OPENCAFE-L List

OASPA Webinar: Collective actors: libraries supporting open access without author charges (Wayfinders #7)

Bernie Folan — Wed, 20 May 2026 05:35:30 -0700

Our next webinar will be the seventh in our 'Wayfinders' series, scheduled
for *Wednesday 10 June 2026* at 2pm BST (UK).

In this session, we will distill library perspectives on supporting
non-author-fee models for open access (OA). The conversation will unpack
questions geared towards practical help for libraries and publishing
organisations, such as *How do libraries choose which OA titles and
programs to support?* [...]

PKP is Hiring for another leadership role: Associate Director | Publishing Services

Juan Pablo Alperin — Fri, 15 May 2026 10:01:36 -0700

Hello!

We're hiring! PKP is looking for an Associate Director in charge of
Publishing Services, and we wanted to make sure our community heard about
it first.

This is a senior leadership role at the heart of what we do. The person in
this position will oversee our international publishing services portfolio,
manage client relationships across research institutions around the world,
and help shape the long-term sustainability of the world's most widely used
open source scholarly publishing platform. We're looking for someone who
knows scholarly publishing, has strong business sense, and genuinely cares
about open access. [...]

Registration now open & preliminary program available for OR2026 online 8-11 June!

Joe Kraus — Sun, 3 May 2026 21:52:10 +0000

FYI. Please excuse the multiple discussion list postings.

Updates to programme and speakers for OASPA2026

Bernie Folan — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 11:13:07 -0700

OASPA’s annual conference is the only event that brings together the whole
of the open access community, accelerating connection, discovery and new
thinking around OA Publishing.

Join us this September in Croatia to exchange thoughts with a global
network of experts and peers, and to help us shape the future of open
access.

*Discover our sessions and speakers*Our programme information
<https://www.oaspa.org/events/oaspa-2026-preliminary-programme/> has been
updated with information about sessions and speakers. This page will be
updated with session abstracts and a full speaker list over the coming
weeks. [...]

Reminder: Call for poster lightning talk proposals OASPA 2026 (Deadline April 24)

Bernie Folan — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 09:28:40 -0700

OASPA’s annual conference is the only event that brings together the whole
of the open access community, accelerating connection, discovery and new
thinking.
Join us this September in Croatia to exchange thoughts with a global
network of experts and peers, and to help us shape the future of open
access.

The preliminary conference programme and information about the conference
can be found at https://www.oaspa.org/events/annualconference/. [...]

Call for poster lightning talk proposals for OASPA 2026 (Deadline April 24)

Bernie Folan — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 05:26:03 -0700

OASPA’s annual conference is the only event that brings together the whole
of the open access community, accelerating connection, discovery and new
thinking.

Join us this September in Croatia to exchange thoughts with a global
network of experts and peers, and to help us shape the future of open
access.

The preliminary conference programme and information about the conference
can be found at https://www.oaspa.org/events/annualconference/. [...]

Reminder: Register for Read & Publish Webinar on April 15, 2026 @ 9 AM ET

Savannah Pecknold — Wed, 8 Apr 2026 18:06:29 +0000

Hello All,

There's still time to register for our free, educational webinar on Read & Publish next Wednesday, April 15th at 9 a.m. ET!

A panel of scholarly communication librarians and open access researchers will explore how Read & Publish agreements provide institutions with access to critical research resources while offering APC funding for unlimited Open Access publishing, with no cost to affiliated researchers as APC fees are covered through the agreement. Panelists will discuss how this collaborative model expands global research visibility and removes barriers to equitable scholarly communication. [...]

New Zotero library from DLF Committee on Equity and Inclusion

Lisa Schiff — Wed, 8 Apr 2026 17:21:39 +0000

Dear Colleagues,

The Digital Library Federation Committee for Equity and Inclusion (DLF CEI) is pleased to announce that it has published a Zotero resource library supporting greater inclusion and equity in GLAM spaces, as well as individual professional and personal growth. Explore the library here: https://www.zotero.org/groups/2394367/dlf_cei_resources/library<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.zotero.org/groups/2394367/dlf_cei_resources/library__;!!KwNVnqRv!ANmPMsV-aOOOF9oUzk6ll-0FpiiHtM4UZGbwWOOGX735biMi5pOPK0_HjtA5Xnt48px2JTf67yRGQgh2CagV87c$>

As equity and inclusion efforts are hindered, if not erased, in the contemporary moment, this library was compiled and updated to offer materials that help sustain this work. [...]

Read & Publish Educational Webinar to be Hosted by IGI Global Scientific Publishing

Savannah Pecknold — Wed, 1 Apr 2026 19:43:01 +0000

Hello All,

**Apologies for cross-posting**

I am happy to share that registration is now open for our upcoming Read & Publish educational webinar, which will have a panel joined by expert scholarly communication librarians and open access researchers, and is to be hosted on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, at 9 a.m. ET via Microsoft Teams. Those interested in attending may learn more and register here<https://www.igi-global.com/newsroom/archive/register-upcoming-free-webinar/6664/>. [...]

Seoul National University adopts AIP Fusion agreement supporting open access publishing

Melissa Gonzalez — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 22:57:00 +0000

Seoul National University has entered into a three-year AIP Fusion agreement with AIP Publishing, marking the first adoption of the model in Asia.
Through the agreement, corresponding authors affiliated with the university can publish open access in AIP Publishing titles and partner journals, while the institution receives access to AIP Publishing’s portfolio of physical science journals.
By bringing publishing and reading access together within a single institutional agreement, AIP Fusion supports broader visibility and dissemination of research from Seoul National University.
Local support for the agreement was provided by Shinwon Datanet Co., Ltd.
Press release:
https://publishing.aip.org/?p=12904
More about AIP Fusion:
[...]

Call for poster lightning talk proposals for OASPA 2026

Bernie Folan — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 10:09:43 -0700

OASPA’s annual conference is the only event that brings together the whole
of the open access community, accelerating connection, discovery and new
thinking.

Join us this September in Croatia to exchange thoughts with a global
network of experts and peers, and to help us shape the future of open
access.

The preliminary conference programme and information about the conference
can be found at https://www.oaspa.org/events/annualconference/. [...]

PR: EMS Press announces Launch to Open – a transparent new approach to open access

Laura Simonite — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 03:57:47 -0600

Focusing on transparency and designed to create a sense of shared responsibility, Launch to Open offers a community-based path to open access

Launch to Open logo
EMS Press is introducing Launch to Open (L2O), a new model designed to help established journals move toward open access with clear costs, shared responsibility and community support. Like other community-based open access models, L2O distributes responsibility across subscribing institutions. What distinguishes L2O is its financial transparency; disclosing the full costs, targets and allocation of subscription revenue for each title. In doing so, it gives subscribers a clear view of what it costs to [...]

HARRASSOWITZ Partners with Purchase to Open Initiative to Advance Open Access for Academic Books

Monika Schneider — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 10:06:21 -0600

Full message available at: HARRASSOWITZ Partners with Purchase to Open Initiative to Advance Open Access for Academic Books

LyrOpen Fair starts today

Michael Rodriguez — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 13:01:08 +0000

Dear colleagues,

Just a quick reminder that the 5th Annual LyrOpen Fair<https://lyrasis.org/lyropen-fair/> starts today — everyone is welcome to attend, and all sessions are free.

Convened by Lyrasis and held this week and next, these five webinars will explore open scholarship from diverse stakeholder perspectives. Today's session<https://lyrasis.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Y0rncSVTTdmNtgvTchCcpw#/registration>, for example, explores sustainable approaches to open access book publishing through the lens of the Opening the Future initiative. [...]

