The Metadata Exchange Hub
As an intermediary, the OA Switchboard simplifies the sharing of information between publishers, institutions and funders: authoritative, timely, aggregated and validated publication metadata. This reduces the transactional cost for stakeholders, because it is a safe space for publication metadata, as mission-driven, not-for-profit, community-led initiative.
Trust
The independently managed, shared infrastructure provides a safe space for publication metadata
Collaboration
The standardized protocol allows for the transparent exchange of data about (OA) publications, designed to operate and integrate with all stakeholder systems
Efficiency
It eases the administrative burden of maintaining many-to-many relationships and It reduces the manual volume of information exchange
By Publishers, Institutions,
and Funders
Open Access is opening research up to the world. Academics, institutions, funders, and publishers are committed to ensuring that research is accessible to all. Stakeholders, as a community, have created and are continuing to support and develop the OA Switchboard to help navigate the OA research and publishing maze.
For Publishers, Institutions, and Funders
OA Switchboard enables participants to simplify the sharing of authoritative, timely, aggregated, and verified scholarly communications metadata.
For research institutions
Who want to connect with their research and simplify their workflows.
Institutions from Australia to Canada, and from Albania to Zimbabwe, enjoy staying current and informed to enrich their own data and systems and to enhance their OA agreement management. Why? Because they get a verified consistent data format from multiple publishers.
For academic publishers
Who want to support a smooth and compliant author journey and report on OA publication output.
Our participating publishers come in all flavours: some publish a handful of highly selective journals, others have portfolios of thousands of journals, and everything in between. All business models are present: APC and non-APC based, S2O, diamond. It doesn’t matter because the use cases and interests are universal. Above all, they are supported in enhancing their metadata.
For research funders
Who want to demonstrate the extent and impact of their research funding and deliver on their commitment to OA.
Participating research funders generally have a more indirect interest and support broader community benefits. Institutions, libraries, consortia, and research funders all appreciate the reduced (manual) efforts and increased efficiency. Everyone in our community feels participation is the right thing to do.
OA Switchboard by numbers
1.2 M+
Messages
30,000+
Organizations
39
Publishers
18
Consortia
Media & News
Publisher
EMS Press joins OA Switchboard to enhance Open Access services
EMS Press is pleased to announce its collaboration with OA Switchboard. Since 2024, EMS Press' entire journal portfolio has been published open access, combining Subscribe-to-Open (S2O) and Diamond models. EMS Press’ integration with OA Switchboard is set to start on 7 July 2025.
Consortia
Free access to OA Switchboard for German institutions also in 2025
TIB - Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology and ZB MED – Information Centre for Life Sciences will continue to finance the participation of German universities and research institutions in the OA Switchboard initiative in 2025.
Connectivity
OJS plug-in available
Publishers using PKP’s Open Journal Systems (OJS) to manage the researcher-to-reader workflow for submission, peer review, and production of scholarly articles can now easily connect to OA Switchboard with a new OJS plug-in. This supports diamond journals to increase the visibility of their OA output among research funders, libraries, and consortia.
Data Quality Challenge
The Data Quality Challenge calls on the community to revolutionise publication metadata management by standardising information provided by publishers and allowing stakeholders to consolidate and process data efficiently. This initiative is enabled by OA Switchboard and builds upon communitywide lessons learned and best practices, and is based on the core values of the OA Switchboard of Trust, Collaboration, and Efficiency.
Your path to continuous improvement starts here.
The overall goals of the Data Quality Challenge are to:
Standardize and aggregate
Import and analyze
Enhance
Partners & Integrators
Our certified integrators work with funders, institutions, and publishers to technically connect their systems to the OA Switchboard API using the standard message structure—ensuring seamless, reliable data exchange.
Financial support from our certified partners helps maintain and grow the OA Switchboard infrastructure.
OA Books
OA Switchboard’s principles support all OA business models, policies, and types of scholarly output. In 2023/2024 a pilot for OA Books was conducted, and we’re currently evaluating the findings and conclusions. The plan is to implement a first-phase operational solution for book chapters in 2025.
Resources
Matching Publication Costs with Publication Funds
This video animation shows what publication costs are, and how they can be covered by a variety of business or economic models. Parties contributing to these costs hold the so-called "publication fund". The challenge is in matching these.
Integrating with HARRASSOWITZ FOKUS
HARRASSOWITH Fokus and OA Switchboard showcase the benefits of industry collaboration and technical integration: Greater transparency - Analysis - Budget planning support. Connecting is key!
Connections between the building blocks of research
For our global research system to function, we need connections between the building blocks of research. These connections can be realised by metadata, which captures how people, organisations, and things interact.