In the medical publishing world, the one I’m most familiar with, “sponsored
content” nearly always means medical industry-sponsored content and
therefore potentially (likely) affected by major conflicts of interest. It
isn’t a neutral term. I haven’t heard it used to apply to content supported
by academic institutions except in this discussion.
Margaret

Margaret Winker, MD

eLearning Program Director and Trustee, World Association of Medical Editors

***

wame.org

WAME eLearning Program <https://wame.org/wame-elearning-program.php>

@WAME_editors

www.facebook.com/WAMEmembers

On Oct 16, 2024, at 8:23 AM, Rick Anderson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:



> The notion brought forward by the word "sponsorship" comes from an

> erroneous view that scholarly publishing is first and foremost a business.



That’s very interesting – I would have said that the notion brought forward
by the word “sponsorship” is the view that when an institution undertakes
to fully support a publishing endeavor, that institution can reasonably be
characterized as its “sponsor.”



I’m genuinely surprised to see such strong opposition to that use of the
term in this context.



---

Rick Anderson

University Librarian

Brigham Young University

(801) 422-4301

[log in to unmask]





*From: *Juan Pablo Alperin <[log in to unmask]>
*Date: *Tuesday, October 15, 2024 at 6:57 PM
*To: *Rick Anderson <[log in to unmask]>
*Cc: *"[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
*Subject: *On the co-option of the term "diamond"



Changing the subject to not distract from the Open Research in MENA forum,
but continuing on the conversation started there. I'll leave Danny's
invitation for further conversation at that forum here:



If anyone is interested I will be talking about open infrastructure (as
opposed to commercial infrastructure that supports open research, described
as ‘open research infrastructure’) at the 3rd Annual Forum for Open
Research in MENA (Middle East and North Africa). “The Commercial Cash Cow
Trap – why we should redirect infrastructure investment towards open”. The
session is on 21 October 9:30 - 11:00am in Qatar (6:30am UTC)

Registration is free <https://lnkd.in/gMBRRFBp> for online attendees.



Now, my thoughts on "Diamond OA":



The notion that Diamond journals are "free-to-read-free-to-publish journals
whose costs are covered by a sponsor" is still problematic. The majority
are not "sponsored" in the usual sense of the word. Most importantly,
Diamond journals are not journals that are in need of a "model" for
sustainability.



Most Diamond journals are sustained using the same "model" as other
research activities: through a combination of faculty interest and
involvement, institutional in-kind and cash supports, and (usually
government) research funding. This is the exact same "business model" that
I use to support my research agenda as a faculty member. Somehow, my
research program continues to be "sustainable" thanks to various forms of
"sponsorship".



The notion brought forward by the word "sponsorship" comes from an
erroneous view that scholarly publishing is first and foremost a business.
It is not, and Diamond journals is a term that can only serve its function
if it is not co-opted. "Diamond" needs to stand for something other than
"no APCs" if it is going to be a meaningful term. The moment we concede
that "Diamond" is a way to describe journals in search for a business
model, we have allowed the term to be co-opted (and thank you, Danny, for
drawing attention to the co-option in this space through your blog post).



Not exactly about the same thing, but we recently published a letter
<https://direct.mit.edu/qss/article/doi/10.1162/qss_c_00331/124449/We-need-to-rethink-the-way-we-identify-diamond>
in QSS to alert the bibliometrics community. When looking at price lists to
estimate APCs, we did find various examples of journals with $0 APCs
(usually as a promotional strategy) and others that had APCs covered by
societies or other entities. These are still APC-journals that could indeed
be described as "sponsored", but certainly not as "diamond".



Marc-André Simard, Leigh-Ann Butler, Juan Pablo Alperin, Stefanie Haustein;
We need to rethink the way we identify diamond open access journals in
quantitative science studies. *Quantitative Science Studies* 2024; doi:
https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_c_00331



Juan





On Tue, 15 Oct 2024 at 16:51, Rick Anderson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Responding briefly from my phone here to point out that agreeing with
Jean-Claude about appropriate taxonomy is fine, but Sara is correct that ad
hominem arguments are not welcome on this list.



With my list owner hat on, I’m going to (again) remind everyone to avoid
personal attacks here.



Thanks,

Rick Anderson

-----

Brief message from mobile device



On Oct 15, 2024, at 5:46 PM, Danny Kingsley <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Hi, agreed about needing a productive dialogue Sara, but I also agree with
Jean-Claude in that ‘forking’ descriptions of OA is problematic.



I have written about this after much discussion of the issue at FORCE2024
and FSCI2024 - "Language co-option in the open space", Upstream Blog, 3
September 2024,
https://upstream.force11.org/language-co-option-in-the-open-space/



It was also part of the plenary I shared with Dr Leslie McIntosh -  Trust,
Global and All That Jazz, 1 Aug 2024, FORCE2024 VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4syIhPYeRg



If anyone is interested I will be talking about open infrastructure (as
opposed to commercial infrastructure that supports open research, described
as ‘open research infrastructure’) at the 3rd Annual Forum for Open
Research in MENA (Middle East and North Africa). “The Commercial Cash Cow
Trap – why we should redirect infrastructure investment towards open”. The
session is on 21 October 9:30 - 11:00am in Qatar (6:30am UTC)

Registration is free <https://lnkd.in/gMBRRFBp> for online attendees.