Re: Invitation to Shape How Academic Publishing Budgets Could Work Better

Philipp Hess — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 09:33:32 +0100

Dear Jody,

Thank you for being this direct — it's exactly the kind of honest pushback that makes these conversations worthwhile, and your skepticism is completely fair given the patterns you've seen.

Let me be straightforward with you:
Yes, Publishing Gateway is a for-profit company. I won't pretend otherwise, and I won't make promises about future ownership structures that I can't guarantee. You've seen enough of these situations to know that such promises are often meaningless anyway. [...]

Re: Invitation to Shape How Academic Publishing Budgets Could Work Better

Jody Bailey — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 13:15:06 -0600

Hello, Philipp,

It would be helpful to know more about your startup and your goals. Is your company strictly a for-profit enterprise? Or do you plan to share the product(s) you develop with the not-for-profit higher education community in a way that provides some value back to it (outside of access to the product itself)? To be frank, I’m reluctant to provide information in the form of market research to a startup that will later try to make a lot of money from universities (especially academic libraries) and end up being acquired by a corporate entity that has a long history of [...]

Invitation to Shape How Academic Publishing Budgets Could Work Better

Philipp Hess — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 15:08:18 +0100

Dear colleagues,

I'm reaching out via this listserv because I'm genuinely curious about something that seems to affect almost every academic institution — and I suspect you may have strong opinions on it.

How does your institution actually manage publication budgets today?

Not in theory — but in practice:

Who tracks which researchers are submitting where?
How are APC approvals handled internally?
Where does the process quietly break down? [...]

Re: Lots of content on open scholarship at the upcoming UKSG conference

Beth Bayley — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 02:58:01 -0600

Thanks, Rick. Those all sound great! I'm also moderating a session at UKSG Tuesday at 11.00 that's highly open scholarship-adjacent: "Debate Club! Hearing Out ˜the Other Side’ on Some Core Tensions in Scholarly Publishing"

Hope to see many of you in Glasgow!

Warm regards,
Beth

Join us for the 5th Annual LyrOpen Fair (March 24-April 2)

Michael Rodriguez — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 14:08:25 +0000

Dear colleagues:

Lyrasis is delighted to invite everyone to the 5th Annual LyrOpen Fair<https://lyrasis.org/lyropen-fair/>, which will be held virtually from March 24 to April 2, 2026, with five webinars exploring the concept of Open from an array of stakeholder perspectives, both US-based and international.

Everyone is welcome to attend, and all sessions are free. Sessions will be recorded for those unable to attend. Detailed information about each session is provided below. Please register<https://lyrasis.org/lyropen-fair/> for any or all of the sessions and join us for this thought-provoking annual event. [...]

Vincent Larivière on the question “Who owns scholarly publishing?” – twelfth lecture in the Open Divide series

Ulrich Herb — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 13:26:34 +0000

Dear colleagues,

We (Ulrich Herb, Joachim Schöpfel, and I) are excited to announce the twelfth lecture of the Open Divide Lecture Series 2025/2026. It will take place on March 25, 2026, at 5:00 PM (CET).

We look forward to the lecture:

🎤 “Who owns scholarly publishing?” by Vincent Larivière

👉 Abstract:
Corporate control of scholarly publishing has been a heated topic over the last two decades. This talk will revisit empirical evidence on corporate control of scholarly publishing, using both restrictive and inclusive data sources, and will compare open access and closed venues. It will also discuss issues surrounding the [...]

Lots of content on open scholarship at the upcoming UKSG conference

Rick Anderson — Wed, 4 Mar 2026 13:52:57 +0000

Those with an interest in open scholarship may want to check out the offerings at this year’s UKSG conference (https://www.uksg.org/events/conference26/#programme). They include a report on OA book publishing from Andrew Barker and Tom Morley at Lancaster University, a panel on the creation of Diamond OA publishing funds in the Netherlands, open metadata applications, and more. [...]

TA Research Opportunity

Ragucci, Matthew — Tue, 3 Mar 2026 21:40:40 +0000

Hello all,

I'm reaching regarding an internal market research project exploring how libraries have approached, considered, or navigated transformational agreements and I'd love to hear from the folks in this group.

We're looking to connect with library staff who have been involved in evaluating or negotiating a transformational agreement with Wiley. Whether your institution ultimately moved forward, decided not to, or is still weighing the option. If you've had a hand in that conversation at your institution, your perspective would be incredibly valuable to us. [...]

AIP Publishing joins OA Switchboard

Melissa Gonzalez — Mon, 2 Mar 2026 21:48:11 +0000

AIP Publishing has joined OA Switchboard, a shared community infrastructure that enables standardized exchange of open access publication metadata between publishers, institutions, and funders.
Through this integration, AIP Publishing will provide publication metadata via OA Switchboard, including:

*
Author affiliation
*
Funder information
*
Licensing details

For institutions, standardized metadata exchange helps simplify open access reporting, reduce manual reconciliation, and support more reliable tracking of publishing activity across agreements.
“Participating in OA Switchboard supports our commitment to transparent and consistent communication with our institutional and funding partners,” said Sara Rouhi, Open Science Director at AIP Publishing. “Standardized metadata exchange reduces [...]

AIP Publishing joins OA Switchboard

Melissa Gonzalez — Mon, 2 Mar 2026 14:00:00 +0000

IGI Global Scientific Publishing Collaborates with Athabasca University for Open Education Week

Savannah Pecknold — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 18:34:47 +0000

Hello All,

**Apologies for cross-posting**

I am excited to share that I, on behalf of IGI Global Scientific Publishing, will be hosting a virtual open access publishing workshop titled, "Understanding the Full Potential of Open Access<https://www.igi-global.com/newsroom/archive/athabasca-university-igi-global-scientific/6716/>,” as a part of Athabasca University's Open Education Week events next week. I will be joined by our VP of Publishing Ethics & Research Integrity, Melissa Wagner, and our Director of Journal Development, Grace Long, in talking about open access publishing and processes, as well as funding opportunities for authors and libraries. [...]

Max Planck Digital Library Enters Three-Year AIP Fusion Agreement

Melissa Gonzalez — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 14:00:00 +0000

We’re pleased to share that Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL) has entered into a three-year AIP Fusion agreement with AIP Publishing on behalf of the Max Planck Society.

The agreement provides researchers across Max Planck institutes with read access to AIP Publishing’s full journal portfolio and the ability to publish open access in all AIP Publishing and publishing partner titles under a single, institution-level framework. [...]

IGI Global Scientific Publishing and East Carolina University Continue Collaboration Through Renewed Open Access Agreement

Savannah Pecknold — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 16:45:08 +0000

Hello All,

**Apologies for cross-posting**

I am happy to share that IGI Global Scientific Publishing has renewed its open access partnership with East Carolina University. ECU faculty will receive APC and CPC funding after manuscript acceptance in IGI Global Scientific Publishing’s Open Access Journal Program, benefitting from increased visibility, discoverability, and citation impact for their research. [...]

Save the dates: OR2026 online and OR2027 in Salvador, Brazil

Joe Kraus — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 21:22:24 +0000

FYI.

Sorry for duplicate postings.

Mark your calendars for the 2nd week of June 2026 and 2027!

OR2026 online 8-11 June 2026
The 2026 Open Repositories conference will be held online 8-11 June, and registration will open in early April. We plan to charge a registration fee of $50 to attendees from "high income" countries as defined by the World Bank<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Bank_high-income_economy#List_of_high-income_economies_(for_2026_fiscal_year)> in order to support event platform costs. Registration for attendees from all other countries will be free. [...]

