OASPA founded OA Switchboard in 2020 and remains a proud strategic partner. It has been wonderful to see the OA Switchboard develop as a truly collaborative initiative and we are happy to share news that a number of fully open access (OA) publishers have now implemented their connection to OA Switchboard.
OA Switchboard is set up for all publishing business models but one of the great benefits is that it gives visibility to smaller publishers and fully OA publishers who most often lack the opportunities to make direct publishing agreements with institutions. This is one of the main reasons OASPA supported the initiative, so it is great to see these publishers go live with OA Switchboard. The born OA publishers now connected include AboutScience, Beilstein-Institut, Copernicus, eLife, Hindawi, JMIR Publications and PLOS.
In March, Hindawi announced it had successfully integrated with the OA Switchboard. Catriona MaCallum of Hindawi says:
“The OA Switchboard has developed quickly over the last couple of years and is starting to demonstrate the real value it can provide to our community, and we are excited to announce that Hindawi has now also successfully integrated with the OA Switchboard. Going forward, this will enable the OA Switchboard to send out notifications on our behalf to institutions/consortia and funders when a relevant article is published.”
In May, JMIR Publications announced it is ready to begin sending automated publication notification messages through the OA Switchboard, supporting research institutions and their libraries to connect with their research and simplify their workflows.
Adrian Stanley of JMIR Publications on the impact of joining OA Switchboard to JMIR Publications::
“This is an important step for JMIR, better connecting author funding opportunities to central OA library budgets, and for automated and scalable institutional reporting. We are very appreciative of the support given by the OA Switchboard and client advisory board.”
Fred Atherden of eLife has this to say about joining OA Switchboard:
“eLife has been involved with OA Switchboard since its inception, and continues to help shape it, as the founding principles around trust and collaboration match with our own mission to accelerate discovery by operating a platform for research communication that encourages and recognises the most responsible behaviours.
We embrace transparency around publication metadata and want to proactively report to all relevant research funders and institutions in an OA article published at eLife. The OA Switchboard standardised protocol allows for the transparent exchange of data about OA publications, designed to operate and integrate with all stakeholder systems. Its custom connector provided an easy solution to our requirements, and it was simple to implement on our end.”
Randy Townsend explains the benefits of OA Switchboard participation to PLOS:
“The standardization between systems, portals and processes that the OA Switchboard provides will allow PLOS to share increasingly valuable reporting and data analysis with our institutional partners. We are excited to enhance transparency in OA publishing with the ability to immediately share article metadata directly, upon publication, with our community.”
Yvonne Campfens, Executive Director of OA Switchboard invites other publishers to get involved:
“We are very excited to invite new partners to join us. The central information exchange hub grows stronger with every participant, becoming a better tool for all. Publishers are invited to get in touch to understand how joining the OA Switchboard can both serve your organisation and drive open access.”
The simplicity and benefits of joining are demonstrated in this how-to webinar from OA Switchboard publisher participants.
Learn more about and hear from other (fully) OA Publishers about their partnership with OA Switchboard at https://www.oaswitchboard.org/publishers
About OA Switchboard
The OA Switchboard is a mission-driven, community led initiative designed to simplify the sharing of information between stakeholders about open access publications throughout the whole publication journey. It creates a standardised messaging protocol and reporting tool between publishers, institutions, and funders in order to facilitate the fulfilment of open access strategies across business models, policies and agreements. The goal is to achieve a breakthrough in the transformation of the market such that Open Access is supported as the predominant model of publication.
