or systems that help recognise new forms of intellectual input to research output. (For a non-comprehensive list of such infrastructures, see the list below)

 

Our Scholarly Communication Fund is designed to support both these immediate and long-term innovations in publishing. By investing in Diamond OA platforms and open infrastructures, we aim to provide more inclusive and sustainable publication options for our authors.

 

It is expected that there will be two routes for spending the money in these funds – just as with ‘traditional’ collections within the library. The first will be via nominations from individual TU Delft researchers. Such researchers may have, for example, a pre-print archive they wish to support, or they may wish to ‘flip a journal’, turning it from a closed to an open access model.

 

The second will be via the Scholarly Communications and Publishing team of the TU Delft Library, who have strategic oversight of the budget for all licences and collections. As other blog posts have indicated, the team will continue to engage with faculties – this ensures the choices are reflective and responsive to the wishes of the researcher community

 

Further details and guidance will be provided when budgets for 2025 are finalised.

 

Non-comprehensive list of possible venues for TU Delft Scholarly Communications Fund

This list from 2024 is purely indicative of the type of organisations that the TU Delft Scholarly Communications Fund could support

It does not express any specific support from TU Delft.

 

Arc Humanities Press Knowledge Unlatched Practical Action
ArXiv Language Science Press Programming Historian
American society for microbiology S2O Lens.org PsyArXiv
AUP S2O Amsterdam Univ Press LYRASIS PubPeer
BioRxiv Manifold Public Knowledge Project (PKP)
CEU Press (Opening the Future) MathOA PubPub
ChemRxiv Mattering Press (see ScholarLed) Punctum Books
CLOCKKS MediArXiv ResearchEquals
COPE MedRxiv ScholarLed (consortium)
COPIM Meson Press SciPost
Digizeitschiften MIT Direct2Open SIAM
DOAB/OAPEN Open Book Collective Science Open
DOAJ Open Book Publishers SCOAP3
DSPACE Open Citations SCOSS
EDP Sciences (Astronomy & Astrophysics) Open Library of Humanities Sherpa/Romeo
EduSources Open Science Framework (OSF) Sidestone Press
EngrXiv OpenEdition SIGMA
https://scirev.org/ Openjournals STORK
JOTE (Journal of Trial and Error) OPERAS T&F Open Pilot
Journal of City Climate Policy & Economy ORCID Zenodo
Journal of Open Source Software Peer Community In (PCI)
PeerJ

 

Strategy

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What is TU Delft Library doing to change publication culture? 

Posted on by Alastair Dunning - Updated

  • Alastair Dunning – Head, Research Services TU Delft Library 
  • Just de Leeuwe – Publishing Advisor 
  • Louise Otting – Collections Manager 
  • Nienke van Schaverbeke – Head, Scholarly Communications and Publishing 

(Update December 2024: the additional BTW rate has thankfully now been cancelled. We have also decided to reduce our Open Access for Gold APCs more slowly, rather than scrapping it)

 Opinion pieces, conferences, policy statements, blog posts, petitions and articles are singing the same song: the academic publishing industry needs serious reform. Maybe not a complete revolution, but a discarding of many ingrained instincts and processes. 

In the Netherlands, this chorus is even louder. Cuts to the university sector, and, more specifically, a promised increase in the rate of the BTW (belasting over de toegevoegde waarde, the Dutch valued added tax). Publications will now be charged the full 21%, instead of 9%. This adds an estimated 5 to 10% to all library collection costs. 

“Libraries therefore need to champion not only open access but cost-restraining forms of open access. This means both gold and immediate green open access options need to be an essential part of our strategy as we seek to constrain costs while achieving 100% immediate open access for articles published by TU Delft authors.”

(A Vision for 21st-Century Scholarly Collections: a report for the Delft University of Technology Library)

Change requires multiple actors. Universities, and their libraries, are obviously key players here. They provide access to collections, negotiate with publishers, and connect with the researcher communities 

Therefore, at TU Delft Library, we are undertaking the ‘Changing Publication Culture’ project, adopting numerous strategic and tactical decisions to promote change. 

This includes  

1)  From 2025, we will reduce our existing open access funds. These funds were established to support TU Delft authors who had no means to pay for GoldAPC publications.

2) From 2025, we will introduce a Scholarly Communications innovation fund to support new processes and models within academic publishing

3) We are organising events to engage and build synergy with the research community. This includes events such as the Peer Review Showdon, Changing Publication Culture  

Cone aat TU Delft Library
Cone at TU Delft Library

4) We also engage each of the eight faculties individually. Firstly, with Publication Task Forces, where members of the library meet with a small number of researchers within each faculty to discuss publication and collection issues. And secondly with presentation and discussion groups to each of TU Delft’s 46 academic departments   

5) Definition of principles to guide us through TU Delft’s negotiations with publishers. We are still working on these. But they will reflect our shared approach to publishing and licensing, drawn on the meetings mentioned above

6) Enacting a new collections strategy based on these principles. We have already started work here and a fuller list of prinicples will be shared soon.

Building national consensus is also critical. Particularly as bigger licencing deals in the Netherlands are done as part of the shared SURF consortium with strong input from the library directors that lead (UKB, Universiteitsbibliotheken & Nationale Bibliotheek) A white paper is currently being discussed that will help shape a national direction to change publication culture.

Strategy