Re: Canvas FFT being sunsetted?

Shanna Hollich — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 15:59:35 -0500

Btw, in case anyone is following along here - I reached out to Instructure
with this question and received the below response. I seem to remember
being involved with quite a lot of nonprofit organizations that promote OER
and provide OA resources - and some of them use Canvas because it means
being able to share them on Canvas Commons. I don't know what this means
for "business, government, and partner organizations" - which would include
consortia, Open Ed orgs, etc. [...]

Canvas FFT being sunsetted?

Shanna Hollich — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 11:54:40 -0500

Hello Open Education colleagues -

I'm hearing rumors that the Free-for-Teachers version of Canvas
<https://www.instructure.com/canvas-free-for-teacher/orientation> - the one
where you can just sign up online and start using it - is going to be
"sunsetted," possibly as early as April 2026.

I can't find anything public about this online. Has anyone else heard
anything?

If anyone has additional info, please reach out: shanna@creativecommons.org.
I'd love to get a sense of who all might be affected by this potential
change, along with any other information folks might happen to have. [...]

IGI Global Scientific Publishing and Columbia University Libraries Enter into Open Access Agreement

Savannah Pecknold — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 21:35:35 +0000

Hello All,

**Apologies for cross-posting**

I am happy to share that IGI Global Scientific Publishing has entered into an Open Access publishing agreement with Columbia University Libraries. Columbia University-affiliated authors will receive discounted APCs when publishing in IGI Global Scientific Publishing’s Open Access Journal Program, benefitting from increased visibility, discoverability, and citation impact for their research. [...]

Recording now available: Beyond the Ivory Tower - Real World Importance of OA

Bernie Folan — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 09:24:16 -0800

OASPA is delighted to share the recording of our lively "
<https://youtu.be/-k1gs7FpbFo>Beyond the Ivory Tower” webinar
<https://youtu.be/-k1gs7FpbFo> about the real world importance of open
access today.

Watch this video to hear about how about how open access is

-

“bridging the gap between what we know and what we do” at the frontline
of emergency healthcare and communicating best available evidence to those
working to save lives and stop human suffering;
- [...]

Press release: EMS Press announces third year of full open access with Subscribe to Open

Laura Simonite — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 09:47:04 -0700

I hope it's ok to share this here, I think it's relevant to the interests of this community:

EMS Press announces third year of full open access with Subscribe to Open
Laura Simonite

Publisher confirms sustainability thresholds met, while making measured compromises to safeguard long-term resilience

EMS Press Open Access
EMS Press – the publishing house of the European Mathematical Society – today announces a third consecutive year of full open access across all 22 of its Subscribe to Open (S2O) journals. All articles published in 2026 volumes will carry a CC BY 4.0 licence, guaranteeing open access in perpetuity. [...]

Kevin Elliott on “The Promise and Perils of Transparency and Open Science” – tenth lecture in the Open Divide series

Ulrich Herb — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 13:30:00 +0000

Dear colleagues,

We (Ulrich Herb, Joachim Schöpfel, and I) are excited to announce the tenth lecture of the Open Divide Lecture Series 2025/2026. It will take place on February 25, 2026, at 5:00 PM (CET).

We look forward to the lecture:

🎤 “The Promise and Perils of Transparency and Open Science” by Kevin Elliott [...]

Save the Date OASPA 2026 Conference - September 21-23 2025, Zagreb

Bernie Folan — Fri, 6 Feb 2026 08:28:53 -0800

Dear Colleague

We are excited to share that this year, the OASPA Annual Conference will be
held on Monday September 21 - Wednesday September 23 at the Hotel
Dubrovnik, Zagreb <https://www.hotel-dubrovnik.hr/> in Croatia. Please save
the date!

Last year we heard from delegates that they found the conference to be a
useful, interesting and enjoyable event where they learned about the latest
in open access and networked with many colleagues, both known and new. [...]

FW: [OPENCAFE-L] A sobering milestone (FW: Press Release: Cabells’ Predatory Reports Database Hits 20,000 Deceptive Journals)

Rick Anderson — Thu, 5 Feb 2026 22:55:17 +0000

[Forwarding this on behalf of Glenn Hampson, whose posts are not getting to the list for some reason…]

From: Glenn Hampson
Sent: Thursday, February 5, 2026 8:11 AM
To: OPENCAFE-L@LISTSERV.BYU.EDU
Subject: RE: [OPENCAFE-L] A sobering milestone (FW: Press Release: Cabells’ Predatory Reports Database Hits 20,000 Deceptive Journals)

Hi Rick, Lisa, Everyone,

For your consideration, there are a probably a couple other explanations for this increase. One is that Cabell’s just started building its resource nine years ago. The number of listings it includes has crept up over time as a function of the hard work it’s doing. The second explanation [...]

Re: A sobering milestone (FW: Press Release: Cabells’ Predatory Reports Database Hits 20,000 Deceptive Journals)

Lisa Hinchliffe — Thu, 5 Feb 2026 13:52:53 -0600

"Researchers/authors" is a much larger group than "faculty" ... in some
countries people have to publish in order to be awarded their degree,
medical professionals must publish to keep practicing medicine, etc.

Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe
lisalibrarian@gmail.com

On Thu, Feb 5, 2026, 1:48 PM Comcast <
000000f8be48aa09-dmarc-request@listserv.byu.edu> wrote:

> Yes agree. Researchers are being fooled or selecting and some company and
> universities are scamming. I’m still not sure I understand growth so maybe
> just not fully getting it. Growth of predatory journals and papers is
> faster or more than legit research output still recently and much more than
[...]

Re: A sobering milestone (FW: Press Release: Cabells’ Predatory Reports Database Hits 20,000 Deceptive Journals)

Comcast — Thu, 5 Feb 2026 14:45:35 -0500

Full message available at: Re: A sobering milestone (FW: Press Release: Cabells’ Predatory Reports Database Hits 20,000 Deceptive Journals)

Re: A sobering milestone (FW: Press Release: Cabells’ Predatory Reports Database Hits 20,000 Deceptive Journals)

Toby Green — Thu, 5 Feb 2026 18:24:39 +0100

At Charleston Asia I attended a session on paper mills and predatory journals run by Tech Press’ John Chen. At the end of the session he pointed out that some institutions (meaning universities) in Asia are supporting/involved with predatory journals as a means of boosting their own positions in ranking systems . . . [...]

Re: A sobering milestone (FW: Press Release: Cabells’ Predatory Reports Database Hits 20,000 Deceptive Journals)

Mark Carden — Thu, 5 Feb 2026 17:02:07 +0000

I think this is a common problem with ‘the academy’ being a bit un-worldly. When the subscription agent SWETS went bust in 2014, nobody in the content distribution industry was surprised, but many librarians were completely amazed, including those that had recently selected SWETS in competitive procurement processes to handle large budgets. Similarly, when used to sell software to librarians, I found that all were very suspicious of salespeople, but also that most believed almost everything they were told by those salespeople. It was perplexing. [...]

Re: A sobering milestone (FW: Press Release: Cabells’ Predatory Reports Database Hits 20,000 Deceptive Journals)

Rick Anderson — Thu, 5 Feb 2026 16:03:16 +0000

I agree, and I think the article Lisa shared points that up as well. For those of us who are more experienced (and/or who are steeped in the culture of scholarly communication) it can be baffling to think that a potential can really be taken in by these journals, but I think it’s more common than we generally assume, especially among students and early-career researchers. [...]

