ATGthePodcast 127 - Research Librarians and Society Publishers Working Together to Advance OA and Research

Against the Grain - The Podcast

Today's episode features Audio from a Lively Discussion at the 2020 Charleston Library Conference, "Research Librarians and Society Publishers Working Together to Advance OA and Research." Speakers are Judith Russell, Dean of University Libraries, University of Florida; Rod Cookson, Managing Director, IWA Publishing; Alicia Wise, Director, Information Power; and Gaynor Redvers-Mutton, Head of Business Development and Sales, Microbiology Society and facilitated by Adam Chesler, Director, Global Sales, AIP Publishing.

Large publishers are like fish swimming in the sunlight zone of the ocean: they are very visible to librarians and other stakeholders in scholarly communication. Smaller independent publishers of all kinds also exist and these are like fish swimming in the twilight zone of the ocean: also beautiful, strong, and varied but less visible and less food filters down to them.

In these deeper waters there are many potential OA shoalmates swimming about. Publishers with very similar missions and serving the same researchers as librarians do.

A very basic challenge exists, and this is simply to meet and work together directly. In the subscription world these relationships are typically mediated by sales or subscription agents of various kinds, but exploring OA agreements require more direct conversations about publishing as well as access.

This session will explore what has been learned about building these new relationships and how to make them successful. It will be a first event to share the outcomes of the pilot projects between libraries/consortia and society publishers flowing from the Society Publishers Accelerating Open access and Plan S (SPA OPS) project.

Video of the presentation available at https: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaNFOdWt8jA