We recently welcomed Radboud University Press as an OASPA member in the Small Professional Publisher category. The Press joins a growing list of over 200 OASPA members.
We asked Natalia Grygierczyk, Director, a few questions so we could learn more about Radboud University Press and its connection to open scholarship and the decision to become an OASPA member.
Tell us a bit about your organisation, the service it provides – and your role within it
Radboud University Press is a new diamond open access publisher at Radboud University in Nijmegen in The Netherlands. We publish high-quality academic peer-reviewed books and journals across a wide range of our university’s disciplines, we recently celebrated our first birthday and we are comprised of a busy team of five people.
We have two main goals:
- OA Publishing services for our authors and editors so that they do not have to deal with administrative matters or publishing logistics.
- Proving that in the current political and scientific climate, academic OA publishing is realistic, can be done with limited financial resources, is sustainable and that it can become a change agent in the scientific publishing business. Especially, since there is a growing number of initiatives pointing in the same direction. And also, because there is sufficient room for commercial parties, each of whom can provide services from its own core business at a fair price.
For journal publishing, we work together with the shared national platform Open Journals hosted at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and sponsored by the Dutch Research Council.
For books publishing we work with Ubiquity Press.
I am the Radboud University Press director. I initiated and organized this exciting venture. Besides the usual management tasks and supporting our team, my main focus is mostly on attracting authors and publications, positioning the Press and gaining publicity within the university. I am also primarily concerned with collaboration and contracts with our publishing partners and service providers.
Why did you decide to join OASPA and what do you hope to get out of your OASPA membership?
We became an OASPA member to learn from other members and to be part of the community sharing (partly) common goals. Also to have the quality stamp of approval, as member organisations don’t become members automatically but must comply with well-thought-out OASPA criteria.
What are the short and medium-term priorities for your organisation in relation to open scholarship – and how is your organisation adapting for a future where open access publishing is the default?
Our points of departure:
- Diamond OA.
- We use Creative Commons licenses. CC-BY for journal articles, CC-BY-NC-ND for books.
- All copyrights remain with the author.
- Rights to the title of the journal belong to the editorial board. In this way, a journal can leave the publisher if it chooses to. This opens the possibility for market dynamics and competition. Since quality indexes are based on the journal’s title, title ownership is one of the biggest hurdles for editorial boards to leave their current publisher in case they are not satisfied.
- High scientific quality via strict double-blind peer review procedures.
- We publish in all disciplines of Radboud University, we have no area or discipline restrictions. For example, in the improbable case that our university is not very strong in a certain field, it would not mean that a publication in that field is not accepted. The main criterion is whether the publication itself is of high scientific quality, not whether it fits into a specific portfolio. In the digital age you do not search for publications in a publisher’s portfolio, but via metadata.
- We publish diverse types of publications:
- Journals; Books; Educational books and materials; Series; Pure scientific, but also popular scientific publications and, in the future, non-textual publications
- Journals; Books; Educational books and materials; Series; Pure scientific, but also popular scientific publications and, in the future, non-textual publications
What do you think are the main challenges for the communication of scholarship generally in the near future?
Implementing dynamics into the fossilised scientific publishing system via a growing number of scholarly-led diamond open access initiatives. Such dynamics are important in order to make scientific results free for scientists and for society.
The number of those academic publishing initiatives – or New University Presses – is certainly growing but those new initiatives have to overcome internal challenges to get financing and external challenges to reach a quality brand comparable with renowned publishers. And the quality brand is directly related to the system of recognition and appreciation of scientific results and the scientists.
Also, I’m a little bit worried about the future ownership of the research data. Replicating the publishing system in the realm of research data would be disastrous for science in general.
How do you think OASPA can help mitigate those challenges?
Sharing knowledge, best practices and expertise to assist OASPA members in achieving smooth working publishing operations.
Broad awareness creation (also political awareness) about the values and benefits of open access to scientific results and also for search algorithms, as ultimately this will lead to fewer duplications of research and more focused cooperation between research groups.
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