Earlier this year OASPA announced the introduction of the new Supporter membership category. With this new category, OASPA membership was expanded to non-publisher organisations and individuals to broaden open scholarship discussion with additional perspectives.
We introduced the Supporter category for organisations and individuals who are supportive of OASPA’s mission and goals, but do not fit into our full membership categories as they are not themselves publishing OA journals or books, or directly enabling OA publishing to take place via an infrastructure service or technology. We know that there is a significant and growing community who support our work and are interested in our events and activities – with individuals from over 70 countries and numerous types of organisation attending our annual conference and regular free webinars.
We are delighted to welcome our first group of Supporters. We thank them for their backing and look forward to closer connections with them. We asked these early Supporters to outline why they decided to support OASPA. We hope this may encourage other organisations and individuals to join this growing list.
We decided to become an OASPA supporter to contribute to the development, and responsible governance, of the infrastructure supporting open access publishing; to help advocate for open scholarship and to be part of the discourse around developing sustainable models of open access publication.
Sarah Thompson, University of York, UKTo participate in OASPA activities, draw from experiences of other members to enhance UWC publications support services.
Alfred Nqotole, University of the Western Cape Library, South AfricaAs a mission-driven consultancy, working to improve the effectiveness and impact of research and scholarly communication, we have been longstanding advocates for open scholarship. We are delighted to support OASPA’s work to advance open access and ensure a diverse, vibrant, and healthy open access community.
Rob Johnson, Research Consulting, UKWe strongly believe in OASPA’s mission and want to support its work to expand open access publishing of scholarly works.
Jody Bailey, Emory University Libraries, United States
Having been in the publishing industry for over 20 years and a previous member of OASPA through previous employers I am delighted to join once more as an individual. I look forward to getting involved with shaping webinars and conference programmes, supporting the publishing ecosystem more broadly and networking with other OASPA members.
Sarah Greaves, Sarah Greaves STEM Consulting, UKWe’re keen to hear news of and be a part of OA and scholarly communications projects and would like to support OASPA’s endeavours. This is a time of rapid change and collaborative working is important in forming workable solutions to further the OA cause.
Jennifer Barrell, University of Bristol Library Services, UK
We look forward excitedly to welcoming further organisations and individuals to join this growing list.
For more information about the new Supporter category or to join as a supporter, please visit https://oaspa.org/support-oaspa/