The King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST), the first institution in the Middle East to have established an open access mandate for its researchers, has now endorsed the Open Access 2020 Initiative, thanks to the direct involvement of Dr. J. K. Vijayakumar, University Librarian of KAUST.
In a letter to the UC President Janet Napolitano, the University of California Academic Council and the University Committee on Library and Scholarly Communication has affirmed the alignment of the UC Senate’s Open Access Policy with the OA2020 Initiative and expressed their support of “all efforts by UC campuses to promote Open Access to scholarly research, both in the service of the University’s Open Access mission and in the service of similarly-oriented global missions such as OA2020.”
The endorsement also makes reference to the OA2020 Roadmap developed by the UC Berkeley, UC Davis, and UCSF which fittingly reflects the unique publishing preferences of these institutions while fully in alignment with the OA2020 principles of embracing all possible OA models and strategies toward the overall goal of transforming today’s scholarly journals from subscription to open access. Read the full article here.
Given the strong interest expressed by institutions around the world, MPDL is offering an intensive workshop Tuesday 12 – Thursday 14 September, 2017 on the strategic and practical approaches adopted at the MPDL in the transition to Open Access. Covering topics such as data analysis, strategic planning, negotiation strategies, transitional agreement management and workflow efficiencies, the workshop is designed to provide librarians with the skills to create and implement their own OA2020 Transition Roadmap in support of the large-scale transformation of today’s scholarly journals from subscription-based (paywall) to open access. There is no registration fee for the workshop, but participants will be asked to provide for their own travel and accommodation. The workshop is hands-on and places are limited, so interested librarians are asked to contact Colleen Campbell (campbell@mpdl.mpg.de) for further details. If you would like to participate in the workshop but the dates are not feasible, please let us know, as we are planning further workshops and we will be happy to keep you informed.
Open Access 2020 is an international initiative that aims to induce the swift, smooth and scholarly-oriented transformation of today’s scholarly journals from subscription to open access publishing.
The principles of this initiative were discussed and agreed upon at the Berlin 12 Conference on 8-9 December 2015 and are embodied in an Expression of Interest, which has already been endorsed by numerous international scholarly organizations.
The practical steps that can be taken towards the envisaged transformation are outlined in a Roadmap.
All parties involved in scholarly publishing – particularly universities, research institutions, funders, libraries, and publishers – are invited to collaborate through OA2020 for a swift and efficient transition of scholarly publishing to open access.
This important initiative is open to further institutional signatories. Please consider offering your support.