News
Article: Who’s afraid of open infrastructures?
Posted 24 August 2023
Published today in Research Information, an article by COUNTER, DOAJ and OA Switchboard on the importance of non-profit infrastructure and standards bodies. Full article is here.
Announcement: OA Books
Posted 21 July 2023
With new stakeholders added, the OA Switchboard community is embarking on an exciting new initiative to explore a solution to support OA Books, delivering on the commitment to support all types of scholarly output and business models. In the Autumn we will be looking for pilot users, so if you would like to be considered, please get in touch.
Announcement: NISO Working Group
Posted 21 July 2023
Voting members of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) have approved the formation of a Working Group to develop a Recommended Practice for operationalizing open access (OA) business processes. NISO is seeking members from across the information community to join the Working Group, which will address the lack of infrastructure supporting OA content by helping stakeholders in scholarly communications to track, assess, and report on OA publications, authors, and funding more easily. Read more here.
The alignment among stakeholders orchestrated by OA Switchboard over the years, as well as the resulting standardised 'message protocols', have been welcome and relevant input in the process so far, and will be further developed on in the Working Group.
Announcement:
ACS Publications is pleased to announce to join the OA Switchboard initiative
ACS Publications Flips the Switch to Simpler, Easier Open Access Reporting
Posted 19 July 2023
Read the full announcement here.
News:
Iteration 2023/#2 delivered: Reporting Made (even) Easier!
OA Switchboard released iteration 2023/#2, which is all about usability improvements. Community representation, involvement and input into product/service development has been central to the way we have developed the OA Switchboard, and this iteration is a great testament to that.
Included in iteration 2023/#2, and available for users with an account:
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A new Excel report format, that provides the granularity of the underlying JSON, but easier for the human eye to process
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The limit on number of messages that can be exported (previously 1,000 max.) is removed, via a new two-step export process
If you’d like to see a demo, please register for the 22 June Training Session.
The full development roadmap, as well as what's been delivered so far, is here.
Posted 1 June 2023
Announcement:
Big Ten Academic Alliance announces agreement with OA Switchboard
BTAA libraries have reached an agreement for OA Switchboard to benefit from the standardized metadata protocol and shared infrastructure provided by this community-led intermediary initiative
Posted 28 February 2023
Read the full announcement here.
OA Switchboard webinar: Tuesday 21 March 2023
Data-Driven Approaches to Design your OA Strategy
Open Access (OA) ambitions are continuously being developed, implemented and evaluated by different stakeholders in our ecosystem. There is increased appreciation that transparency and (meta)data are needed to support the broader transformation to OA, and for the design of distinct OA strategies. The required infrastructure and tools exist and continue to advance, and standardised data are increasingly available.
In this webinar our speakers discussed from their own experiences how they use solid facts and figures to monitor and manage policy and deal compliance, and how we all are getting better at decision-making and strategy-design through quality data. This practical evidence-based webinar is suitable for those within research institutions, funders and academic publishers.
This webinar was offered free of charge thanks to our host CCC and the recording is here.
Announcement:
SciELO joins OA Switchboard with over 300 open access journals in the SciELO Brazil collection
SciELO Brazil is now live and connected to OA Switchboard to support widespread visibility and access to SciELO journals
Posted 13 February 2023
Read the full announcement in English here.
Announcement:
Jisc extends agreement with OA Switchboard for another three years
Posted 23 january 2023:
Back in December 2020, UKRI, The Wellcome Trust and Jisc announced that we were the first organisations in the UK to support the establishment of something called the OA Switchboard. Shortly thereafter, Jisc announced that any higher education institution (HEI) who is a Jisc member could participate in the Switchboard for free for a three year period, concluding in December 2023.
Now they are pleased to announce that the agreement has been extended in principle for an additional three years starting in January 2024, again allowing HEI who are Jisc members full participation in the OA Switchboard.
Read the full announcement here.
Announcement:
The National Library of Sweden enters new agreement with OA Switchboard
Posted 23 january 2023:
Within the framework of its task to coordinate, monitor and promote cooperation between stakeholders for open access to scientific publications, the National Library of Sweden (NLS) has signed a membership agreement for 2023 with OA Switchboard – a central metadata hub. Read the full announcement here.
Press Release: TIB, ZB MED and ZBW sign agreement with OA Switchboard
The three specialised German National Libraries fund participation in the OA Switchboard initiative for universities and research institutions in Germany
Posted 17 January 2023
TIB - Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology, ZB MED - Information Centre for Life Sciences and ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics are jointly funding access to the OA Switchboard for universities and research institutions throughout Germany for a two-year pilot phase covering 2023 and 2024. Read the full announcement here.
German universities and research institutions interested in free access to OA Switchboard can contact support@oaswitchboard.org.
2023 Focus:
Further build on the 2022 lessons learned, priorities and use cases
Posted 2 January 2023
On the first working day of 2023, we’re excited to share our plans for the new year. Building on the successes and lessons learned from last year, it’s no surprise that our overarching focus will continue to be on:
1) authoritative data from source
2) interoperability of existing systems
3) connecting the dots of existing PIDs
All, in our characteristic, well established, collaborative spirit.
Last year, as part of use case 1 (Reporting Made Easy), we focused significant attention on identifiers and metadata for all authors’ affiliations in a publication and we’ll continue to work on that with our participants in the new year.
In 2023 we will add emphasis on PIDs and metadata for research funders and grants, especially as part of the next level funder pilot(s) that are underway.
In 2023, more and more publishers will be sending E1-messages (Eligibility Enquiries) to research funders and institutions as part of the second use case the OA Switchboard supports: Matching Publication Costs with Publication Funds.
The challenges in the implementation of institutional and funder policies, and the increasingly complex network of agreements between publishers and institutions still exist, as well as the myriad of systems and processes, inconsistent terminology, and lack of (use of) persistent identifiers. This is what the OA Switchboard was founded for, as a cross-stakeholder, not-for-profit initiative, with a mission-driven community and a practical tool (central metadata exchange hub), providing a standardised messaging protocol and shared infrastructure, built by and for the people who use it, and leveraged with existing PIDs.
We look forward to continuing the journey with you all in 2023!
31 December 2022 statistics
Posted 31 December 2022
On this last day of the year we celebrate that we’ve been fully operational for two years. We proudly share our 31 December statistics with you:
233,000 messages were sent via OA Switchboard in 2022
(‘messages’ = standardised sets of publication-level metadata)
The vast majority were sent by participating publishers to research funders and institutions/consortia to support the Reporting Made Easy use case (so-called P1-messages). In 2022 the number of publishers reporting via the standardised protocol grew to 22 publishers.
To date, 9 (national) consortia and multi-site participants (jointly representing hundreds of sites/members) are connected to OA Switchboard. In addition, 75 individual research institutions/libraries have operational accounts in OA Switchboard. 16 research funders have accounts and/or participate in the extended funder pilot(s). In total, over 2,500 organisations are set-up to receive messages via OA Switchboard.
In 2022, our stakeholders continued to build a fantastic community of like-minded spirits focussed on a mission. We’re grateful for our founding partners, launch customers and early adopters, and thank them all, as well as our sponsors, tech partner and strategic partner OASPA.
UPDATE - Come meet us at even more 2022 conferences and events this Fall
CONCERT Annual conference
Tuesday 6 December 2022
OA Switchboard presented on 'Building robust connections in the global research ecosystem to drive Open Access strategies'
EBSCO Open Perspectives Forum 2022 - Library experts discuss areas of ‘open’ in libraries today: open source, open access and open infrastructure
Tuesday 8 November
OA Switchboard presented on 'Open Infrastructure: OA Switchboard - central metadata exchange hub'. Recording here.
Charleston Conference (Charleston, USA): We Will Get There, Together!
Tuesday 1 November - Friday 4 November
OA Switchboard participated in the session on 'Innovation for sustainability in open access'
Pensoft Publishers joins OA Switchboard
Pensoft’s ARPHA Publishing Platform integrates with OA Switchboard to streamline reporting to funders of open research
Posted 29 September 2022
“At Pensoft, we are delighted to announce our integration with the OA Switchboard, as this workflow is yet another excellent practice in scholarly publishing that supports transparency in research. Needless to say, funding and financing are cornerstones in scientific work and scholarship, so it is equally important to ensure funding bodies are provided with full, prompt and convenient reports about their own input.” comments Prof Lyubomir Penev, CEO and founder of Pensoft and ARPHA.
“Research funders are one of the three key stakeholder groups in OA Switchboard and are represented in our founding partners. They seek support in demonstrating the extent and impact of their research funding and delivering on their commitment to OA. It is great to see Pensoft has started their integration with OA Switchboard with a focus on this specific group, fulfilling an important need,”
adds Yvonne Campfens, Executive Director of the OA Switchboard.