Re: A sobering milestone (FW: Press Release: Cabells’ Predatory Reports Database Hits 20,000 Deceptive Journals)

Rowe-Morris, Morgan — Thu, 5 Feb 2026 15:50:11 +0000

I'd suggest well-meaning researchers duped by the journals as a major income source. I suspect this is especially the case for early career researchers and researchers from less well-resourced institutions. My suspicion is that a large amount of the money going to predatory journals is from people that just don't know any better. Certainly, "how do I know if this OA journal is legitimate" is a really frequent question from our researchers. [...]

Re: A sobering milestone (FW: Press Release: Cabells’ Predatory Reports Database Hits 20,000 Deceptive Journals)

Lisa Hinchliffe — Thu, 5 Feb 2026 08:55:25 -0600

FWIW. Lisa

Why do authors publish in predatory journals? by Serhat Kurt
Learned Publishing
First published: 18 January 2018
https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1150
This study examines the reasons why authors publish in ‘predatory’ OA
journals. In total, 50 journals were randomly selected from Beall's list of
‘predatory’ journals. Different methods, including WHOIS tracking, were
utilized to query basic information about the selected journals, including
location and registrant. Then, 300 articles were randomly selected from
within selected journals in various scientific fields. Authors of the
selected articles were contacted and sent survey questions to complete. A
grounded theory qualitative methods approach was used for [...]

Re: A sobering milestone (FW: Press Release: Cabells’ Predatory Reports Database Hits 20,000 Deceptive Journals)

Rick Anderson — Thu, 5 Feb 2026 14:47:46 +0000

Hi, Brooks —

I have no hard data or evidence on this, but my suspicion is that it’s a mix of factors, including:

*
Money-laundering (I see no reason to doubt that this is one element)
*
A very large and constantly growing number of tenure-seeking authors who may not need to publish “a paper a day,” but who do need one or two more legitimate-looking articles to pad out their CVs, and who see placement in a predatory journal as a quick and easy way to achieve that
*
Unethical researchers and corporate shills looking to create what will [...]

Re: A sobering milestone (FW: Press Release: Cabells’ Predatory Reports Database Hits 20,000 Deceptive Journals)

Comcast — Thu, 5 Feb 2026 09:20:44 -0500

Full message available at: Re: A sobering milestone (FW: Press Release: Cabells’ Predatory Reports Database Hits 20,000 Deceptive Journals)

A sobering milestone (FW: Press Release: Cabells’ Predatory Reports Database Hits 20,000 Deceptive Journals)

Rick Anderson — Wed, 4 Feb 2026 16:29:29 +0000

Here’s a sobering announcement from Cabell’s, publisher of Predatory Reports — to date the most rigorously documented and curated database of deceptive journals and publishers.

The problem of predatory publishing continues to grow, and (in my view<https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2018/08/07/denialism-rocks-just-got-lot-harder-pretend-predatory-publishing-doesnt-matter/>) to be under-discussed in the research library space.

---

Rick Anderson

University Librarian

Brigham Young University

(801) 422-4301

rick_anderson@byu.edu

From: liblicense-l@groups.io <liblicense-l@groups.io> on behalf of Michael Bisaccio via groups.io <michael.bisaccio=CABELLS.COM@groups.io>
Date: Wednesday, February 4, 2026 at 9:21 AM
To: liblicense-l@groups.io <liblicense-l@groups.io>
Subject: [LIBLICENSE-L] Press Release: Cabells’ Predatory Reports Database Hits 20,000 Deceptive Journals [...]

PEN America and DefendResearch.org - America's Censored Campuses webinar - register!

Sara Rouhi — Tue, 3 Feb 2026 13:00:00 +0000

Morning all,

Just sharing a webinar that might be of interest to your communities related to my after-hours work with the DefendResearch.org<https://www.defendresearch.org/events/webinar-series> team and the Declaration<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1hTIfev5Fuxs16Onl7lLlAFBIkwK1nf1dRES_yhgHwU4/edit> to Defend Research from US Govt Censorship.

The group is kicking off a monthly webinar series to educate scholarly communicators and the general public about the dangers of censorship to academic freedom — something many are tackling at home and abroad. [...]

Open Journals Collective Launches Global Investment Campaign to Provide Libraries an “Exit Ramp” from Commercial Big Deals

Pearman, Alice J — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 14:06:44 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JANUARY 29
Open Journals Collective Launches Global Investment Campaign to Provide Libraries an “Exit Ramp” from Commercial Big Deals

The Open Journals Collective (OJC) is proud to announce the launch of its official investment campaign, inviting libraries to secure a sustainable, community-led future for scholarly publishing.

Designed as a scalable and viable alternative to commercial "big deals" and so-called "transformative agreements," OJC offers libraries a streamlined pathway to support a diverse ecosystem of diamond open-access journals without the administrative overhead of managing hundreds of individual agreements. [...]

FW: [LIBLICENSE-L] Open Journals Collective Launches Global Investment Campaign to Provide Libraries an “Exit Ramp” from Commercial Big Deals

Rick Anderson — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 17:03:53 +0000

Fellow Open Café-ers, please see below. I’d be interested in hearing fellow listmembers’ thoughts on this initiative.

---

Rick Anderson

University Librarian

Brigham Young University

(801) 422-4301

rick_anderson@byu.edu

From: liblicense-l@groups.io <liblicense-l@groups.io> on behalf of Charles Watkinson via groups.io <watkinc=umich.edu@groups.io>
Date: Thursday, January 29, 2026 at 9:21 AM
To: liblicense-l@groups.io <liblicense-l@groups.io>
Subject: [LIBLICENSE-L] Open Journals Collective Launches Global Investment Campaign to Provide Libraries an “Exit Ramp” from Commercial Big Deals [...]

ROR Annual Community Meeting Feb 3-4

Amanda French — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 16:10:46 -0500

Hi all (with apologies for cross-posting),

The seventh annual Research Organization Registry (ROR) Annual Community
Meeting is next week, and we have four great sessions that you can
register for now.

*

*ROR Community Update
<https://ror.org/events/#ror-annual-meeting-2026-community-update>*,
February 3, 2026, 4pm UTC
<https://dateful.com/convert/coordinated-universal-time-utc?t=4pm%20UTC&d=2026-02-03>
- In the seventh anniversary edition of our Community Update, we’ll
discuss where ROR is now and where we’re going next, inviting your
ideas and input for the future. We’ll celebrate ROR’s journey and
express our gratitude to the ROR community, without whom we’d never
have come this far. Join us to hear from the ROR team about [...]

State of Open Data 2025 (10th anniversary edition) published today + Webinar

Christina Emery — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 17:14:03 +0000

** Apologies for cross posting **

Dear Open Café members,

The 10th anniversary edition of the State of Open Data report, published by Digital Science, Figshare and Springer Nature, is now available at:
https://team.figshare.com/articles/presentation/_b_The_State_of_Open_Data_A_Decade_of_Progress_and_Challenges_b_/30823079?file=61363966

The State of Open Data 2025: A Decade of Progress and Challenges combines survey data from more than 4,700 responses across 151 countries with global expert perspectives from researchers, librarians and policy leaders, and provides insights into the challenges and opportunities around open research, helping to outline progress and priorities for the next decade. [...]

Repository Resilience Workshop

Meredith Goins — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 09:50:46 -0700

Join Joseph Gum, team member for the ESIP Repository Crisis Scorecard research project (see: https://www.esipfed.org/repository-resilience/), and WDS’s Reyna Broadhurst and Meredith Goins for a hands-on workshop to help repositories evaluate their resilience during normal operations.

