On 'OA Day,'; Open Access Publishers Announce Formation of a Trade Association

Andrew Albanese -- Library Journal, 10/14/2008

• Trade group another step in OA maturation
• Announcement part of first-ever Open Access Day
• Publishers, and advocates can join group

 If you’re looking for yet another hint that open access publishing has put down some serious roots, today saw the launch of an OA trade group: the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA). Membership is open to scholarly publishers and professional publishing organizations, including university presses and for-profit and non-profit organizations alike that have signed either the Berlin or Budapest OA declarations and publish at least one full OA journal. Individuals and other organizations supporting OA journal publishing, such as library groups, are also eligible to join.

 The announcement of OASPA’s official launch in London comes in conjunction with the first-ever “Open Access Day.” The day was founded by SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) along with Students for FreeCulture, and the Public Library of Science (PLoS), as an initiative to help to broaden awareness of OA issues.  OASPA’s stated mission: “to support and represent the interests of Open Access (OA) journals publishers globally in all scientific, technical, and scholarly disciplines through an exchange of information, setting of industry standards, advancing business and publishing models, advocating for gold OA journals publishing, education and the promotion of innovation.”

 The founding members of OASPA include an array of publishers and OA supporters, including BioMed Central (just acquired by Springer), Hindawi Publishing Corporation, PLoS, SAGE, SPARC Europe, and the Utrecht University Library. The establishment of a trade organization represents yet another step in the rapid maturation of a publishing model many consider experimental, at best, and that is often called unsustainable by traditional publishers. A decade after OA’s emergence, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) now lists over 3500 peer-reviewed journals. Representatives from the OASPA are now in the process of forming an interim board and setting up a first General Meeting, to be held in 2009.

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