Read the full announcement here.
OA Switchboard webinar: Thursday 27 October 2022
Collaborating to Unlock the Power of PIDs
A how-to webinar from OA Switchboard partners and participants on opportunities to capture and maximise usage of identifiers. The recording is here.
This webinar was offered free of charge thanks to our host Aries Systems.
In the webinar we reported on a joint research project. More details and the recommendations of this project are here
Come meet us at 2022 conferences and events this Fall
Kuopio Conference 2022 (Vienna, Austria): Review and Renew: Changing Strategies in Collection Management
Wednesday 7 September - Friday 9 September
ALPSP Annual Conference and Awards (Manchester, UK)
Wednesday 14 September - Friday 16 September
OA Switchboard participated in the Industry Updates session 8b on Thursday 15 September (14:50 - 15:35 (BST / GMT+1))
Open-Access-Tage 2022 (Bern, Switzerland): Collaboration
Monday 19 September - Wednesday 21 September
OASPA 2022 Online Conference on Open Access Scholarly Publishing
Tuesday 20 September - Thursday 22 September
OA Switchboard participated with a poster.
ORFG First Community Call
Tuesday 27 September 2022
OA Switchboard presented How does OA Switchboard contribute to improving the quality of metadata and identifiers?
CHORUS Forum: Improving Scholarly Publishing Metadata
Thursday 29 September
OA Switchboard presented in part two of the workshop, recording here.
ESAC Community of Practice call: Publishing workflow and library processing workflow
Tuesday 4 October 2022
OA Switchboard presented in the 9am (CET) and the 5pm (CET slot: 'Putting Open Access into practice'
KGL PubFactory online community forum - Virtual Series 2022 (4, 6&7 October)
OA Switchboard participated on the Industry Day on Thursday 6 October with a presentation: 'Toward a Better Research Ecosystem'
Expert workshop (Hamburg, Germany): openCost: the road to publication cost transparency
Wednesday 5 October - Friday 7 October
OA Switchboard participated with a presentation on Friday 7 Ooctober
Frankfurt Book Fair 2022 (Frankfurt, Germany)
Tuesday 18 October - Wednesday 19 October
F.O.R.M. Forum for Open Research in MENA (Cairo, Egypt): Moving to Open - practical and technological considerations
Wednesday 26 October - Thursday 27 October
OA Switchboard participated with a paper in Panel 8 (27 October 1 - 2.30PM CET). Recording here.
Charleston Conference (Charleston, USA): We Will Get There, Together!
Tuesday 1 November - Friday 4 November
OA Switchboard participated in the session on 'Innovation for sustainability in open access'
PNAS joins OA Switchboard
PNAS partners with OA Switchboard to support widespread and speedy public access to scientific literature
Posted 27 July 2022
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) announced today their artnership with OA Switchboard. Through this partnership, PNAS will share key publication details through automated communications with the scientific community via a central information exchange hub. These real-time communications will simplify the process by which PNAS author institutions and funders manage their transformative agreements and open access publishing mandates, providing a straightforward and efficient exchange of information throughout the publication journey.
Connectors between PNAS and OA Switchboard will be live this summer.
Read the full announcement here.
OASPA blog post:
Fully OA Publishers Live on OA Switchboard
posted 27 July 2022
We are happy to report in this new blog post published by our strategic partner OASPA that several fully OA Publishers are now live on OA Switchboard.
OA Switchboard is set up for all publishing business models but one of the great benefits is that it gives visibility to smaller publishers and fully OA publishers who most often lack the opportunities to make direct publishing agreements with institutions. This is one of the main reasons OASPA supported the initiative, so it is great to see these publishers go live with OA Switchboard.
PLOS and OA Switchboard Announce Partnership
"The integration of the OA Switchboard into our workflows is scalable for all our new and legacy journals"
Posted 22 July 2022
“The standardization between systems, portals and processes that the OA Switchboard provides will allow PLOS to share increasingly valuable reporting and data analysis with our institutional partners,” said Randy Townsend, Director of Publishing Operations, PLOS. “We are excited to enhance transparency in OA publishing with the ability to immediately share article metadata directly, upon publication, with our community.”
“Our organization is an independent and industry-wide initiative that provides a central hub for stakeholders to exchange OA-related publication-level information,” said Yvonne Campfens, Executive Director, OA Switchboard. “We are excited that PLOS is now connected to the practical tool that they’ve helped shaping, as PLOS recognized the importance of a community-led collaborative initiative from day 1.”
Read the full announcement here.
EIFL joins OA Switchboard
EIFL collaborates with the OA Switchboard to support information sharing
Posted 13 June 2022
Rima Kupryte, director of EIFL says:
“We are delighted to sign an agreement with the OA Switchboard. This important initiative will facilitate improved quality and timeliness of metadata about publications by authors in EIFL partner countries. The OA Switchboard has the potential to streamline the management of open access publishing for all parties and is fast becoming part of the essential infrastructure needed to support information sharing.”
Yvonne Campfens, executive director of OA Switchboard says:
“We are very happy with EIFL joining as we’re committed to supporting all OA business models and policies, and strive to provide support globally. The central information exchange hub grows stronger with every participant, becoming a better tool for all.”
Read the full announcement here.
Come meet us and OA Switchboard participants at 2022 conferences
Just stop by at one of the stands!
Bibliotheks Kongress (Leipzig, Germany)
Wednesday 1 June 2022:
11am - 1pm: Royal Society of Chemistry (stand A19)
- 2pm - 3pm: Thieme Verlag (stand E05)
Thursday 2 June 2022:
11am - 12noon: Thieme Verlag (stand E05)
afternoon: Royal Society of Chemistry (stand A19)
Cambridge University Press (stand C12)
UKSG (Telford, UK)
Sunday 29 May 2022:
afternoon (by appointment)
Monday 30 May 2022:
10 – 11am: Royal Society of Chemistry (stand 37 & 46)
11am - 12noon: Jisc (stand 26)
1pm - 2pm: Thieme (stand 90)
2 - 3pm: Royal Society of Chemistry (stand 37 & 46)
3pm - 4pm: Cambridge University Press (stand 107)
JMIR Publications is now live and connected to the OA Switchboard
Posted 27 May 2022
The rocket is on the launch pad! JMIR Publications is ready to begin sending automated publication notification messages (P1 messages) through the OA Switchboard, supporting research institutions and their libraries to connect with their research and simplify their workflows.
While JMIR is one of the first publishers to successfully integrate with the OA Switchboard API in the standard message structure, interest and uptake has been steadily picking up momentum. The success of this initiative is a testament to the cooperation required by the scholarly communications industry to meaningfully address the ongoing challenges around the administrative burden to fulfill OA publication-level arrangements.
Read the full announcement here.
Beilstein-Institut: the first diamond initiative to report via OA Switchboard
Posted 12 May 2022
Beilstein-Institut is the first diamond initiative to report to research funders, institutions and consortia via OA Switchboard. They are also the first publisher to go live with a direct OA Switchboard API connection.
Read more here.
The Company of Biologists connects to the OA Switchboard
Posted 20 April 2022
"The Company of Biologists is delighted to announce a partnership with the OA Switchboard which makes it much easier for our library customers to manage their Read & Publish agreements and to monitor the success of their Open Access (OA) strategy. Thanks to the great success of our cost-neutral Read & Publish OA initiative, there has been a significant increase in the number of research articles published immediately OA in our hybrid subscription journals... This is excellent news, but the lack of standardisation between systems, portals and processes has created challenges, particularly in terms of reporting and data analysis.
The OA Switchboard offers a solution...
Connectors between The Company of Biologists and the OA Switchboard are now in place. This means that we can provide real-time publishing information on a regular basis to our library customers that are signed up to the OA Switchboard. We can also provide reports dating back to 1 January 2022. Read the full announcement here.
ORCID and OA Switchboard work to “connect the dots” of PIDs in the Open Access Journey
Open scholarly infrastructure organizations collaborate to navigate the OA research and publishing maze to help solve compliance with emerging requirements
Posted 19 April 2022
We are excited to announce the launch of ORCID-enabled smart matching in OA Switchboard. With our April 2022 release, OA Switchboard users will be able to leverage authoritative affiliation data from authors’ ORCID profiles to corroborate affiliation or organizational identifiers (such as ROR or Ringgold IDs) and ensure more accurate routing of the messages being shared between participants throughout the Open Access (OA) research cycle and publication journey, ultimately resulting in more complete and better quality metadata in the OA Switchboard messages for each article published.
2022 Webinars to present the OA Switchboard to the wider community
Updated 26 April 2022
Also in this second year of our 'launch phase', webinars are being organised to present the OA Switchboard to the wider community.