WDS calls on all data repositories to join us for this two-hour workshop on Thursday, 5 February, from 10:00 to noon PT | 13:00 to 15:00 ET |18:00 to 20:00 UTC to learn more about the scorecard, begin completing it, and discuss insights and questions that came up during the quiet individual work. [...]

Irish Research eLibrary (IReL) enters three-year AIP Fusion agreement

Melissa Gonzalez — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 16:23:29 +0000

The Irish Research eLibrary (IReL) has entered into a three-year AIP Fusion agreement with AIP Publishing.

This consortium-wide agreement supports open access publishing and unlimited reading across AIP Publishing journals for eight participating Irish institutions. The agreement aligns with IReL’s mission to provide sustainable and inclusive access to scholarly communications and to support Irish researchers in publishing their work openly. [...]

Reminder: Beyond the Ivory Tower: The Real-World Importance of Open Access Today (Thu Jan 29)

Bernie Folan — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 07:57:35 -0800

Dear OASPA member/supporter

This is a reminder about OASPA's next webinar *Beyond the Ivory Tower: The
Real-World Importance of Open Access Today* happening this Thursday January
29.

There is huge interest in this event and we will feature four noteworthy
speakers exploring not just how open access contributes to the general
information environment, but if and how open access can serve as a force
multiplier in this current period of destabilisation and uncertainty. In
short – why do we care about opening up access to scholarship? And what is
the risk of not having this content openly available? [...]

Read & Publish Option from IGI Global Scientific Publishing Expands e-Book Collection Access with Unlimited Open Access Publishing

Savannah Pecknold — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 21:25:56 +0000

Hello All,

**Apologies for cross-posting**

I am very happy to share that, following the launch of the Flat-Fee Open Access Publishing model, IGI Global Scientific Publishing is now offering a Read & Publish option, which allows libraries to license the IGI Global Scientific Publishing e-Book Collection, featuring over 10,000+ scholarly e-Books and 200,000+ peer-reviewed chapters, while providing their faculty and researchers with unlimited open access publishing opportunities in nearly 200 journals. [...]

Chérifa Boukacem-Zeghmouri and Guillaume Silhol on “Legitimizations and subversions of the Open: for an analysis of openwashing in scientific publishing” - ninth lecture in the Open Divide series

Ulrich Herb — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Dear colleagues,

We (Joachim Schöpfel, Niels-Oliver Walkowski, and I) are excited to announce the eighth lecture of the Open Divide Lecture Series 2025/2026. It will take place on January 28, 2026, at 5:00 PM (CET).

We look forward to the lecture:
🎤 “Legitimizations and subversions of the Open: for an analysis of openwashing in scientific publishing” by Chérifa Boukacem-Zeghmouri and Guillaume Silhol [...]

Beyond the Ivory Tower: The Real-World Importance of Open Access Today (Jan 29)

Bernie Folan — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 16:37:24 -0800

*Beyond the Ivory Tower: The Real-World Importance of Open Access Today*

OA advocates proclaim the importance of scholarly information as a public
good. Access to knowledge has been codified in the UN Declaration of Human
Rights (Article 19). But what is actually happening on the ground? *Does it
matter* that we make scholarly research open - including to those beyond
academia? [...]

IGI Global Scientific Publishing Launches Flat-Fee Open Access Publishing Agreement

Savannah Pecknold — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 22:15:20 +0000

Hello All,

**Apologies for cross-posting**

I am happy to share that, after listening to librarian feedback, IGI Global Scientific Publishing has announced the launch of its Flat-Fee Open Access Publishing Agreement model, which enables libraries to unlock unlimited OA publishing for authors when publishing in the IGI Global Scientific Publishing Open Access Journal Program. [...]

Latest OASPA data shows dramatic growth in OA articles from past decades is plateauing

Bernie Folan — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 11:20:39 -0800

Each year, OASPA compiles a dataset of open access publishing output and
openly shares the data. We are delighted to once again have worked with
Delta Think who have helped us by taking on the analysis, structuring and
presentation of the data we most recently collected.

This blog post
<https://www.oaspa.org/news/latest-oaspa-data-shows-dramatic-growth-in-oa-articles-from-past-decades-is-plateauing/>
published today highlights our findings which showed that growth in the
volume of publications from OASPA members in 2024 slowed further compared
with previous years, and is significantly lower than the long term average. As
we saw last year, there is a drop in total output across fully OA journals,
[...]

Open Repositories 2026 Call for Proposals: Deadline January 11, 2026

Joe Kraus — Thu, 8 Jan 2026 22:06:25 +0000

FYI.

A reminder that submissions close January 11, 2026. We are not planning on extending the deadline.

The 21st International Conference on Open Repositories (OR2026)<https://or2026.openrepositories.org/> will be held online June 8-11, 2026.

The theme for the OR2026 conference is: Open to All? Repositories at the Intersection of People, Practice, and Emerging Technologies
Exploring how repositories sustain open knowledge exchange while advancing FAIR principles, preservation, community building, and responding to the challenges and opportunities of emerging technologies.
Our last online conference, OR2021, was held with "Open for All" as the theme. As we look back over the past five years, what [...]

Re: IGI Global Scientific Publishing and Clemson University Establish Partnership Through Open Access Agreement

Savannah Pecknold — Wed, 7 Jan 2026 20:27:09 +0000

Hi Rick,

Thank you for your reply! Yes, that is correct. Clemson University Libraries has entered an Open Access Agreement that provides a 5% discount on APCs for any accepted article within an IGI Global Scientific Publishing Gold Open Access journal.

To benefit from the discount, Clemson University-affiliated authors must list "Clemson University" as their primary affiliation and use their institutional email when submitting their research. [...]

Re: IGI Global Scientific Publishing and Clemson University Establish Partnership Through Open Access Agreement

Rick Anderson — Wed, 7 Jan 2026 20:19:45 +0000

Thanks for sharing this, Savannah.

Looking at the libguide to which you’ve linked below, it appears that the funding support offered to Clemson-affiliated authors under this agreement amounts to a 5% discount on the standard APC. Is that correct?

---
Rick Anderson
University Librarian
Brigham Young University
(801) 422-4301
rick_anderson@byu.edu

From: OpenCafe-l <OPENCAFE-L@LISTSERV.BYU.EDU> on behalf of Savannah Pecknold <00000132dd6182d8-dmarc-request@LISTSERV.BYU.EDU>
Reply-To: Savannah Pecknold <specknold@IGI-GLOBAL.COM>
Date: Wednesday, January 7, 2026 at 1:14 PM
To: "OPENCAFE-L@LISTSERV.BYU.EDU" <OPENCAFE-L@LISTSERV.BYU.EDU>
Subject: [OPENCAFE-L] IGI Global Scientific Publishing and Clemson University Establish Partnership Through Open Access Agreement [...]

IGI Global Scientific Publishing and Clemson University Establish Partnership Through Open Access Agreement

Savannah Pecknold — Wed, 7 Jan 2026 20:14:18 +0000

Hello All,

**Apologies for cross-posting**

I am happy to share that IGI Global Scientific Publishing has established an open access partnership with Clemson University. Through this partnership, Clemson University-affiliated authors will receive discounted APCs when publishing in IGI Global Scientific Publishing’s Open Access Journal Program, benefitting from increased visibility, discoverability, and citation impact for their research. [...]