Danny





On 16 Oct 2024, at 9:21 am, Sara Rouhi <[log in to unmask]> wrote:



I’ll be attending remotely, Rick!



Jean-Claude - the folks at Delta Think and others who are thinking about OA
taxonomies are not silly. They’re working with the existing problematic
verbiage. One could argue for them bringing more nuance to the  language
but there’s no call for denigrating their work.



I’d welcome a robust discussion of financial sustainability of
"free-to-read-free-to-publish journals whose costs are covered by a
sponsor" and the labels for such a model. Business models should be a topic
on this thread. If the label is the issue - then spell it out.
"Free-to-read-free-to-publish
journals whose costs are covered by a sponsor" is a lot to type. I actually
think "sponsored journals" is fair and better than the weirdly extractive
language of the jewels/metals system.



Note: a not-so-gentle reminder that humility and curiosity go a long way to
fostering a productive dialogue.



My two cents,

Sara



Sara Rouhi

Director, Open Science, Publishing Innovation

AIP Publishing

[log in to unmask]



Get Outlook for iOS <https://aka.ms/o0ukef>
------------------------------

*From:* OpenCafe-l <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Jean-Claude
Guédon <[log in to unmask]>
*Sent:* Tuesday, October 15, 2024 6:09:39 PM
*To:* [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
*Subject:* Re: [OPENCAFE-L] The 3rd Annual Forum for Open Research in MENA
Starts in Just 1 Week!



Please, do not call "Diamond OA" "sponsored" as these silly people at Delta
Think do. When I saw that expression in Tasha Mellins-Cohen article on OA
business models, I said to myself: here we go again. Gold used to mean OA
through journals, with no reference to business models. Suddenly, Gold
became APC-Gold. Now Diamond, already burdened by a quasi synonym -
platinum - is going to be "sponsored OA" with the intimation of course that
it is not a real business model. Well, from that perspective, diamond is
not a business model, it is the result of a policy that says that
publishing is an integral part of research, and, like all research, it is
supported not by a business plan, but by various kinds of subsidies, many
of which are public. The NSF, in accepting to pay for page charges in the
1950s, rested its case on precisely this argument.

Jean-Claude Guédon

Le 2024-10-15 à 14:47, Rick Anderson a écrit :

In case anyone on the list is planning to attend and is interested, I’ll be
presenting a workshop at the Annual Forum on the strengths and weaknesses
of various open access publishing models.



And even if you don’t attend the workshop, if you’re there, please grab me
and say hello! (I’ll be the only one in a bow tie.)



---

Rick Anderson

University Librarian

Brigham Young University

(801) 422-4301

[log in to unmask]





*From: *OpenCafe-l <[log in to unmask]>
<[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Nahil Nassar
<[log in to unmask]> <[log in to unmask]>
*Reply-To: *Nahil Nassar <[log in to unmask]>
<[log in to unmask]>
*Date: *Monday, October 14, 2024 at 6:19 AM
*To: *"[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
<[log in to unmask]> <[log in to unmask]>
*Subject: *[OPENCAFE-L] The 3rd Annual Forum for Open Research in MENA
Starts in Just 1 Week!



The 2024 Annual Forum will offer a series of carefully tailored
presentations and panels addressing key themes and topics related to the
advancement of Open Science policies and practices in research institutions
and research communities throughout the Arab world. We are honoured to have
the *Qatar National Library* <https://www.qnl.qa/en> as our Host Partner
for this event, and to have the continued support and funding from the
*Knowledge
E Foundation.* <https://knowledgee.com/knowledge-e-foundation/>



This year’s conference theme is: *Transforming Knowledge Into Action. *We
invite librarians, researchers, policy makers, higher-education
institutions to join us and work together towards a more open Arab world.



Further to our earlier emails about this year’s Annual Forum for Open
Research (taking place 21-24 October in Doha, in partnership with the Qatar
National Library), I wanted to let you know that we have made *online
access* *free for all delegates*.



With the ongoing financial and political difficulties faced by many across
the region, we have decided it is important that the event can be accessed
by everyone and the valuable discussions taking place can be shared
globally. In addition, we have listened to our community, and your many
requests for more affordable access options. Online registration will
therefore be free for all delegates who wish to join virtually (though we
hope many of our network will still decide to join in person in Doha). *I
hope you will share this information with friends, students and colleagues
across your network. *



In addition, I wanted to let you know that we have further expanded our
programme to include a high-impact exploration of the open science
advancements made across the region, with a special opening roundtable
discussion from key regional stakeholders including the leaders of the
Association of Arab Universities, the Arab Scientific Research and
Education Network, the Africa Reproducibility Network and the Arab
Institute of Knowledge Management.



Moreover, we are hugely honoured that this year’s Annual Forum will be
taking place under the Patronage of *His Excellency Dr Hamad Al Kuwari, *State
Minister of Qatar with the rank of Deputy Prime-Minister and President of
Qatar National Library.



I do hope you will all be able to join us. Register here:
https://forumforopenresearch.com/registration/







*Error! Filename not specified.*

*Nahil Nassar*

Community Engagement Manager

Forum for Open Research in MENA



*O*: +971 4 422 7043

*E:* [log in to unmask]

http://www.forumforopen.org

*Error! Filename not specified.* <https://twitter.com/form4open>








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