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Wednesday 20 April 2022
Making reporting easy and increasing visibility of open access publication output – a how-to webinar from OA Switchboard publisher participants
Three publisher case studies on how to connect to OA Switchboard to make reporting easy and increase visibility of OA publication output. Our speakers covered the different options for interacting with OA Switchboard (manual, via API or custom connector), illustrated by their own real-life experiences and lessons learned. Our tech partner added background information and best practices across all publishers operational on OA Switchboard, as well as with future trends that are shaping.
The recording of the webinar is available here.
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Tuesday 29 March 2022
Lessons Learned to Make Reporting Easy: source data, PIDs, interoperability and a simple messaging tool
This webinar provided an evidence-based look at how the different stakeholders deal with reporting on OA-related publication level information via a series of talks and use case presentations. The full slide deck is here and all questions answered in and after the webinar are here.
Please note this webinar was free and open to all thanks to the support of our host Copyright Clearance Center. The recording is available here.
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October 2022
See here.
London Book Fair Research & Scholarly Publishing Forum
OA Switchboard takes part in the “Tech-decks” session
Posted 8 April 2022
On Thursday 7 April 2022, OA Switchboard participated in the “Tech-decks” session during the Research & Publishing Forum as part of the London Book fair. This session was about new concepts and technologies supporting evolution and revolution in journal publishing.
Our talk was about "Orchestrating data flow to enable Open Access offerings in journal publishing." The on-demand version is available here.
CCC announcement: CCC and the OA Switchboard Collaborate to Offer Increased Efficiency and Transparency for the Scholarly Communications Community
posted 29 March 2022
CCC, a leading provider of Open Access (OA) workflow solutions, and the OA Switchboard, a global, not-for-profit collaboration between funders, institutions and publishers, announce a collaboration to automate the exchange of OA transactional information between publishers and their customers through the OA Switchboard.
See full announcement here.
Hindawi announcement: Sharing publication metadata to streamline open access reporting
Posted 16 March 2022
"The OA Switchboard has developed quickly over the last couple of years and is starting to demonstrate the real value it can provide to our community, and we are excited to announce that Hindawi has now also successfully integrated with the OA Switchboard. Going forward, this will enable the OA Switchboard to send out notifications on our behalf to institutions/consortia and funders when a relevant article is published."
Read the full blog post here.
ICOLC Meeting Panel
OA Switchboard participates in member-only meeting on 21 April 2021
Updated 21 April 2021 / Posted 8 April 2021
OA Switchboard participated in the ICOLC Meeting Panel during a members-only meeting on 21 April 2021. General information is here, and the ICOLC community can find out more here.
OA Switchboard reaches milestone of 100K messages sent
Posted 4 March 2022
"The more who use it, the better a resource it becomes" by Gaynor Redvers-Mutton from the Microbiology Society, is becoming reality. Early March 2022 OA Switchboard reached an impressive milestone: 100K exchanges of OA publication-level information by publishers to research funders / institutions / consortia! We are proud and grateful for all participants and strategic partner OASPA.
For more information and statistics, see our Participants page.
International Conference on Innovations and Challenges in Research Publishing
OA Switchboard to present a key note (22 February 2022)
Posted 16 February 2022
OA Switchboard participates in the International Conference on Innovations and Challenges in Research Publishing. It is an e-CONFERENCE from Chitkara University Publications, an Open Access Initiative of The Chitkara University.
The full conference program is here.
The title of our key note is: OA Switchboard - a practical tool that thrives on collaboration
2022 Focus: Build on the hard work of 2021 in terms of priorities and use cases
Posted 3 January 2022
On the first working day of 2022, we’re excited to share that the second year of our launch phase will build on the hard work of 2021 in terms of priorities and use cases.
It’s no surprise that our overarching focus will continue to be on: 1) authoritative data from source; 2) interoperability of existing systems; 3) connecting the dots of existing PIDs. All, in our characteristic, well established, collaborative spirit.
What does this mean?
Authoritative data from source: article-level metadata directly from the publisher, via a (technically) validated standardised messaging protocol (no journal-level default values, no myriad of formats, etc)
Interoperability of existing systems: connect via (open) APIs (don’t re-invent the wheel, don’t rebuild what’s already out there)
Connecting the dots of existing PIDs: use of common standards #GRID #ISNI #Ringgold #ROR #ORCID #DOI
Please get in touch to learn more about these topics, and to discuss how OA Switchboard can support your organisation. We invite you to join our community of like-minded spirits on a mission: a breakthrough in the transformation of the market, enabling OA to be supported as the predominant model of publication.
31 December 2021 statistics
Posted 31 December 2021
On this last day of the year we celebrate that we’ve been fully operational for one year. We proudly share our 31 December statistics with you:
84,377 messages were sent by participating publishers to research funders and institutions/consortia via OA Switchboard
(‘messages’ = standardised sets of publication-level metadata).
We’re well underway to deliver on our mission as independent intermediary, connecting parties and systems, streamlining communication and the neutral exchange of OA related publication-level information. In terms of developing and maintaining our central information exchange hub as an operational solution, this is all about shared infrastructure, standardised messaging protocol, and integration with existing systems, powered by Persistent Identifiers (PIDs).
The OA Switchboard is providing a solution for a real pain point shared by research funders, institutions and publishers: the fulfilment of OA publication-level arrangements (policies, mandates, agreements, etc).
In 2021, our stakeholders have built a fantastic community of like-minded spirits on a mission. We’re grateful for our founding partners, launch customers and early adopters. And we very, very much thank Ivo Verbeek and Yuri Vorontsov from our tech partner ELITEX, and Bernie Folan and Claire Redhead from our strategic partner Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association.
Read more in our year-end blog post here.
Three OA Switchboard events at 2021 Open Publishing Fest - for three time zones
posted: 1 November 2021
OA Switchboard will host three 'discussion events' at the 2021 Open Publishing Fest, a decentralized public event that brings together communities supporting open source software, open content, and open publishing models.
The same event will run three times on Tuesday 9 November 2021:
at 7am (CET) for our friends to the east of us
at 1pm (CET) for our friends nearer by
at 9pm (CET) for our friends to the west of us and in New Zealand
The title of our events is: From toll roads to highways - How the OA Switchboard is building the infrastructure for an OA-driven scholarly communications landscape.
The event will reflect on our journey from idea (2018) to being operational (2021). We'll present our principles and POSI self-assessment, cover tough choices and will share pragmatic solutions. We're happy to share our experiences and enter into discussion with the participants.
Webinars to present the OA Switchboard to the wider community
Last updated 14 September 2021 / Posted 30 October 2020
Webinars are being organised to present the OA Switchboard to the wider community, supported by demonstrations/presentations of real-life use cases by launch customers and founding partners.
Wednesday 8 September 2021
This webinar focused on the shared use case Matching Publication Costs with Publication Funds that our launch customers and founding partners are currently working on collaboratively. The speakers covered a wide range of use cases, covering all kind of business models (APC-based, non-APC based / diamond, subscribe-to-open, transformative agreements, pure OA/publish deals, etc) and a wide range of technical implementations ('connectors') for data feeds from different source systems.
This webinar was free and open to all thanks to the support of our host Aries Systems. The recording of the webinar is available here.Wednesday 31 March 2021
This webinar focussed on the Reporting Made Easy shared use case our launch customers and founding partners are working on collaboratively. Funders and institutions/consortia would much prefer publishers to report their publication-level OA information in a structured format. This enables data to be fed directly into their own (or their solution provider’s) system for further processing and analysis.
This webinar provided a practical evidence-based look at how the OA Switchboard is making reporting easier via a series of short five minute talks and use case presentations, with time for questions and discussions following. The recording of this webinar is here.
Tuesday 8 December 2020
The OA Switchboard is a tool that can be called upon as and when needed, or integrated in stakeholders’ own systems and workflows to achieve automation and scalability. This webinar brings together participants from publishers, research institutions and our tech partner to present and discuss real-life use cases. Learn what specific challenge they implement the OA Switchboard for and how a simple communication hub can handle many different situations. The unanswered questions posed by attendees via the webinar chat, as well as the recording of this webinar is available here.Thursday 5 November 2020
Part of the OASPA AGM will also be given to an update on the OA Switchboard project which OASPA has been leading this year. In this webinar we’ll present a status update and insight into our plans. Also, some of our early adopters will present specific use cases they are getting started with in 2021.The recording of this part of the meeting is available here.
Royal Society of Chemistry connects to OA Switchboard
posted: 7 September 2021
"We recently announced our support for the OA Switchboard initiative, a not-for-profit, industry-wide collaboration among publishers, academic institutions and research funding organisations.