AIP Publishing Announces First AIP Fusion Agreement with UNAM / AIP Publishing anuncia su primer acuerdo de Fusion con UNAM

Sara Rouhi — Wed, 7 Jan 2026 14:54:03 +0000

Dear list-serv friends and colleagues,

Happy new year! We closed out last year with a webinar explaining our AIP Fusion work<https://aipp.zoom.us/rec/share/EaX57731vGYAXkqg0sRsY4s5g4ARHYqcs3fBeLve0S6lqeZ65UJN7dixcrEu7OU5.6-H5uLwrxO851dY6?startTime=1764773817000>, the drivers, the process, and outcomes so far.

To continue with that update, I’m delighted to share our first signed agreement for AIP Fusio<https://publishing.aip.org/introducing-aip-fusion/>n is with National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). More on that here<https://publishing.aip.org/about/news/aip-publishing-announces-first-aip-fusion-agreement-with-the-national-autonomous-university-of-mexico/>. [...]

Open Divide – Critical Studies on Open Access: All 2025 Talks Now Online

Ulrich Herb — Tue, 6 Jan 2026 13:30:00 +0000

Dear colleagues and friends of Open Divide,

We are delighted to share that all eight talks delivered in 2025 as part of the Open Divide – Critical Studies on Open Access series are now available online. Further contributions are planned for 2026.

📺 TIB AV-Portal:
🔗 https://av.tib.eu/series/1941

More information about the speakers and topics is available on our website:
🔗 https://opendivide.hypotheses.org/open-divide-2025-2026-speakers-and-topics [...]

IGI Global Scientific Publishing and the University of Oklahoma Establish Partnership Through Open Access Agreement

Savannah Pecknold — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 19:27:36 +0000

Happy Holidays All,

**Apologies for cross-posting**

I am happy to share that IGI Global Scientific Publishing has established an open access partnership with the University of Oklahoma. OU faculty will receive discounted APCs when publishing in IGI Global Scientific Publishing’s Open Access Journal Program, benefitting from increased visibility, discoverability, and citation impact for their research. [...]

Zakayo Kjellström on “Beyond Institutional Boundaries: Shadow Libraries as Commons and the Future of Knowledge Preservation” - eighth lecture in the Open Divide series

Ulrich Herb — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 13:30:00 +0000

Dear colleagues,

We (Joachim Schöpfel, Niels-Oliver Walkowski, and I) are excited to announce the eighth lecture of the Open Divide Lecture Series 2025/2026. It will take place on December 17, 2025, at 5:00 PM (CET).

We look forward to the lecture:
🎤 “Beyond Institutional Boundaries: Shadow Libraries as Commons and the Future of Knowledge Preservation” by Zakayo Kjellström [...]

IGI Global Scientific Publishing and Wake Forest University School of Medicine Continue Collaboration Through Renewed Open Access Agreement

Savannah Pecknold — Wed, 3 Dec 2025 16:31:32 +0000

Hello All,

**Apologies for cross-posting**

I am happy to share that IGI Global Scientific Publishing has renewed its open access partnership with Wake Forest University School of Medicine. WFUSM faculty will receive discounted APCs when publishing in IGI Global Scientific Publishing’s Open Access Journal Program, benefitting from increased visibility, discoverability, and citation impact for their research. [...]

AIP Fusion model development webinar tomorrow - there will be Elmo and Star Trek

Sara Rouhi — Tue, 2 Dec 2025 22:59:17 +0000

Hi all,

We’ve got 200+ folks registered but now that I’m finished with the presentation I can guarantee the following:

1.
Live audience participation
2.
Elmo
3.
Captain Kirk
4.
A penguin

I’ll also be walking through the current business landscape for society publishers, AIP Fusion concept and model development, and next steps in our work.

Come for the new business model, stay for the memes! [...]

Apologies for cross post - Dec 3 Intro to AIP Fusion webinar

Sara Rouhi — Mon, 1 Dec 2025 15:26:39 +0000

Hi all,

Greetings from chilly Washington and Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrated.

Just a reminder I’ll be hosting a webinar on Wednesday Dec 3 at 10am ET/3pm GMT outlining the AIP Fusion business model, how we developed it, how it works, and wins/fails.

All are welcome to attend: https://aipp.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1ti4nPA7SzWUdZh4H0-5TQ#/registration

Hope to “see” you there. It will be recorded so if you can’t make it, register and we’ll send the recording. [...]

R2R Conference Early Bird Discount Ends This Week!

Mark Carden — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 10:15:00 +0000

Hello Open Café people

The #R2RConf Early Bird Discount Ends This Week!

The Researcher to Reader Conference (which I chair) is a meeting for the whole community to discuss all forms of scholarly communication, including Open topics.

If you have not yet registered for the Conference, which is in London on 24-25 February 2026, have a look at our great Conference Programme<https://r2rconf.com/r2r-conference-programme/>, including the famous Rick Anderson debate, interesting presentations, an S2O case study, strong panels and a choice of collaborative workshops. Also have a look at the Why Register<https://r2rconf.com/why-register/> page on the website. [...]

Join CEU Press and Opening the Future for a free webinar on sustaining mission-driven publishing in politically constrained environments

Linda McGrath | AUP Germany — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 13:10:10 +0000

*With apologies for cross-posting*

Dear colleagues,
We are pleased to invite you to an upcoming webinar on November 26 exploring how mission-driven scholarly publishing can endure in politically restrictive environments, and how Open Access models can help safeguard academic freedom and bibliodiversity.
Through the story of Central European University Press, we’ll discuss the challenges small and mid-size humanities presses currently face, and the responsibilities publishers owe to authors. We will examine how CEU Press’s Opening the Future model offers a sustainable, community-driven OA publishing avenue that supports both academic freedom and humanities scholarship. The session will also provide a look [...]

IGI Global Scientific Publishing and Mississippi State University Establish Partnership Through Open Access Agreement

Savannah Pecknold — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 20:16:31 +0000

Hello All,

**Apologies for cross-posting**

I am happy to share that IGI Global Scientific Publishing has established an open access partnership with Mississippi State University. Through this partnership, Mississippi State University faculty will receive discounted APCs when publishing in IGI Global Scientific Publishing’s Open Access Journal Program, benefitting from increased visibility, discoverability, and citation impact for their research. [...]

AIP Fusion Cost Per Article analysis and Dec 3 webinar info

Sara Rouhi — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 16:00:00 +0000

Hi all, Happy Wednesday!

As many of you know, AIP Publishing announced a new business model, AIP Fusion, in October. Developing the model involved a 7 month consultation process with a subset of our existing Read and Publish customers on what a new, transparent and “rational” model could look like. After many iterations and approaches, we landed on a simple formula based on institutional use of our services and those services’ costs. [...]

Re: The non-inevitability of a global shift to OA, and a five-point manifesto for pluralism and diversity in scholcomm

Meagan Phelan — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 20:19:19 +0000

Thank you, Rick. I really enjoyed both pieces and shared them widely with colleagues here.

Best,

Meagan Phelan, Communications Director, Science Family of Journals
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
1200 New York Avenue, NW | Washington, DC 20005
Cell Phone: 404-791-2229
E-mail: mphelan@aaas.org<mailto:mphelan@aaas.org>

From: OpenCafe-l <OPENCAFE-L@LISTSERV.BYU.EDU> On Behalf Of Rick Anderson
Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2025 9:19 AM
To: OPENCAFE-L@LISTSERV.BYU.EDU
Subject: [OPENCAFE-L] The non-inevitability of a global shift to OA, and a five-point manifesto for pluralism and diversity in scholcomm [...]

The non-inevitability of a global shift to OA, and a five-point manifesto for pluralism and diversity in scholcomm

Rick Anderson — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 14:19:13 +0000

For those who might be interested, I have two posts up in the Scholarly Kitchen.

