Austrian Transition to Open Access: a collaborative approach

Rita Pinhasi,Brigitte Kromp,Lothar Hölbling

doi:10.1629/uksg.561

Abstract

This article presents a collaborative project, the ‘Austrian Transition to Open Access’ (AT2OA), initially running from 2017 to 2020, which had the overarching goal of enabling the large-scale transformation of publishing outputs from closed to open access (OA) in Austria. The initiative, which has recently secured funding for a second four-year cycle from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, brings together all key players: universities, research institutes, the national library consortium and a cOAlition S funding member, the Austrian Science Fund. The project outcomes include a transition feasibility study that builds on the methodology of the 2015 Schimmer et al. article, the seeds of a national OA monitoring data hub and transformative agreements with major publishers. In addition, the project helped launch institutional OA Publishing Funds across the country and explored alternative publishing models. Furthermore, it saw the emergence of a nationwide network of OA experts. The authors also share their thoughts on lessons learned.

Highlights

Recent years have seen an exponential rise in the number of open access (OA) publishing arrangements between institutions and publishers, small and large, and increasingly on a global scale: the 300 agreements listed in the ESAC Transformative Agreement Registry as of 25 May 2021 span five continents and 31 countries.[1]
If we have a closer look at the registry, it enabling compliance might come as a surprise to some that Austria was among the first movers through its dedicated
The AT2OA Transition Study,[9] one of the main deliverables of this subproject, looked at the potential impact of the transition period to OA on the participating libraries’ budgets between 2019 and 2021. As part of this exercise, the SP1 working group developed a template that each institution could adapt for identifying potential financial needs required to support the transition to OA while maintaining access to resources needed by staff and students

Summary

Head of Consortia Management Vienna University Library

Recent years have seen an exponential rise in the number of open access (OA) publishing arrangements between institutions and publishers, small and large, and increasingly on a global scale: the 300 agreements listed in the ESAC Transformative Agreement Registry as of 25 May 2021 span five continents and 31 countries.[1]. – the offsetting deal with the Institute of Physics in 2014 being the very first of its kind in the world This early start in the field was possible thanks to the close collaboration of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) on the one hand and the network in transformative agreements’. A national funding body for basic science, FWF, has introduced increasingly strict OA policies[3] while enabling compliance through its dedicated funding pots and its participation in transformative agreements.[4] FWF’s efforts culminated in the launch of Plan S,5 possibly the most significant OA initiative in recent years, with a group of research funding organizations, cOAlition S. The AT2OA project was born out of this collaborative spirit, where harnessing existing expertise and innovative thinking go hand in hand It offered a platform for testing new ideas and helped join the dots in the Austrian OA landscape

Project overview

Open access monitoring

Funding criteria

Lessons learned

Findings

The importance of good quality bibliographic data