We're pleased to announce that it's now all systems go, with Royal Society of Chemistry Product Manager, Charlie Quigg, saying: "I have to commend OA Switchboard on their approach. They were able to integrate smoothly with our existing systems and setup only took two meetings and a few weeks of work on their side, with no development work on ours. Within hours of going live, multiple participating institutions were notified of published articles."
Read the full announcement here.
SSP 43rd Annual Meeting: Charting a New Course - From Chaos to Innovation
OA Switchboard to present a poster (27 May 2021)
Posted 2 April 2021
Updated 1 June 2021
OA Switchboard participated in SSP's 43rd Annual Meeting (online conference from 24 - 27 May 2021). The full program is here.
The title of our poster is: OA Switchboard, central information exchange hub: Taking charge of multi-lateral OA publication-level arrangements.
NASIG 2021 Conference
Live-streamed OA Switchboard panel (20 May 2021)
Posted 20 February 2021
Updated 9 June 2021
OA Switchboard participated in the 36th annual NASIG Conference (19-21 May 2021) by hosting a panel session. The recorded session is here.
The title of our session was: The OA Switchboard - How a simple, collaborative solution tackles multiple use cases for funders, institutions and publishers, strategically and practically.
UKSG 44th Annual Conference and Exhibition: Online
OA Switchboard lightning presentation on 13th April 2021
Updated 13 April 2021 / Posted 4 February 2021
OA Switchboard participated in this year's online version of the UKSG Annual Conference on Tuesday 13th April 2021. The full program is here.
The title of our lightning presentation is: OA Switchboard: a mission-driven practical solution, that thrives on collaboration.
30th Annual North Carolina Serials Conference
OA Switchboard Lightning Talk on 9 April 2021
Updated 9 April 2021 / Posted 9 February 2021
OA Switchboard participated in this year's North Caroline Serials Conference on 9 April 2021. The conference website is here.
The title of our Lightning Talk is: How the OA Switchboard is building the infrastructure for an OA-driven scholarly communications landscape.
InformationToday feature article: OA Switchboard, central information exchange hub
Posted 2 February 2021
[Editor's Note: If you heard Yvonne Campfens' inspiring keynote talk at Internet Librarian International 2019 all about creating, innovating, collaborating and what we can learn from startups, you won't be surprised to hear that she has taken her own advice and joined startup OA Switchboard as its executive director. I asked her to tell us about this new venture.]
Read the full article here.
ICOLC EMEA Webinar
Posted 15 March 2022
OA Switchboard was pleased and honoured to organise 2-hour webinar for ICOLC EMEA. The following partners joined us in this closed event:
Arjan Schalken, UKB/VSNU
Frank Manista, Jisc
Gaynor Redvers-Mutton, Microbiology Society
Ivo Verbeek, ELITEX
Marten Stavenga, John Benjamins Publishing Company
Richard Bennett, Hindawi
Next steps for Open Access, Westminster Higher Education Forum policy conference
OA Switchboard keynote on 9th July 2021
Posted 24 January 2021
OA Switchboard will participate in the Westminster Higher Education Forum policy conference on Friday 9th July 2021. The theme of the conference is 'Next steps for Open Access' and the full program is here.
The title of our keynote is: Streamlining communication and the neutral exchange of OA-related publication level information - collaborative infrastructure to make the ecosystem work better for everyone.
Outsell Analysis: OA Switchboard addresses an acute need in scholarly communications
Posted: 19 January 2021
OA Switchboard was covered in an Outsell Analysis by Tatiana Khayrullina (Director & Lead Analyst) today, with the title: OA Switchboard Is Ready to Go Live, Addressing an Acute Need in Scholarly Communications.
In the abstract it states: "The OA Switchboard strives to remove technical barriers on the path to OA adoption. Its mission is to smooth out communications among market players, one connection at a time."
Academic Publishing in Europe Conference (APE2021): The New Face of Trust
OA Switchboard opening keynote on Day 2 of the conference
Posted 17 November 2020
Updated 13 January 2021
The OA Switchboard participated in the 2021 Academic Publishing in Europe Conference, as the opening keynote on Day 2 of the conference on Wednesday 13 January 2021. The title of the presentation is: From complexity to transparency: How the OA Switchboard is building a cost-effective collaborative infrastructure solution for an OA-driven scholarly communications landscape.
Our presentation is available here.
NISO Plus 2021
"Collaborate to solve a common problem - OA Switchboard"
Posted 11 December 2020
The OA Switchboard will participate in the NISO Plus Conference, by means of a session on Wednesday 24 February 2021. The title of the presentation is: Collaborate to solve a common problem - OA Switchboard.
The full program of NISO Plus 2021 is here.
Progress report December 2020
Posted 10 December 2020
This post is by Yvonne Campfens, Executive Director of the OA Switchboard
Although many may want to forget all about 2020, I will remember it as a catalyst year, in which inspiring collaboration prepared for the OA Switchboard to go live as an operational solution in 2021. This progress report marks the end of the 2020 OA Switchboard project, and preludes the structural set-up for 2021 and beyond.
Continue reading here
UK collaborates with new body to accelerate global open access
Published 3 December 2020
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Wellcome and Jisc are among the first organisations supporting the establishment of a new body called Open Access Switchboard.
Full announcement here.
Annual Publishing Conference 2020 (Rave Technologies)
Panel on Cross-Publisher OA Logistics
Posted 17 November 2020
Updated 13 January 2021
The OA Switchboard participated in a panel during the Annual Publishing Conference 2020 on Wednesday 9 December 2020 on facilitating Open Access in a publisher-neutral manner.
Our presentation is here.
OASPA founds new organisation with future-proof governance and funding structure for the OA Switchboard
A neutral, independent intermediary enabling shared infrastructure, bringing transparency, efficiency and cost effectiveness to the open access ecosystem
CNI Fall Virtual Membership Meeting (November 10-December 15, 2020)
"From toll roads to highways: How the OA Switchboard is building the infrastructure for an OA-driven scholarly communications landscape"
Posted 3 November 2020
Updated 13 January 2021
The OA Switchboard participated in the 2020 CNI Fall Virtual Membership Meeting by means of a Short Update (pre-recorded video) to be made available during Week 3 (December 1-7, 2020).
The theme of week 3 is: Technology, Standards, & Infrastructure
2nd Basel Sustainable Publishing Forum - The Global Transition to Open Access: Challenges and Solutions
"How did we get here? How to move on? How is the OA Switchboard helping?"
Posted 29 October 2020
Updated 13 January 2021
OA Switchboard participated in this virtual conference on 26-27 October 2020: 2nd Basel Sustainable Publishing Forum - The Global Transition to Open Access: Challenges and Solutions.
The title of the paper was: How did we get here? How to move on? How is the OA Switchboard helping?
The recording is available here.
Our presentation is here.
Progress report September 2020
Posted 29 September 2020
API integration workshop (26 August 2020)
Posted 28 August 2020
We’re now in the middle of the Pilot. One of the topics to prove is that we deliver the basics (standards & essential infrastructure). Specifically for, and with, the stakeholders’ partners, we recently organised a very well attended interactive workshop, about technical integration of the OA Switchboard API with these other systems, value-adding solutions on top, so the ambition of an automated, integrated, scalable solution will be achieved.
-- Questions -- Challenges -- Suggestions --
Watch the brainstorm animation here: Where do you see potential challenges with the technical integration to the OA Switchboard?
Demonstration videos of Minimum Viable Product (MVP)/iteration #6
Posted 7 August 2020
6.1 Compose Eligibility Enquiry (E1) message - no prior agreement
6.2 Compose Eligibility Enquiry (E1) message - prior agreement
6.3 Compose Publication/Payment Settlement Notification (P1) from an existing message (pre-populated)
6.4 Respond to an E1 message with an E2 message - prior agreement
6.5 Respond to an E1 message with an E2 message (partial accept) - no prior agreement
6.6 Reporting: monitoring and tracking predicted/committed OA spend and publication numbers and details
Progress report July 2020
Posted 30 July 2020
RLUK's OAPP group hosts demonstration of the OA Switchboard initiative
Webinar on 27 July 2020
Posted 27 July 2020, updated 28 July 2020
On 27 July 2020, the RLUK OAPP Group hosted a webinar demonstration of the OA Switchboard initiative. The recording is available.