Yesterday’s presents evidence against the widely-held assumption that the scholarly communication ecosystem is headed towards a global transition to open scholarship.

Today’s presents a five-point “modest manifesto” for a scholcomm future characterized not by universal openness, but by pluralism and a diversity of publishing models. [...]

21st International Conference on Open Repositories (OR2026), June 8-11, 2026.

Joe Kraus — Sun, 16 Nov 2025 22:00:51 +0000

Hello Open Café people,

The 21st International Conference on Open Repositories (OR2026)<https://or2026.openrepositories.org/> will be held online June 8-11, 2026.

The theme for the OR2026 conference is: Open to All? Repositories at the Intersection of People, Practice, and Emerging Technologies

Exploring how repositories sustain open knowledge exchange while advancing FAIR principles, preservation, community building, and responding to the challenges and opportunities of emerging technologies. [...]

Recording now available: Diamond OA communities-of-practice in action

Bernie Folan — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 09:39:44 -0800

The recording of last week's webinar - "*Diamond OA communities-of-practice
in action: Wayfinders #6*", is now available on our blog post
<https://www.oaspa.org/events/diamond-oa-communities-of-practice-in-action-wayfinders-6/>
.

We are grateful to our panelists - *Femi Arogundade, Jane Buggle* and *Tracy
Creagh* and our chair, *Malavika Legge* for all of their work in advance,
during and after the webinar. We are grateful to attendees for their
active participation and insightful questions. [...]

Re: Follow ups as promised: Links/notes on knowledge sovereignty webinar and musings on S2O

Meagan Phelan — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 17:25:36 +0000

Thank you, Sara. I got to listen to your ACS Publications webinar yesterday and really appreciated the way you so thoughtfully and comprehensively laid out challenges before publishers.

Best,

Meagan Phelan, Communications Director, Science Family of Journals
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
1200 New York Avenue, NW | Washington, DC 20005
Cell Phone: 404-791-2229
E-mail: mphelan@aaas.org<mailto:mphelan@aaas.org> [...]

IGI Global Scientific Publishing and Athabasca University Continue Collaboration Through Renewed Open Access Agreement

Savannah Pecknold — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 21:54:15 +0000

Hello All,

**Apologies for cross-posting**

I am happy to share that IGI Global Scientific Publishing has renewed its open access partnership with Athabasca University. Continuing a partnership that started back in 2023, Athabasca University faculty will receive APC funding from their library to publish in IGI Global Scientific Publishing’s Open Access Journal Program under CC BY licensing, benefitting from increased visibility, discoverability, and citation impact for their research. [...]

ORCA Catalytic Awards Webinar - Novemver 18

Greg Tananbaum — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 09:59:11 -0800

As a reminder, the second round of the Open Research Community Accelerator
(ORCA) Catalytic Awards Program <https://www.orcaopen.org/work/cap> is now
open! Supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the program aims to
stimulate a culture of open scholarship (encompassing open science, open
research, open data, and a range of other open-sharing practices that
promote transparency, reproducibility, community engagement, and
collaboration) at U.S.-based traditionally under-resourced institutions [...]

Recordings from OAI, The Geneva Workshop on Scholarly Innovation

Tiberius Ignat — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 18:42:47 +0100

Colleagues,

Part of the Open Archives Initiative, the OAI events (www.OAI.events) began
in 2000 in the US and, a year later, found a home in Europe. A snippet of
the OAI Workshops' history, at the end of my email. For some, it could
offer an idea of how Open Access and Open Science began to attract
librarians and libraries at least in Europe (well, the OAI wasn't the only
reason, but it was, and remains, a realistic and honest carrier of the
"Open Something" principles). [...]

Re: Follow ups as promised: Links/notes on knowledge sovereignty webinar and musings on S2O

Sara Rouhi — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 17:08:32 +0000

Greetings, list friends and colleagues,

As promised to Rick and the group, I owe some follow up from the last month.

First! Summaries/links to OA webinar on knowledge sovereignty: We actually did two webinars during OA week, one on tech/politics in an OA world and the knowledge sovereignty discussion. This list specifically asked for notes/highlights from the latter. The recordings are here<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNjg__ibTeQ> (for technology and politics) and here<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUNDz3-KaVg> (for knowledge sovereignty). And the webinar summaries for both webinars are here<https://publishing.aip.org/about/news/exploring-the-future-of-trust-in-scholarly-communication/> and here<https://publishing.aip.org/about/news/reclaiming-the-right-to-know-knowledge-sovereignty-in-the-age-of-open-access/> respectively. [...]

Samuel Moore on “Publishing Beyond the Market: Open Access, Care, and the Commons” - seventh lecture in the Open Divide series

Ulrich Herb — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 12:17:54 +0000

Dear colleagues,

We (Joachim Schöpfel, Niels-Oliver Walkowski, and I) are excited to announce the seventh lecture of the Open Divide Lecture Series 2025/2026. It will take place on November 26, 2025, at 5:00 PM (CET).

We look forward to the lecture:
🎤 “Publishing Beyond the Market: Open Access, Care, and the Commons” by Samuel Moore [...]

Fifth CMU Open Science Symposium next week

Nicky Agate — Fri, 7 Nov 2025 11:04:31 -0500

Join the Open at CMU team for our fifth virtual Open Science Symposium
<https://cmu-lib.github.io/OSS-2025/> next Thursday, November 14. Talks and
roundtable discussions on publishing, research evaluation, open source,
data rescue, and (of course) AI, to name but a few, with a speaker list
ranging from postdocs to publishers (and a bonus provost).

Register
<https://cmu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_2wK1KyOgRWG5cdcLryw6zw#/registration>
or
learn more about the program <https://cmu-lib.github.io/OSS-2025/> on our
website. [...]

James Butcher on current OA publishing trends

Rick Anderson — Thu, 6 Nov 2025 23:46:20 +0000

Interesting and concise analysis from James Butcher – hat tip to Roger Schonfeld for hipping me to this report.

I was going to include a pull quote, but there were too many options. Note also Butcher’s link to the current analysis from Delta Think.

https://newsletter.journalology.com/p/the-rise-of-china-and-the-fall-of<https://newsletter.journalology.com/p/the-rise-of-china-and-the-fall-of?post_id=176930388&r=3iaym>

---
Rick Anderson
University Librarian
Brigham Young University
(801) 422-4301
rick_anderson@byu.edu

Re: AIP Publishing discontinues its S2O program

Ashutosh Ghildiyal — Thu, 6 Nov 2025 09:35:23 +0530

. Hello everyone, what I’m hearing is that profit and growth are acceptable
when they are byproducts of the value delivered to core stakeholders —
authors, institutions, and readers. It might be more effective, therefore,
to articulate and emphasize that value rather than focusing on growth in
submissions. This expectation aligns more closely with the mission of a
nonprofit society publisher, and I would argue that the numbers game —
chasing ever-higher submission volumes — can be detrimental to their
long-term health. [...]

Re: AIP Publishing discontinues its S2O program

Juan Pablo Alperin — Wed, 5 Nov 2025 14:02:09 -0800

>
>
> Statements like "The hunt for growth and profit making for journals is a
> scourge on the whole academic endeavour” are reductive and unhelpful, in my
> view. The snarky response would be, “Great. Call us when you’ve changed the
> global research incentive structure." That, too, is reductive and unhelpful.
>
>

This is an email list I'm writing to in the middle of the work day—so you
must forgive the reductiveness—and I think it was quite helpful in
articulating my point of view and generating conversation. As you know, I
have certainly articulated my thoughts [...]

