Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CRAFT-OA (Creating a Robust Accessible Federated Technology for Open Access)
Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31
After several decades of evolving, Open Access (OA) publishing is now at the centre of scientific communication, providing access to scientific publications without barriers. In Diamond OA, authors can publish free of charge as the institutional sector with universities, research institutions or libraries provide the necessary technological infrastructure. While the commercial model of OA dominates in anglophone journals from the Global North, the Diamond OA model shows a much higher level of diversity and origin. However, the Diamond OA landscape continues to be fragmented, is often underfunded, and is not always technically proficient enough to develop its full potential for science and society. Following the aim, to consolidate the Diamond OA landscape, CRAFT-OA focuses on four threads of activities to improve the infrastructures of Diamond OA:
(1) Provide technical improvements for journal platforms and journal software
(2) Build communities of practice to foster overall infrastructure improvement
(3) Increase visibility, discoverability and recognition for Diamond OA publishing
(4) Integrate Diamond OA publishing with EOSC and other large-scale data aggregators.
CRAFT-OA’s 23 consortium partners from 14 European countries are all engaged in institutional publishing and its infrastructures, and committed to sustaining and developing capacities in the field. Many CRAFT-OA partners are leading organisations at national and European levels in terms of open publishing, and represent internationally visible centres of expertise in Open Science and FAIR implementation with strong connections to the EOSC. Within 36 months, CRAFT-OA will deliver technical and community tools, training events, training materials, information, and services for the Diamond OA institutional publishing environment. It will foster communities of practice with the capacity to sustain the project improvements over time.
(1) Provide technical improvements for journal platforms and journal software
(2) Build communities of practice to foster overall infrastructure improvement
(3) Increase visibility, discoverability and recognition for Diamond OA publishing
(4) Integrate Diamond OA publishing with EOSC and other large-scale data aggregators.
CRAFT-OA’s 23 consortium partners from 14 European countries are all engaged in institutional publishing and its infrastructures, and committed to sustaining and developing capacities in the field. Many CRAFT-OA partners are leading organisations at national and European levels in terms of open publishing, and represent internationally visible centres of expertise in Open Science and FAIR implementation with strong connections to the EOSC. Within 36 months, CRAFT-OA will deliver technical and community tools, training events, training materials, information, and services for the Diamond OA institutional publishing environment. It will foster communities of practice with the capacity to sustain the project improvements over time.
In the first year of CRAFT-OA, the focus of the activity and achievements laid on setting the foundation for further project work. The identification of technical standards and best practices in Deliverable 3.1 represented the essential start. In a second step the challenges faced by publishers and publication service providers in implementing these standards were identified in Deliverable 3.2. This gap analysis forms the basis for the training courses and materials currently being developed.
Furthermore, all for the first phase planned milestones of the work packages were achieved, e.g. various requirements engineering for the diverse technical developments of CRAFT-OA like the Diamond Discovery Hub (DDH) or the visibility pathfinder. In addition, the work on improvements of OJS for already known EU-specific issues, e.g. GDPR compliance, as well as Social Sciences and Humanities related challenges, e.g. multilingualism, were taken up and initial results were achieved.
Furthermore, all for the first phase planned milestones of the work packages were achieved, e.g. various requirements engineering for the diverse technical developments of CRAFT-OA like the Diamond Discovery Hub (DDH) or the visibility pathfinder. In addition, the work on improvements of OJS for already known EU-specific issues, e.g. GDPR compliance, as well as Social Sciences and Humanities related challenges, e.g. multilingualism, were taken up and initial results were achieved.
With its project proposal the CRAFT-OA consortium handed over 26 endorsements from several stakeholders in the field of OA publishing, ranging from public infrastructures such as LIBER, publisher networks such as AEUP or national funders such as JISC. All endorsements emphasised that strengthening the not-for-profit Diamond OA model with its manifestation in OA Diamond Journals (OADJ) is urgently needed and that CRAFT-OA proposed the right way forward to do so. Additionally, all consortium members are deeply rooted in Diamond OA communities, either on a disciplinary, technical or regional and national level. Therefore, CRAFT-OA was able to formulate the needs of the Diamond OA community and how to reach beyond the status quo right from its start. In its first phase CRAFT-OA has been laying the groundwork to turn the formulated needs and requirements into results needed by and approved by the Diamond OA publishing community. Our most promising results of the first year are the Deliverable 3.1 on standards for best practices around FAIR principles, which is complemented by the gap analysis of Deliverable 3.2 that states clearly how OADJs can improve on a technical level to raise visibility, discoverability and recognition.