Demonstration videos of intermediate delivery iteration #5
Posted 21 July 2020
5.1 Compose Eligibility Enquiry message - prior agreement, with individual article charges specified
5.2 Routing of message to non-participating recipient (undelivered message)
5.3 Auto-reject of Eligibility Enquiry based on central OA fund terms (master data)
Demonstration videos of intermediate delivery iteration #4
Posted 7 July 2020
4.1 Compose Eligibility Enquiry message - prior agreement
4.2 Compose Eligibility Enquiry message - no prior agreement
4.3 Compose Publication/Payment Settlement Notification message & edit and resend
4.4 Read and respond to Eligibility Enquiry message (prior and no prior agreement)
Demonstration videos of intermediate delivery iteration #3
Posted 1 June 2020
Announced 4 May 2020
Posted 31 March 2020
Issued 18 March 2020
Posted 31 January 2020
Published 12 February 2019
News
Announcement:
ACS Publications is pleased to announce to join the OA Switchboard initiative
ACS Publications Flips the Switch to Simpler, Easier Open Access Reporting
Posted 19 July 2023
Read the full announcement here.
News:
Iteration 2023/#2 delivered: Reporting Made (even) Easier!
OA Switchboard released iteration 2023/#2, which is all about usability improvements. Community representation, involvement and input into product/service development has been central to the way we have developed the OA Switchboard, and this iteration is a great testament to that.
Included in iteration 2023/#2, and available for users with an account:
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A new Excel report format, that provides the granularity of the underlying JSON, but easier for the human eye to process
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The limit on number of messages that can be exported (previously 1,000 max.) is removed, via a new two-step export process
If you’d like to see a demo, please register for the 22 June Training Session.
The full development roadmap, as well as what's been delivered so far, is here.
Posted 1 June 2023
Announcement:
Big Ten Academic Alliance announces agreement with OA Switchboard
BTAA libraries have reached an agreement for OA Switchboard to benefit from the standardized metadata protocol and shared infrastructure provided by this community-led intermediary initiative
Posted 28 February 2023
Read the full announcement here.
OA Switchboard webinar: Tuesday 21 March 2023
Data-Driven Approaches to Design your OA Strategy
Open Access (OA) ambitions are continuously being developed, implemented and evaluated by different stakeholders in our ecosystem. There is increased appreciation that transparency and (meta)data are needed to support the broader transformation to OA, and for the design of distinct OA strategies. The required infrastructure and tools exist and continue to advance, and standardised data are increasingly available.
In this webinar our speakers discussed from their own experiences how they use solid facts and figures to monitor and manage policy and deal compliance, and how we all are getting better at decision-making and strategy-design through quality data. This practical evidence-based webinar is suitable for those within research institutions, funders and academic publishers.
This webinar was offered free of charge thanks to our host CCC and the recording is here.
Announcement:
SciELO joins OA Switchboard with over 300 open access journals in the SciELO Brazil collection
SciELO Brazil is now live and connected to OA Switchboard to support widespread visibility and access to SciELO journals
Posted 13 February 2023
Read the full announcement in English here.
Announcement:
Jisc extends agreement with OA Switchboard for another three years
Posted 23 january 2023:
Back in December 2020, UKRI, The Wellcome Trust and Jisc announced that we were the first organisations in the UK to support the establishment of something called the OA Switchboard. Shortly thereafter, Jisc announced that any higher education institution (HEI) who is a Jisc member could participate in the Switchboard for free for a three year period, concluding in December 2023.
Now they are pleased to announce that the agreement has been extended in principle for an additional three years starting in January 2024, again allowing HEI who are Jisc members full participation in the OA Switchboard.
Read the full announcement here.
Announcement:
The National Library of Sweden enters new agreement with OA Switchboard
Posted 23 january 2023:
Within the framework of its task to coordinate, monitor and promote cooperation between stakeholders for open access to scientific publications, the National Library of Sweden (NLS) has signed a membership agreement for 2023 with OA Switchboard – a central metadata hub. Read the full announcement here.
Press Release: TIB, ZB MED and ZBW sign agreement with OA Switchboard
The three specialised German National Libraries fund participation in the OA Switchboard initiative for universities and research institutions in Germany
Posted 17 January 2023
TIB - Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology, ZB MED - Information Centre for Life Sciences and ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics are jointly funding access to the OA Switchboard for universities and research institutions throughout Germany for a two-year pilot phase covering 2023 and 2024. Read the full announcement here.
German universities and research institutions interested in free access to OA Switchboard can contact support@oaswitchboard.org.
2023 Focus:
Further build on the 2022 lessons learned, priorities and use cases
Posted 2 January 2023
On the first working day of 2023, we’re excited to share our plans for the new year. Building on the successes and lessons learned from last year, it’s no surprise that our overarching focus will continue to be on:
1) authoritative data from source
2) interoperability of existing systems
3) connecting the dots of existing PIDs
All, in our characteristic, well established, collaborative spirit.
Last year, as part of use case 1 (Reporting Made Easy), we focused significant attention on identifiers and metadata for all authors’ affiliations in a publication and we’ll continue to work on that with our participants in the new year.
In 2023 we will add emphasis on PIDs and metadata for research funders and grants, especially as part of the next level funder pilot(s) that are underway.
In 2023, more and more publishers will be sending E1-messages (Eligibility Enquiries) to research funders and institutions as part of the second use case the OA Switchboard supports: Matching Publication Costs with Publication Funds.
The challenges in the implementation of institutional and funder policies, and the increasingly complex network of agreements between publishers and institutions still exist, as well as the myriad of systems and processes, inconsistent terminology, and lack of (use of) persistent identifiers. This is what the OA Switchboard was founded for, as a cross-stakeholder, not-for-profit initiative, with a mission-driven community and a practical tool (central metadata exchange hub), providing a standardised messaging protocol and shared infrastructure, built by and for the people who use it, and leveraged with existing PIDs.
We look forward to continuing the journey with you all in 2023!
31 December 2022 statistics
Posted 31 December 2022
On this last day of the year we celebrate that we’ve been fully operational for two years. We proudly share our 31 December statistics with you:
233,000 messages were sent via OA Switchboard in 2022
(‘messages’ = standardised sets of publication-level metadata)
The vast majority were sent by participating publishers to research funders and institutions/consortia to support the Reporting Made Easy use case (so-called P1-messages). In 2022 the number of publishers reporting via the standardised protocol grew to 22 publishers.
To date, 9 (national) consortia and multi-site participants (jointly representing hundreds of sites/members) are connected to OA Switchboard. In addition, 75 individual research institutions/libraries have operational accounts in OA Switchboard. 16 research funders have accounts and/or participate in the extended funder pilot(s). In total, over 2,500 organisations are set-up to receive messages via OA Switchboard.
In 2022, our stakeholders continued to build a fantastic community of like-minded spirits focussed on a mission. We’re grateful for our founding partners, launch customers and early adopters, and thank them all, as well as our sponsors, tech partner and strategic partner OASPA.
UPDATE - Come meet us at even more 2022 conferences and events this Fall
CONCERT Annual conference
Tuesday 6 December 2022
OA Switchboard presented on 'Building robust connections in the global research ecosystem to drive Open Access strategies'
EBSCO Open Perspectives Forum 2022 - Library experts discuss areas of ‘open’ in libraries today: open source, open access and open infrastructure
Tuesday 8 November
OA Switchboard presented on 'Open Infrastructure: OA Switchboard - central metadata exchange hub'. Recording here.
Charleston Conference (Charleston, USA): We Will Get There, Together!
Tuesday 1 November - Friday 4 November
OA Switchboard participated in the session on 'Innovation for sustainability in open access'
Pensoft Publishers joins OA Switchboard
Pensoft’s ARPHA Publishing Platform integrates with OA Switchboard to streamline reporting to funders of open research
Posted 29 September 2022
“At Pensoft, we are delighted to announce our integration with the OA Switchboard, as this workflow is yet another excellent practice in scholarly publishing that supports transparency in research. Needless to say, funding and financing are cornerstones in scientific work and scholarship, so it is equally important to ensure funding bodies are provided with full, prompt and convenient reports about their own input.” comments Prof Lyubomir Penev, CEO and founder of Pensoft and ARPHA.
“Research funders are one of the three key stakeholder groups in OA Switchboard and are represented in our founding partners. They seek support in demonstrating the extent and impact of their research funding and delivering on their commitment to OA. It is great to see Pensoft has started their integration with OA Switchboard with a focus on this specific group, fulfilling an important need,”
adds Yvonne Campfens, Executive Director of the OA Switchboard.
Read the full announcement here.
OA Switchboard webinar: Thursday 27 October 2022
Collaborating to Unlock the Power of PIDs
A how-to webinar from OA Switchboard partners and participants on opportunities to capture and maximise usage of identifiers. The recording is here.
This webinar was offered free of charge thanks to our host Aries Systems.