Re: AIP Publishing discontinues its S2O program

Sara Rouhi — Wed, 5 Nov 2025 21:09:35 +0000

Hi all - I have a lot of thoughts here but am cramming to prep slides for this ACS Publications webina<https://connect.acspubs.org/whatnext/?utm_source=ext&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=IC004_ST0000R_T006645_0425_DMA_Open_Science_Essentials_Webinars&src=IC004_ST0000R_T006645_0425_DMA_Open_Science_Essentials_Webinars>r next week. Then I realized — why not make my presentation a direct response to this debate?

So, if everyone is ok with it, I’m going to screenshot a subset of the discussion and use it as a jumping off point. Register and join<https://connect.acspubs.org/whatnext/?utm_source=ext&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=IC004_ST0000R_T006645_0425_DMA_Open_Science_Essentials_Webinars&src=IC004_ST0000R_T006645_0425_DMA_Open_Science_Essentials_Webinars> <https://connect.acspubs.org/whatnext/?utm_source=ext&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=IC004_ST0000R_T006645_0425_DMA_Open_Science_Essentials_Webinars&src=IC004_ST0000R_T006645_0425_DMA_Open_Science_Essentials_Webinars> if you want to spar in real time. I’ll then try to synthesize a coherent summary to share here. [...]

Re: AIP Publishing discontinues its S2O program

Rick Anderson — Wed, 5 Nov 2025 20:38:22 +0000

> I think language is important and on a spectrum sustainability currently can
> perhaps be seen as anywhere between GROWTH <_______________> SURVIVAL.

I agree, and I like the way you’ve laid this out, Bernie. I also think that this would make a compelling topic for a conference session.

---
Rick Anderson
University Librarian
Brigham Young University
(801) 422-4301
rick_anderson@byu.edu [...]

Re: AIP Publishing discontinues its S2O program

Bernie Folan — Wed, 5 Nov 2025 20:26:41 +0000

I take that point Rick but "“scaling or monetizing the journals’ steady
expansion" is not synonymous with sustainability in its true sense.

The community is talking at cross purposes if *sustain *can refer to
survival, maintenance, growth and expansion all at the same time.

I don't mean to dance on the head of a pin but talking from a small
organisation where every € is carefully managed and growth and expansion a
dream, sustainability means something specific to me that differs from how
it was used in other settings I have experienced. [...]

Re: AIP Publishing discontinues its S2O program

Rick Anderson — Wed, 5 Nov 2025 20:17:56 +0000

> Expansion of scholarship overall is not the same as expansion of any single venue.

True, but it impacts individual publishing venues – as I pointed out, not only does it create demand for more publishing bandwidth, but even if a journal decides it won’t offer more bandwidth, the journal still has to deal with the increasing cost of selectivity. (It costs a lot more to review, or even to desk-reject, 200 articles than 100. Maybe not twice as much if most are desk-rejected, but still more.) [...]

Re: AIP Publishing discontinues its S2O program

Juan Pablo Alperin — Wed, 5 Nov 2025 12:02:42 -0800

Rick,

Expansion of scholarship overall is not the same as expansion of any single
venue. A journal can accommodate more submissions through higher
selectivity, greater specialization, or other strategies whose costs don’t
scale directly with overall growth in publishing outside the journal.

More to the point, as I noted in my initial message, covering rising costs
is quite different from having a “path to growth.” Your framing (e.g., “the
bills either can be paid or can’t”) is revealing: the bills were being
covered under S2O, so that wasn’t the issue. That is, the decision to move
away from S2O does [...]

Re: AIP Publishing discontinues its S2O program

Rick Anderson — Wed, 5 Nov 2025 19:23:17 +0000

If we came up with a different word, would it affect the structural reality referred to in AIP’s announcement? When all the rhetorical framing has been done, the bills either can be paid or can’t.

---
Rick Anderson
University Librarian
Brigham Young University
(801) 422-4301
rick_anderson@byu.edu

From: OpenCafe-l <OPENCAFE-L@LISTSERV.BYU.EDU> on behalf of Bernie Folan <000000d50a009cc0-dmarc-request@LISTSERV.BYU.EDU>
Reply-To: Bernie Folan <bernie.folan@OASPA.ORG>
Date: Thursday, November 6, 2025 at 2:04 AM
To: "OPENCAFE-L@LISTSERV.BYU.EDU" <OPENCAFE-L@LISTSERV.BYU.EDU>
Subject: Re: [OPENCAFE-L] AIP Publishing discontinues its S2O program [...]

Re: AIP Publishing discontinues its S2O program

Rick Anderson — Wed, 5 Nov 2025 19:20:09 +0000

I think one reason journals need a path for steady expansion is that scholarship (especially in the sciences) is constantly expanding, and that means both a proliferation of specializations and an increase in volume of research published. Even if a journal were to say “we will never publish more articles than we do today,” it would still have to deal with the review and rejection of more and more content every year. [...]

Re: AIP Publishing discontinues its S2O program

Alison Mudditt — Wed, 5 Nov 2025 18:17:16 +0000

I’ve been thinking about this a lot (and will be speaking to this at the Charleston Conference tomorrow afternoon for anyone who is here!) as the CEO of a mission-driven, non-profit publisher. And I’ve come to the conclusion that we’re often asking the wrong questions because we’re starting with the wrong framing. This probably isn’t true for the large commercial publishers but for those of us in the mission rather than shareholder driven space, we need some radical rethinking of why we’re here. [...]

Re: AIP Publishing discontinues its S2O program

Fotis Mystakopoulos — Wed, 5 Nov 2025 20:13:42 +0200

Dear Thomas,

I understand Juan's point, and I would like to offer a brief reflection
from my side.

The statement mentions that financial revenue targets for 2024 and 2025
were met, but that sustainability was still a concern because S2O did
not provide a path for scaling or expanding monetization. This raises a
question about the logical link: if the financial goals were achieved,
why is "scaling" positioned as the necessary next step? It seems to
imply that a model must either grow significantly or risk becoming
untenable. I also saw somewhere that that AIP describes itself as a
non-profit [...]

Re: AIP Publishing discontinues its S2O program

Bernie Folan — Wed, 5 Nov 2025 18:03:38 +0000

As often is the case, I'm pondering the word *sustainable* and
acknowledging it means different things to different people and
organisations. This gets serious, job losses and acquisitions seem abundant.

After a trip down an online dictionary rabbit hole I think "uphold",
"maintain" and "at a certain level" are where interpretations may differ in
terms of method. [...]

Re: AIP Publishing discontinues its S2O program

Thomas Krichel — Wed, 5 Nov 2025 18:49:14 +0100

Juan Pablo Alperin writes

> The hunt for growth and profit making for journals is a scourge on
> the whole academic endeavour.

I disagree. Growth and profit making is vital for any economy.
The problem is libraries paying for these services. Nothing will
change much until libraries (and by extension, their paymasters in
university management) will realize that academic reputation can
not only be made by producing academic research outputs, but also
by storing, disseminating and reviewing them. Thus the scourge is
outsourcing, not profit making.

Re: AIP Publishing discontinues its S2O program

Juan Pablo Alperin — Wed, 5 Nov 2025 09:15:53 -0800

And why does a journal need a path for steady expansion? It sounds to me
like S2O was working perfectly well for actually sustaining the journals.
Operational cost increases could likely be absorbed with incremental
increases to the subscription price, or by changing the S2O targets to
encourage additional subscriptions. The hunt for growth and profit making
for journals is a scourge on the whole academic endeavour. [...]