The NORF Action Plan aspires that “by 2030 Ireland will have implemented a sustainable and inclusive course for achieving 100% open access to research publications.” While IReL’s current suite of over 20 transformative OA publishing agreements have been a success in rapidly accelerating the volume of Irish works make immediately open on publication, they have limitations: they may have article publishing limits; their pricing may not be adequately transparent; the transition to a pay-to-read may be unaffordable; and its not certain that the global uptake of such models will result in an ultimate transition to OA as the default.
IReL is currently participating in working groups with two publishers who share these concerns and are independently designing new business models which will allow them publish OA on a fair and sustainably basis, and also to embrace open research, beyond simply making publications open. They may include features such as open-peer review; supporting and evaluating non-article content such as code and data and ensuring that such content is findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable.
We won’t identify the publishers yet, as their new models are works in progress, expecting to be piloted in the next 1-2 years. While both publishers have very different histories and legacy practices, their share common visions along with IReL in seeking to:
· ensure that open access and open research can be adopted globally, across countries with differing financial means
· providing fair, transparent pricing that eliminates the volatility of deals based purely on article output (and which may incentivise quantity over quality)
Regardless of the outcome of these efforts (and their suitability for future IReL deals), we welcome these publishers’ willingness to innovate and to collaborate with stakeholders such as libraries, consortia and funders to further open research.