An Open Access Toolkit for faculties: an ongoing case study from Utrecht University Library
Creators: name: Holwerda, Femke Marleen
name: Livio, Chiara
name: Shetty, Rashmi
name: Bosman, Jeroen
name: de Boer, Jan
name: Jetten, Nadine
name: Ryane, Najoua
name: de Vries, Hanna
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Open Access
publishing strategy
university
faculty

description: Institutional open access policies have significantly matured over the last decade. To ensure uptake and support by researchers, it is important that these policies reflect the diverse needs and priorities of researchers in all fields. At Utrecht University, faculties have now been given a central role in defining and implementing open science policies and practices, to ensure that open science will not become a mere requirement, but a logical, relevant and necessary means for researchers to achieve their goals.

The University Board therefore decided to end its institution-wide, decade long Open Access Fund. The fund, managed by the Utrecht University Library, aimed to cover gold open access publication fees not covered by read and publish deals. Each of the seven faculties at Utrecht University and the University Medical Center (Social Sciences, Humanities, Law, Economics & Governance, Medicine, Science, Veterinary Medicine) consequently needed to find alternatives for the central OA fund. They were also encouraged to define a more comprehensive vision or strategy for open access of their own. The goal was to address the specific needs of their researchers, whilst fostering a publishing climate where academic authors contribute to fully open access scholarly communications in an equitable and sustainable manner.

To support this goal, Utrecht University Library’s Publishing Support Department, previously in charge of all publication matters, has developed an Open Access Toolkit. The toolkit aims to streamline the decision-making at the faculties and share the Publishing Support Department’s knowledge of the various aspects of open access.

The toolkit introduces and discusses different open access pathways (Diamond, Hybrid, Gold, Green, self-publishing) to publish books, scholarly articles, and chapters in edited volumes. Each pathway is explored in terms of its respective advantages and disadvantages. Particular emphasis is placed on how the library can assist faculties in making informed decisions regarding their open access publishing strategy, managing their individual open access publishing funds, and how to make this a more sustainable pathway forward by promoting more diamond publishing and the use of preprints.

The open access toolkit remains a dynamic document and is updated regularly, for instance with lists of diamond platforms and journals. The Publishing Support Department is currently actively engaging in discussions with the library director as well as faculty representatives, with the intention of soliciting feedback from all faculties in the coming months. During this presentation, the open access toolkit will be presented with a focus on both methodology and content, and we will address the feedback we have and continue to receive along with the challenges and doubts that have arisen during its development. Additionally, we invite and encourage insights and new perspectives from other research libraries.