D5.1 IPSP Sustainability Research Report
Creators: name: Brun, Victoria
name: Pontille, David
name: Torny, Didier
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Institutional Publishing Service Providers (IPSP)
Funding practices of IPSPs
Diamond Open Access
Financial sustainability means for institutional publishing
Diamond OA funder landscape
Scholar-led Diamond OA ecosystem
DIAMAS survey
Open Access publishing
institutional publishing
scholarly communication
Diamond publishing

description: Understanding the sustainability of institutional publishers and service providers(IPSPs) constitutes a key step in the DIAMAS project. This research report has one mainobjective: to investigate what financial sustainability means for institutional publishingin Europe and the workforce involved in it.

To fulfil these objectives, we undertook a range of research methods to gain a morethorough understanding of the complex landscape of institutional publishing and itsdifferent forms of sustainability. The analysis draws on four types of data: a literaturereview of economic and financial aspects of institutional publishing, two quantitativesurveys (the DIAMAS survey and a follow-up survey focusing on funding practices), 6focus groups with national-based IPSPs, and 15 interviews with a range of diverseinstitutional publishing representatives.

This report is organised in 8 sections. In the first one, we explain our methodology indata collection and analysis. In section 2, we look into academic and grey literature onthe topic. In section 3, we categorise the missions of the institutional publisher orservice provider, since what they stand for and how they operate influences theirapproach to sustainability. Depending on their operations, IPSPs do not foster the sametype of sustainability. In section 4, we examine the funding models of IPSPs. We look atfull Diamond IPSPs, mixed-models IPSPs (i.e. who publish or provide services forDiamond and non-Diamond outputs) and the landscape of European and nationalfunders and sponsors. In section 5, we discuss the constraints that arise frommanaging income on several aspects: accountability tasks, funder requests, reportingand fundraising. In section 6, we highlight the essential ability to have a workforce tocope with these changes. In section 7, we underline the central role of collaboration andshared infrastructures that shoulder the burden of sustaining the ecosystem. Finally, insection 8 we detail the ability of IPSPs to take a medium or a long-term view on theiractivities, and we outline their desirable and avoidable futures.

Several results can be drawn from these investigations. Diamond OA is an ecosystem inwhich institutional publishers and service providers (IPSPs) interact and perform arange of specific tasks. Our investigations show that there is no definitive set of tasksthat all institutional publishers share. We rather see a combination of options andservices that are distributed between the IP, its parent organisation, service providers,and academic personnel. Institutional publishers are diverse in nature and as a result oftheir missions, size and service provision, some of them are bound to upscale whileothers will seek to sustain their current size. The sustainability options available tothem and the choices they make are also influenced by these factors.

The population of IPSPs that responded to the DIAMAS survey utilises diverse fundingmodels. Some mix subscription fees or APC with Diamond funding streams. For themajority of institutional publishers or service providers who are fully Diamond OA, the role of the parent organisation is paramount for their basic support, especially in theform of in-kind support such as personnel, and services. The landscape of funders,sponsors and donors who support institutional publishing in Europe is very clear-cut. Parent organisations and public national or regional funders are the main localsupporters. Research funding organisations and international funders, however,currently marginally support non-commercial Diamond OA publishing needs, in contrastto the significant support that they provide to commercial publishing through APCs andBPCs.

Budget management is a secondary task for IPSPs compared to those of commercialpublishers, where this is crucial. Although only a minority has a financial buffer and asmall majority has an approved budget, almost all track their expenses and revenues insome form, especially in the interests of their funders, sponsors and donors. Oneshould point out that grants often place a burden on IPSPs as the search for funding, itsmanagement and reporting activities weigh on them. Moreover, a strong minority (40%)of IPSPs use time-limited grants to run their operations.

The workforce is more central to the sustainability of an IPSP than revenue streams.However, the form this workforce assumes is often unclear, since voluntary, in-kind orpaid work for a given task depends on institutional definitions. As a result, part of theworkforce is often employed outside of the boundary of the IPSP and within the parentorganisation, academic bodies or infrastructures, which means that the IPSP has tonegotiate with different institutions for resources.

IPSPs have a clear view of the challenges they face. The main ones are the need formore financial resources, the lack of stability and permanence in personnel, and thedependence on parent organisations. With more resources, they would primarily investin personnel to extend their services, notably on publishing production tasks. Theygenerally agree on the vision of tomorrow’s Diamond OA funder landscape: rejectingauthor-pays solutions, reinforcing current funders (public bodies and institutions), andthe need to involve research funding organisations as they also call for the provision ofmore stable and longer-term funding. Sustainability cannot be considered at the levelof the individual institution alone.

Finally, all those who have helped to sustain the archipelago of institutional publishersand service providers over the years must be recognised for their continued support. Itis in particular universities, academic libraries, research institutions, and publicinstitutions that have played a pivotal role in sustaining institutional publishing. Wehighly recommend that these organisations continue to commit to providing fixed andpermanent funding for local initiatives to uphold and stimulate bibliodiversity. Werecommend any action that will bring greater recognition to the work carried out,dedicated budgets, and support from all departments and services at the parentorganisation for the greater sustainability of a more equitable scholar-led Diamond OAecosystem. Going forward, It is also vital to support infrastructures that serve manysmall to mid-sized IPSPs and efforts that connect and build capacity among them,where resources are shared to make this ecosystem more technically and financiallysustainable in the mid to long term.
description: Deliverable under the review of the European Commission 
description: Data from DIAMAS follow-up survey about funding practices: https://zenodo.org/records/10879080