In August Libertas joined the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA).  We are also associated with the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers, the Independent Publishers’ Guild, the International Digital Publishing Forum, and UKSG, as well as various other professional bodies.

OASPA is a professional body for publishers and associated organizations working in the open access market.  Although there are many professional bodies for publishers, OASPA is the only widely recognised organization that focusses specifically on open access publishers.  It exists to represent the interests of publishers by facilitating sharing of information, advocacy and setting of standards.  

Libertas Academica’s decision to join OASPA was motivated by two considerations: we share OASPA’s values, particularly around ethical conduct of publishers, and we have been impressed by the significant positive impact on the open access publishing industry by this still relatively new organisation.  

The membership application process

After contacting OASPA to inquire about membership I was invited to complete an application form.  The five-page form contained questions on ownership and corporate structure, licensing policy, complaints process, article processing fee policy, and peer review policies, as well as other questions concerning office location and contact details.  

Once the form was returned the evaluation process was completed within six weeks.  The individuals who undertook the evaluation, whose identities were confidential but I understand were drawn from the OASPA board, suggested a minor modification to article PDFs to add a hyperlink to the relevant Creative Commons license webpage and that the journal tab then labelled “Aims and Scope” should be renamed “About”.  Both of these have been completed—the former only now filtering through in newly published papers—and our application was formally accepted.

Conclusions

Based on my observations summarized above I believe that we can all be confident that OASPA exercises it’s significant responsibilities as the only professional body dedicated to open access publishers in a rigorous, responsible, and professional manner.  Earlier in its development I had concerns that OASPA was being operated as a closed club of a few open access publishers; I am now confident this is not the case.  I am confident that authors and readers looking for a responsible, professional publisher or journal need look no further than OASPA’s list of members. 

I look forward to Libertas’ continued association with OASPA.

Tom Hill is the CEO of Libertas Academica

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