In the webinar we reported on a joint research project. More details and the recommendations of this project are here
Come meet us at 2022 conferences and events this Fall
Kuopio Conference 2022 (Vienna, Austria): Review and Renew: Changing Strategies in Collection Management
Wednesday 7 September - Friday 9 September
ALPSP Annual Conference and Awards (Manchester, UK)
Wednesday 14 September - Friday 16 September
OA Switchboard participated in the Industry Updates session 8b on Thursday 15 September (14:50 - 15:35 (BST / GMT+1))
Open-Access-Tage 2022 (Bern, Switzerland): Collaboration
Monday 19 September - Wednesday 21 September
OASPA 2022 Online Conference on Open Access Scholarly Publishing
Tuesday 20 September - Thursday 22 September
OA Switchboard participated with a poster.
ORFG First Community Call
Tuesday 27 September 2022
OA Switchboard presented How does OA Switchboard contribute to improving the quality of metadata and identifiers?
CHORUS Forum: Improving Scholarly Publishing Metadata
Thursday 29 September
OA Switchboard presented in part two of the workshop, recording here.
ESAC Community of Practice call: Publishing workflow and library processing workflow
Tuesday 4 October 2022
OA Switchboard presented in the 9am (CET) and the 5pm (CET slot: 'Putting Open Access into practice'
KGL PubFactory online community forum - Virtual Series 2022 (4, 6&7 October)
OA Switchboard participated on the Industry Day on Thursday 6 October with a presentation: 'Toward a Better Research Ecosystem'
Expert workshop (Hamburg, Germany): openCost: the road to publication cost transparency
Wednesday 5 October - Friday 7 October
OA Switchboard participated with a presentation on Friday 7 Ooctober
Frankfurt Book Fair 2022 (Frankfurt, Germany)
Tuesday 18 October - Wednesday 19 October
F.O.R.M. Forum for Open Research in MENA (Cairo, Egypt): Moving to Open - practical and technological considerations
Wednesday 26 October - Thursday 27 October
OA Switchboard participated with a paper in Panel 8 (27 October 1 - 2.30PM CET). Recording here.
Charleston Conference (Charleston, USA): We Will Get There, Together!
Tuesday 1 November - Friday 4 November
OA Switchboard participated in the session on 'Innovation for sustainability in open access'
PNAS joins OA Switchboard
PNAS partners with OA Switchboard to support widespread and speedy public access to scientific literature
Posted 27 July 2022
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) announced today their artnership with OA Switchboard. Through this partnership, PNAS will share key publication details through automated communications with the scientific community via a central information exchange hub. These real-time communications will simplify the process by which PNAS author institutions and funders manage their transformative agreements and open access publishing mandates, providing a straightforward and efficient exchange of information throughout the publication journey.
Connectors between PNAS and OA Switchboard will be live this summer.
Read the full announcement here.
OASPA blog post:
Fully OA Publishers Live on OA Switchboard
posted 27 July 2022
We are happy to report in this new blog post published by our strategic partner OASPA that several fully OA Publishers are now live on OA Switchboard.
OA Switchboard is set up for all publishing business models but one of the great benefits is that it gives visibility to smaller publishers and fully OA publishers who most often lack the opportunities to make direct publishing agreements with institutions. This is one of the main reasons OASPA supported the initiative, so it is great to see these publishers go live with OA Switchboard.
PLOS and OA Switchboard Announce Partnership
"The integration of the OA Switchboard into our workflows is scalable for all our new and legacy journals"
Posted 22 July 2022
“The standardization between systems, portals and processes that the OA Switchboard provides will allow PLOS to share increasingly valuable reporting and data analysis with our institutional partners,” said Randy Townsend, Director of Publishing Operations, PLOS. “We are excited to enhance transparency in OA publishing with the ability to immediately share article metadata directly, upon publication, with our community.”
“Our organization is an independent and industry-wide initiative that provides a central hub for stakeholders to exchange OA-related publication-level information,” said Yvonne Campfens, Executive Director, OA Switchboard. “We are excited that PLOS is now connected to the practical tool that they’ve helped shaping, as PLOS recognized the importance of a community-led collaborative initiative from day 1.”
Read the full announcement here.
EIFL joins OA Switchboard
EIFL collaborates with the OA Switchboard to support information sharing
Posted 13 June 2022
Rima Kupryte, director of EIFL says:
“We are delighted to sign an agreement with the OA Switchboard. This important initiative will facilitate improved quality and timeliness of metadata about publications by authors in EIFL partner countries. The OA Switchboard has the potential to streamline the management of open access publishing for all parties and is fast becoming part of the essential infrastructure needed to support information sharing.”
Yvonne Campfens, executive director of OA Switchboard says:
“We are very happy with EIFL joining as we’re committed to supporting all OA business models and policies, and strive to provide support globally. The central information exchange hub grows stronger with every participant, becoming a better tool for all.”
Read the full announcement here.
Come meet us and OA Switchboard participants at 2022 conferences
Just stop by at one of the stands!
Bibliotheks Kongress (Leipzig, Germany)
Wednesday 1 June 2022:
11am - 1pm: Royal Society of Chemistry (stand A19)
- 2pm - 3pm: Thieme Verlag (stand E05)
Thursday 2 June 2022:
11am - 12noon: Thieme Verlag (stand E05)
afternoon: Royal Society of Chemistry (stand A19)
Cambridge University Press (stand C12)
UKSG (Telford, UK)
Sunday 29 May 2022:
afternoon (by appointment)
Monday 30 May 2022:
10 – 11am: Royal Society of Chemistry (stand 37 & 46)
11am - 12noon: Jisc (stand 26)
1pm - 2pm: Thieme (stand 90)
2 - 3pm: Royal Society of Chemistry (stand 37 & 46)
3pm - 4pm: Cambridge University Press (stand 107)
JMIR Publications is now live and connected to the OA Switchboard
Posted 27 May 2022
The rocket is on the launch pad! JMIR Publications is ready to begin sending automated publication notification messages (P1 messages) through the OA Switchboard, supporting research institutions and their libraries to connect with their research and simplify their workflows.
While JMIR is one of the first publishers to successfully integrate with the OA Switchboard API in the standard message structure, interest and uptake has been steadily picking up momentum. The success of this initiative is a testament to the cooperation required by the scholarly communications industry to meaningfully address the ongoing challenges around the administrative burden to fulfill OA publication-level arrangements.
Read the full announcement here.
Beilstein-Institut: the first diamond initiative to report via OA Switchboard
Posted 12 May 2022
Beilstein-Institut is the first diamond initiative to report to research funders, institutions and consortia via OA Switchboard. They are also the first publisher to go live with a direct OA Switchboard API connection.
Read more here.
The Company of Biologists connects to the OA Switchboard
Posted 20 April 2022
"The Company of Biologists is delighted to announce a partnership with the OA Switchboard which makes it much easier for our library customers to manage their Read & Publish agreements and to monitor the success of their Open Access (OA) strategy. Thanks to the great success of our cost-neutral Read & Publish OA initiative, there has been a significant increase in the number of research articles published immediately OA in our hybrid subscription journals... This is excellent news, but the lack of standardisation between systems, portals and processes has created challenges, particularly in terms of reporting and data analysis.
The OA Switchboard offers a solution...
Connectors between The Company of Biologists and the OA Switchboard are now in place. This means that we can provide real-time publishing information on a regular basis to our library customers that are signed up to the OA Switchboard. We can also provide reports dating back to 1 January 2022. Read the full announcement here.
ORCID and OA Switchboard work to “connect the dots” of PIDs in the Open Access Journey
Open scholarly infrastructure organizations collaborate to navigate the OA research and publishing maze to help solve compliance with emerging requirements
Posted 19 April 2022
We are excited to announce the launch of ORCID-enabled smart matching in OA Switchboard. With our April 2022 release, OA Switchboard users will be able to leverage authoritative affiliation data from authors’ ORCID profiles to corroborate affiliation or organizational identifiers (such as ROR or Ringgold IDs) and ensure more accurate routing of the messages being shared between participants throughout the Open Access (OA) research cycle and publication journey, ultimately resulting in more complete and better quality metadata in the OA Switchboard messages for each article published.
2022 Webinars to present the OA Switchboard to the wider community
Updated 26 April 2022
Also in this second year of our 'launch phase', webinars are being organised to present the OA Switchboard to the wider community.
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Wednesday 20 April 2022
Making reporting easy and increasing visibility of open access publication output – a how-to webinar from OA Switchboard publisher participants
Three publisher case studies on how to connect to OA Switchboard to make reporting easy and increase visibility of OA publication output. Our speakers covered the different options for interacting with OA Switchboard (manual, via API or custom connector), illustrated by their own real-life experiences and lessons learned. Our tech partner added background information and best practices across all publishers operational on OA Switchboard, as well as with future trends that are shaping.
