Get Involved
We are very happy you’re interested in participating in the OA Switchboard initiative. Below are topics that we're seeking input on, and areas you can participate in. Please get in touch by e-mail to share your thoughts, and we'll be happy to discuss with you.
last updated: 21 November 2023
page created: 5 February 2020
Advisory Group 2024
Invitation to participate is open
The Advisory Group consists of individuals and representatives of stakeholder groups (primary and other) who will contribute by expertise to ensure community representation, involvement and input in product/service development. The members will be appointed for a year (with the option to extend for other year(s)), and the group will meet approximately 4 times per year.
Participation and involvement are open to all who meet our purpose and criteria. The members of the 2023 Advisory Board are invited to join also for 2024, and an invitation to others is promoted here, via the mailing list and social media.
The members of the 2023 Advisory Group can be found here.
page created 21 November 2023
Working Groups
- gather ideas -
- prepare for further continuous improvement cycles -
- ensure we tie-in to existing initiatives and groups -
You are welcome to participate in the initiative by joining one or more of our various Working Groups:
1. Message structure
2. China
3. OA books and proceedings
4. Diamond model
This work is all done in a collaborative spirit and you are very welcome to provide feedback on any of the above.
last updated: 2 November 2020
page created: 25 June 2020
Pilot Users
Pilot closed 31 December 2020, OA Switchboard is now in 'launch phase'
In August 2020, the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) was delivered, i.e. the smallest feasible product, developed as an open source solution by our third party tech provider ELITEX. The MVP was developed in close collaboration with our Advisory Group and a small number of stakeholders. We’re now in the pilot phase (until the end of the year) and you can still join as Pilot User.
Do you, as an institution or funder, have a central OA fund and want to get it used as intended? With real-time monitoring/reporting, without having to negotiate contracts?
Do you, as a publisher, want to be able to locate central OA funds and get publication charges paid from these funds in an efficient and cost-effective manner? Without having to negotiate contracts?
Do you, as a publisher with (transformative) agreements, want to deliver standardised real-time insights and reporting on articles published and covered under an agreement, in line with the needs of institutions?
If you (as funder, institution or publisher) answer one or more of these questions with yes, please contact us to explore joining the OA Switchboard Pilot as Pilot User.
Your dedicated partner (e.g. for your submission/peer review system, or for your payment solutions) can join you in the Pilot as Pilot Participant.
last updated: 2 January 2021
page created: 20 April 2020
Data fields
Initial consultation closed, and succeeded by Working Groups
Journal manuscript/article-level metadata needed for an Eligibility Enquiry may be different from metadata for OA books, book chapters and conference papers. In this initial consultation, we are seeking input on the differences and specifics:
1. What OA-related metadata are specific for OA books, book chapters and conference papers (and not relevant for journal articles)?
2. What OA-related journal manuscript/article-level metadata are not relevant for OA books, book chapters and conference papers?
last updated: 25 June 2020
page created: 5 February 2020
Workshop API/integration (technical)
Facilitated, interactive online workshop 26 August 2020 - see report here
With the OA Switchboard MVP almost delivered, we're planning for a technical workshop on the API/integration.
This facilitated, interactive online workshop, will be both for people who participate in the Pilot, and also very much for those who have not yet had access to the OA Switchboard sandbox (and maybe not even to the Bitbucket repository: http://bitbucket.org/oaswitchboard/api/)
We're exploring a couple of dates for the end of August, and if you're interested in participating, please send a message to the Project Manager and we'll add your name to the Doodle poll.
Due to limited capacity for this event, we'll initially only allow for one representative per organisation. If capacity allows, we are happy to add a second representative for an organisation, if desired.
last update: 7 September 2020
page created: 28 July 2020
Third party software development provider
RFI process closed on 1 April 2020 and partner announced on 4 May 2020
We are seeking a third party software development provider to build an MVP (and one or two continuous improvement cycles) and help run a Pilot in 2020. Then, when ‘operational’, we need a partner who can further develop and service this open source solution, which is expected to be operational for the next decade(s). We are looking for parties with experience in the scholarly information or solutions space, and evidence of competency in developing and delivering open source solutions.
We aim to build the OA Switchboard from scratch. We need a whole nearshore team of experts (developers, Business Analysts, QA, etc). Existing products and services can be leveraged, as long as neutrality and openness of the OA Switchboard is preserved, and no license fees are charged.
The OA Switchboard is collaboratively developed, owned and operated by funders, institutions and publishers (worldwide), as shared open source infrastructure. Neutrality and openness of the operations, solutions and metadata standards is crucial, while maintaining the rights of users and stakeholders concerning their privacy (e.g. GDPR compliant). It is yet to be investigated and decided under what license data/reports will be made available to publishers, funders, institutions or their delegates (service/solution/system providers). Our third party software development provider will hold no rights to the data in, or going through, the system, so will not have the right to use these data at all. We require that the software will be released through an open source license.
Through this RFI process we will select our technology partner for the OA Switchboard MVP, whereby the Steering Committee will be advised by a small group of technical advisors.
The RFI announcement can be found here, and documentation can be obtained from the OA Switchboard Project Manager.
Deadline to confirm participation in the RFI (in writing) is 25 March 2020, and deadline for responses (in writing) to the questionnaire in the RFI is 1 April 2020.
last updated: 20 April 2020
page created: 24 February 2020
Initial product specs
Consultation on this topic closed on 11 March 2020, following three group deep-dive sessions and tens of 1-on-1 discussions
We are preparing to build an MVP and run a pilot this Summer, and we are seeking feedback on the initial product specs that have been drafted so far. Please reach out if you want to review and contribute to:
1. Questions the various stakeholders have (and who can provide answers)
2. Concept of an automated, scalable mechanism that can get the answers
3. User Stories / Use Cases
4. OA Switchboard UI screen impressions
5. List of data fields for ‘messages’
6. Structure of ‘messages’
last updated: 12 March 2020
page created: 24 February 2020