13/09/2023
cOAlition S, in partnership with Jisc and PLOS, are delighted to announce the establishment of a multi-stakeholder working group, tasked to identify business models and arrangements that enable equitable participation in knowledge-sharing.
Following an open call for applicants, we received over 60 high-quality applications. After a thorough review process, with a focus on ensuring that the group represents a diverse range of stakeholders who are committed to supporting a more equitable publishing business model, we are pleased to announce that the following organisations have been invited to join the group.
Organisation | Representative | Stakeholder Group |
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation | Ashley Farley | Funder |
Cambridge University Press | Kellie O’Rourke | Publisher |
CERN | Kamran Naim | Librarian / Library consortia |
Chinese Academy of Science | Kunhua Zhao | Librarian / Library consortia |
Couperin Consortium | Adeline Rege | Librarian / Library consortia |
eLife | Fiona Hutton | Publisher |
European Mathematical Society | Laura Simonite | Publisher |
Howard Hughes Medical Institute | Michele Avissar-Whiting | Funder |
LIBER | Ruth Mallalieu | Librarian / Library consortia |
LYRASIS | Sharla Lair | Librarian / Library consortia |
Open Access 2020 Initiative | Colleen Campbell | Librarian / Library consortia |
Peer J | Nathaniel Gore | Publisher |
SciELO | Abel Packer | Publisher |
Science Europe | Bregt Saenen | Funder |
The three co-organisers – cOAlition S (Robert Kiley), Jisc (Anna Vernon) and PLOS (Roheena Anand) – will also sit on this group and act as Chair on a rotating basis.
In the original call we had initially aimed to appoint up to 12 members, split roughly equally across the three stakeholder of funders, libraries/library consortia and publishers. However, given the strength of the submitted applications, our final selection resulted in three representatives from funders, five from publishers, and six from libraries/library consortia. While we acknowledge that the stakeholders are not equally represented, we firmly believe that the group is well-balanced and fully capable of delivering on its objectives.
We also sought to ensure global diversity in our selection process, and we are pleased to note that our group includes representatives from Asia, Latin America, as well as North America, Europe and the UK.
The first meeting is scheduled for the 14th September. As and when outputs are created and approved by the group, these will be openly shared.
We would like to conclude by thanking all those organisations who applied to join this working group. Given the breadth of experience and knowledge demonstrated in these applications, we may well reach out to some of them in the future, either to invite them to specific meetings or to request early feedback on any proposals which we will develop.
Roheena Anand, PLOS
Robert Kiley, cOAlition S
Anna Vernon, Jisc