The recording of the webinar is available here.
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Tuesday 29 March 2022
Lessons Learned to Make Reporting Easy: source data, PIDs, interoperability and a simple messaging tool
This webinar provided an evidence-based look at how the different stakeholders deal with reporting on OA-related publication level information via a series of talks and use case presentations. The full slide deck is here and all questions answered in and after the webinar are here.
Please note this webinar was free and open to all thanks to the support of our host Copyright Clearance Center. The recording is available here.
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October 2022
See here.
London Book Fair Research & Scholarly Publishing Forum
OA Switchboard takes part in the “Tech-decks” session
Posted 8 April 2022
On Thursday 7 April 2022, OA Switchboard participated in the “Tech-decks” session during the Research & Publishing Forum as part of the London Book fair. This session was about new concepts and technologies supporting evolution and revolution in journal publishing.
Our talk was about "Orchestrating data flow to enable Open Access offerings in journal publishing." The on-demand version is available here.
CCC announcement: CCC and the OA Switchboard Collaborate to Offer Increased Efficiency and Transparency for the Scholarly Communications Community
posted 29 March 2022
CCC, a leading provider of Open Access (OA) workflow solutions, and the OA Switchboard, a global, not-for-profit collaboration between funders, institutions and publishers, announce a collaboration to automate the exchange of OA transactional information between publishers and their customers through the OA Switchboard.
See full announcement here.
Hindawi announcement: Sharing publication metadata to streamline open access reporting
Posted 16 March 2022
"The OA Switchboard has developed quickly over the last couple of years and is starting to demonstrate the real value it can provide to our community, and we are excited to announce that Hindawi has now also successfully integrated with the OA Switchboard. Going forward, this will enable the OA Switchboard to send out notifications on our behalf to institutions/consortia and funders when a relevant article is published."
Read the full blog post here.
ICOLC Meeting Panel
OA Switchboard participates in member-only meeting on 21 April 2021
Updated 21 April 2021 / Posted 8 April 2021
OA Switchboard participated in the ICOLC Meeting Panel during a members-only meeting on 21 April 2021. General information is here, and the ICOLC community can find out more here.
OA Switchboard reaches milestone of 100K messages sent
Posted 4 March 2022
"The more who use it, the better a resource it becomes" by Gaynor Redvers-Mutton from the Microbiology Society, is becoming reality. Early March 2022 OA Switchboard reached an impressive milestone: 100K exchanges of OA publication-level information by publishers to research funders / institutions / consortia! We are proud and grateful for all participants and strategic partner OASPA.
For more information and statistics, see our Participants page.
International Conference on Innovations and Challenges in Research Publishing
OA Switchboard to present a key note (22 February 2022)
Posted 16 February 2022
OA Switchboard participates in the International Conference on Innovations and Challenges in Research Publishing. It is an e-CONFERENCE from Chitkara University Publications, an Open Access Initiative of The Chitkara University.
The full conference program is here.
The title of our key note is: OA Switchboard - a practical tool that thrives on collaboration
2022 Focus: Build on the hard work of 2021 in terms of priorities and use cases
Posted 3 January 2022
On the first working day of 2022, we’re excited to share that the second year of our launch phase will build on the hard work of 2021 in terms of priorities and use cases.
It’s no surprise that our overarching focus will continue to be on: 1) authoritative data from source; 2) interoperability of existing systems; 3) connecting the dots of existing PIDs. All, in our characteristic, well established, collaborative spirit.
What does this mean?
Authoritative data from source: article-level metadata directly from the publisher, via a (technically) validated standardised messaging protocol (no journal-level default values, no myriad of formats, etc)
Interoperability of existing systems: connect via (open) APIs (don’t re-invent the wheel, don’t rebuild what’s already out there)
Connecting the dots of existing PIDs: use of common standards #GRID #ISNI #Ringgold #ROR #ORCID #DOI
Please get in touch to learn more about these topics, and to discuss how OA Switchboard can support your organisation. We invite you to join our community of like-minded spirits on a mission: a breakthrough in the transformation of the market, enabling OA to be supported as the predominant model of publication.
31 December 2021 statistics
Posted 31 December 2021
On this last day of the year we celebrate that we’ve been fully operational for one year. We proudly share our 31 December statistics with you:
84,377 messages were sent by participating publishers to research funders and institutions/consortia via OA Switchboard
(‘messages’ = standardised sets of publication-level metadata).
We’re well underway to deliver on our mission as independent intermediary, connecting parties and systems, streamlining communication and the neutral exchange of OA related publication-level information. In terms of developing and maintaining our central information exchange hub as an operational solution, this is all about shared infrastructure, standardised messaging protocol, and integration with existing systems, powered by Persistent Identifiers (PIDs).
The OA Switchboard is providing a solution for a real pain point shared by research funders, institutions and publishers: the fulfilment of OA publication-level arrangements (policies, mandates, agreements, etc).
In 2021, our stakeholders have built a fantastic community of like-minded spirits on a mission. We’re grateful for our founding partners, launch customers and early adopters. And we very, very much thank Ivo Verbeek and Yuri Vorontsov from our tech partner ELITEX, and Bernie Folan and Claire Redhead from our strategic partner Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association.
Read more in our year-end blog post here.
Three OA Switchboard events at 2021 Open Publishing Fest - for three time zones
posted: 1 November 2021
OA Switchboard will host three 'discussion events' at the 2021 Open Publishing Fest, a decentralized public event that brings together communities supporting open source software, open content, and open publishing models.
The same event will run three times on Tuesday 9 November 2021:
at 7am (CET) for our friends to the east of us
at 1pm (CET) for our friends nearer by
at 9pm (CET) for our friends to the west of us and in New Zealand
The title of our events is: From toll roads to highways - How the OA Switchboard is building the infrastructure for an OA-driven scholarly communications landscape.
The event will reflect on our journey from idea (2018) to being operational (2021). We'll present our principles and POSI self-assessment, cover tough choices and will share pragmatic solutions. We're happy to share our experiences and enter into discussion with the participants.
Webinars to present the OA Switchboard to the wider community
Last updated 14 September 2021 / Posted 30 October 2020
Webinars are being organised to present the OA Switchboard to the wider community, supported by demonstrations/presentations of real-life use cases by launch customers and founding partners.
Wednesday 8 September 2021
This webinar focused on the shared use case Matching Publication Costs with Publication Funds that our launch customers and founding partners are currently working on collaboratively. The speakers covered a wide range of use cases, covering all kind of business models (APC-based, non-APC based / diamond, subscribe-to-open, transformative agreements, pure OA/publish deals, etc) and a wide range of technical implementations ('connectors') for data feeds from different source systems.
This webinar was free and open to all thanks to the support of our host Aries Systems. The recording of the webinar is available here.Wednesday 31 March 2021
This webinar focussed on the Reporting Made Easy shared use case our launch customers and founding partners are working on collaboratively. Funders and institutions/consortia would much prefer publishers to report their publication-level OA information in a structured format. This enables data to be fed directly into their own (or their solution provider’s) system for further processing and analysis.
This webinar provided a practical evidence-based look at how the OA Switchboard is making reporting easier via a series of short five minute talks and use case presentations, with time for questions and discussions following. The recording of this webinar is here.
Tuesday 8 December 2020
The OA Switchboard is a tool that can be called upon as and when needed, or integrated in stakeholders’ own systems and workflows to achieve automation and scalability. This webinar brings together participants from publishers, research institutions and our tech partner to present and discuss real-life use cases. Learn what specific challenge they implement the OA Switchboard for and how a simple communication hub can handle many different situations. The unanswered questions posed by attendees via the webinar chat, as well as the recording of this webinar is available here.Thursday 5 November 2020
Part of the OASPA AGM will also be given to an update on the OA Switchboard project which OASPA has been leading this year. In this webinar we’ll present a status update and insight into our plans. Also, some of our early adopters will present specific use cases they are getting started with in 2021.The recording of this part of the meeting is available here.
Royal Society of Chemistry connects to OA Switchboard
posted: 7 September 2021
"We recently announced our support for the OA Switchboard initiative, a not-for-profit, industry-wide collaboration among publishers, academic institutions and research funding organisations.
We're pleased to announce that it's now all systems go, with Royal Society of Chemistry Product Manager, Charlie Quigg, saying: "I have to commend OA Switchboard on their approach. They were able to integrate smoothly with our existing systems and setup only took two meetings and a few weeks of work on their side, with no development work on ours. Within hours of going live, multiple participating institutions were notified of published articles."
Read the full announcement here.
