Members of OASPA are approved following a strict evaluation process in accordance with the OASPA Membership Criteria.
The Membership Criteria are regularly reviewed and revised by the OASPA Board to ensure consistent high standards in OA publishing, and members of OASPA should continue to demonstrate that they meet these standards as part of the organisation. Misconduct may be reported to the Board of Directors and will be investigated according to a set procedure.
Statement on Open Access
The members of OASPA agree that OA publishing is now an established part of the publishing landscape. Members are committed to ensuring the highest standards of conduct among all OA publishers, and to encouraging the broader adoption of OA publishing models in all fields of research and scholarship. Members of OASPA acknowledge a common interpretation of Open Access publishing that includes the following components:
- The dissemination of peer-reviewed manuscripts containing original research or scholarship immediately upon publication, at no charge to user groups, without requiring registration or other access barriers.
- Copyright holders allow users to “copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works, in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship…” in the case of journals.
Whilst the CC-BY license is most compatible with the above definition of open-access and is strongly encouraged by OASPA, our membership criteria for journals publishers permit the use of the non-commercial restriction where there are compelling reasons to do so. Books publishers who are members of OASPA shall also strive to adhere as much as possible to the reuse principles above. OASPA recognises, however, that in some fields (e.g. Art History) the application of the most liberal licenses may be difficult and as such other licensing practices may be considered acceptable.