Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association

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This editable Main Article is under development and subject to a disclaimer.

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Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association

Website  | oaspa.org
Legal status  | International professional association
Founded  | 2008
Industry  | Open Access Publishing

The Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association is an industry association which aims to promote open access publishing (also known as Gold Open Access) and to establish best practices in the field. It brings together the major open access publishers on the one hand and independent -- often society\- or university-based -- publishers on the other, along with some hybrid open access publishers. While having started out with a focus on Open Access journals exclusively, it is now expanding its activities to include matters pertaining to the Open Access publishing of books as well.[1]

## Contents

* 1 Mission
* 2 History
* 3 Activities
* 4 Criticism
* 5 Notes

## Mission[edit]

The mission of OASPA[2] is to support and represent the interests of Open Access publishers globally in all scientific, technical, and scholarly disciplines, and to advocate for Gold Open Access in general. To this end, it provides a forum for professional exchange on matters of Open Access publishing in scholarly contexts, it engages in standardization efforts and outreach, identifies and promotes best practices for scholarly communications by Open Access, and supports the continuous development of viable business and publishing models.

## History[edit]

With the growth of the open access movement, the interactions between different open access publishers intensified, as they met each other at a multitude of trade or scientific conferences, workshops or similar events. Yet Open Access publishing and its peculiarities with respect to traditional publishing or scholarly communication were rarely in the focus of such gatherings, which brought about the need for a dedicated forum. With the intention to provide that, OASPA was launched on October 14, 2008 at an Open Access Day Celebration in London hosted by the Wellcome Trust.[3][4][5]

## Activities[edit]

OASPA organizes the Conference on Open Access Scholarly Publishing (COASP), an annual conference dedicated to scholarly open access publishing.[6] The conference covers the whole spectrum of open access publishing, including business models, publishing platforms, peer review modes and distribution channels.

OASPA encourages publishers to use Creative Commons licenses, particularly the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY)[7], which is in line with most definitions of "Open", e.g. the Open Definition by the Open Knowledge Foundation[8]. The organization also engages beyond Gold Open Access, e.g. for free access to scholarly works that have been awarded Nobel Prizes.[9]

## Criticism[edit]

Criticism has focused on OASPA's self-declared role as the "stamp of quality for open access publishing", apparently at odds with OASPA's application of its own criteria for membership.[10][11] Within the context of the ongoing debate on the relative merits of Green versus Gold open access, OASPA has also been criticized for promoting Gold in a way that may be on the expense of Green.[12]

## Notes[edit]

1. ↑ This article incorporates material from the OASPA website, which is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.
2. ↑ OASPA Mission, accessed Nov 28, 2010
3. ↑ OASPA History, accessed Nov 28, 2010
4. ↑ New Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) Launched, a report by SPARC Europe, accessed Nov 28, 2010
5. ↑ Launch of Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA). Scholarly Communications Report 12(10):5 (2008).
6. ↑ COASP homepage, accessed Feb 13, 2011
7. ↑ OASPA’s response to the OSTP's request for public comment on Public Access Policies for Science and Technology Funding Agencies Across the Federal Government, accessed February 13, 2011.
8. ↑ Open Definition, accessed February 13, 2011
9. ↑ Open Access to Nobel Prize awarded work – a pilot project, accessed February 13, 2011
10. ↑ According to Open Access linked to Alabama shooting and The OA Interviews: Sciyo's Aleksandar Lazinica by journalist Richard Poynder, several suspicious OA publishers -- Dove Medical Press, Sciyo and InTech -- have at some point been OASPA members. According to OASPA's list of members, neither of these three are a member as of February 2011.
11. ↑ OASPA: act now or lose credibility forever by librarian Dorothea Salo, accessed February 13, 2011.
12. ↑ According to Critique of Criteria for "Full Membership" in OASPA ("Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association") by scientist and Green OA advocate Stevan Harnad, OASPA accepted Oxford University Press as a member because it publishes some Gold OA journals, while ignoring that most OUP journals are not Gold OA, and even prohibit Green OA for a year. Accessed February 13, 2011.