SSP 43rd Annual Meeting: Charting a New Course - From Chaos to Innovation
OA Switchboard to present a poster (27 May 2021)
Posted 2 April 2021
Updated 1 June 2021
OA Switchboard participated in SSP's 43rd Annual Meeting (online conference from 24 - 27 May 2021). The full program is here.
The title of our poster is: OA Switchboard, central information exchange hub: Taking charge of multi-lateral OA publication-level arrangements.
NASIG 2021 Conference
Live-streamed OA Switchboard panel (20 May 2021)
Posted 20 February 2021
Updated 9 June 2021
OA Switchboard participated in the 36th annual NASIG Conference (19-21 May 2021) by hosting a panel session. The recorded session is here.
The title of our session was: The OA Switchboard - How a simple, collaborative solution tackles multiple use cases for funders, institutions and publishers, strategically and practically.
UKSG 44th Annual Conference and Exhibition: Online
OA Switchboard lightning presentation on 13th April 2021
Updated 13 April 2021 / Posted 4 February 2021
OA Switchboard participated in this year's online version of the UKSG Annual Conference on Tuesday 13th April 2021. The full program is here.
The title of our lightning presentation is: OA Switchboard: a mission-driven practical solution, that thrives on collaboration.
30th Annual North Carolina Serials Conference
OA Switchboard Lightning Talk on 9 April 2021
Updated 9 April 2021 / Posted 9 February 2021
OA Switchboard participated in this year's North Caroline Serials Conference on 9 April 2021. The conference website is here.
The title of our Lightning Talk is: How the OA Switchboard is building the infrastructure for an OA-driven scholarly communications landscape.
InformationToday feature article: OA Switchboard, central information exchange hub
Posted 2 February 2021
[Editor's Note: If you heard Yvonne Campfens' inspiring keynote talk at Internet Librarian International 2019 all about creating, innovating, collaborating and what we can learn from startups, you won't be surprised to hear that she has taken her own advice and joined startup OA Switchboard as its executive director. I asked her to tell us about this new venture.]
Read the full article here.
ICOLC EMEA Webinar
Posted 15 March 2022
OA Switchboard was pleased and honoured to organise 2-hour webinar for ICOLC EMEA. The following partners joined us in this closed event:
Arjan Schalken, UKB/VSNU
Frank Manista, Jisc
Gaynor Redvers-Mutton, Microbiology Society
Ivo Verbeek, ELITEX
Marten Stavenga, John Benjamins Publishing Company
Richard Bennett, Hindawi
Next steps for Open Access, Westminster Higher Education Forum policy conference
OA Switchboard keynote on 9th July 2021
Posted 24 January 2021
OA Switchboard will participate in the Westminster Higher Education Forum policy conference on Friday 9th July 2021. The theme of the conference is 'Next steps for Open Access' and the full program is here.
The title of our keynote is: Streamlining communication and the neutral exchange of OA-related publication level information - collaborative infrastructure to make the ecosystem work better for everyone.
Outsell Analysis: OA Switchboard addresses an acute need in scholarly communications
Posted: 19 January 2021
OA Switchboard was covered in an Outsell Analysis by Tatiana Khayrullina (Director & Lead Analyst) today, with the title: OA Switchboard Is Ready to Go Live, Addressing an Acute Need in Scholarly Communications.
In the abstract it states: "The OA Switchboard strives to remove technical barriers on the path to OA adoption. Its mission is to smooth out communications among market players, one connection at a time."
Academic Publishing in Europe Conference (APE2021): The New Face of Trust
OA Switchboard opening keynote on Day 2 of the conference
Posted 17 November 2020
Updated 13 January 2021
The OA Switchboard participated in the 2021 Academic Publishing in Europe Conference, as the opening keynote on Day 2 of the conference on Wednesday 13 January 2021. The title of the presentation is: From complexity to transparency: How the OA Switchboard is building a cost-effective collaborative infrastructure solution for an OA-driven scholarly communications landscape.
Our presentation is available here.
NISO Plus 2021
"Collaborate to solve a common problem - OA Switchboard"
Posted 11 December 2020
The OA Switchboard will participate in the NISO Plus Conference, by means of a session on Wednesday 24 February 2021. The title of the presentation is: Collaborate to solve a common problem - OA Switchboard.
The full program of NISO Plus 2021 is here.
Progress report December 2020
Posted 10 December 2020
This post is by Yvonne Campfens, Executive Director of the OA Switchboard
Although many may want to forget all about 2020, I will remember it as a catalyst year, in which inspiring collaboration prepared for the OA Switchboard to go live as an operational solution in 2021. This progress report marks the end of the 2020 OA Switchboard project, and preludes the structural set-up for 2021 and beyond.
Continue reading here
UK collaborates with new body to accelerate global open access
Published 3 December 2020
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Wellcome and Jisc are among the first organisations supporting the establishment of a new body called Open Access Switchboard.
Full announcement here.
Annual Publishing Conference 2020 (Rave Technologies)
Panel on Cross-Publisher OA Logistics
Posted 17 November 2020
Updated 13 January 2021
The OA Switchboard participated in a panel during the Annual Publishing Conference 2020 on Wednesday 9 December 2020 on facilitating Open Access in a publisher-neutral manner.
Our presentation is here.
OASPA founds new organisation with future-proof governance and funding structure for the OA Switchboard
A neutral, independent intermediary enabling shared infrastructure, bringing transparency, efficiency and cost effectiveness to the open access ecosystem
CNI Fall Virtual Membership Meeting (November 10-December 15, 2020)
"From toll roads to highways: How the OA Switchboard is building the infrastructure for an OA-driven scholarly communications landscape"
Posted 3 November 2020
Updated 13 January 2021
The OA Switchboard participated in the 2020 CNI Fall Virtual Membership Meeting by means of a Short Update (pre-recorded video) to be made available during Week 3 (December 1-7, 2020).
The theme of week 3 is: Technology, Standards, & Infrastructure
2nd Basel Sustainable Publishing Forum - The Global Transition to Open Access: Challenges and Solutions
"How did we get here? How to move on? How is the OA Switchboard helping?"
Posted 29 October 2020
Updated 13 January 2021
OA Switchboard participated in this virtual conference on 26-27 October 2020: 2nd Basel Sustainable Publishing Forum - The Global Transition to Open Access: Challenges and Solutions.
The title of the paper was: How did we get here? How to move on? How is the OA Switchboard helping?
The recording is available here.
Our presentation is here.
Progress report September 2020
Posted 29 September 2020
API integration workshop (26 August 2020)
Posted 28 August 2020
We’re now in the middle of the Pilot. One of the topics to prove is that we deliver the basics (standards & essential infrastructure). Specifically for, and with, the stakeholders’ partners, we recently organised a very well attended interactive workshop, about technical integration of the OA Switchboard API with these other systems, value-adding solutions on top, so the ambition of an automated, integrated, scalable solution will be achieved.
-- Questions -- Challenges -- Suggestions --
Watch the brainstorm animation here: Where do you see potential challenges with the technical integration to the OA Switchboard?
Demonstration videos of Minimum Viable Product (MVP)/iteration #6
Posted 7 August 2020
6.1 Compose Eligibility Enquiry (E1) message - no prior agreement
6.2 Compose Eligibility Enquiry (E1) message - prior agreement
6.3 Compose Publication/Payment Settlement Notification (P1) from an existing message (pre-populated)
6.4 Respond to an E1 message with an E2 message - prior agreement
6.5 Respond to an E1 message with an E2 message (partial accept) - no prior agreement
6.6 Reporting: monitoring and tracking predicted/committed OA spend and publication numbers and details
Progress report July 2020
Posted 30 July 2020
RLUK's OAPP group hosts demonstration of the OA Switchboard initiative
Webinar on 27 July 2020
Posted 27 July 2020, updated 28 July 2020
On 27 July 2020, the RLUK OAPP Group hosted a webinar demonstration of the OA Switchboard initiative. The recording is available.
Demonstration videos of intermediate delivery iteration #5
Posted 21 July 2020
5.1 Compose Eligibility Enquiry message - prior agreement, with individual article charges specified
5.2 Routing of message to non-participating recipient (undelivered message)
5.3 Auto-reject of Eligibility Enquiry based on central OA fund terms (master data)
Demonstration videos of intermediate delivery iteration #4
Posted 7 July 2020
4.1 Compose Eligibility Enquiry message - prior agreement
4.2 Compose Eligibility Enquiry message - no prior agreement
4.3 Compose Publication/Payment Settlement Notification message & edit and resend
4.4 Read and respond to Eligibility Enquiry message (prior and no prior agreement)
Demonstration videos of intermediate delivery iteration #3
Posted 1 June 2020
Announced 4 May 2020
Posted 31 March 2020
Issued 18 March 2020
Posted 31 January 2020
Published 12 February 2019