Open and Sustainable Scholarly Communication

To: OSU faculty and staff

From: Susan Capalbo, Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs
           Faye A. Chadwell, Donald & Delpha Campbell University Librarian

December 16, 2020

Oregon State University community members,

For several decades, research libraries like OSUL have struggled to cover the escalating costs of academic journals and advocate for fair terms of usage. We’ve resorted to frequent cancellation projects, pursued collaborative purchases with other libraries, and negotiated multi-year “big deals” in an effort to share costs and content.

Such efforts have paralleled the movement to establish more open frameworks of publishing wherein control of scholarship and its dissemination rests with authors and their institutions. Oregon State University has already established a strong record of championing open access to support the broadest possible access to scholarship produced by OSU faculty and students, a record highlighted by the Faculty Senate adoption of a campus OA policy in 2013.

In spite of these efforts, OSU still faces the challenge of unsustainable journal subscription models as well as terms and conditions that do consistently support the access, discovery, and use or reuse of scholarly output that meets the needs of our campuses and advances not only the mission of Oregon State University but also the global progress of science.

OSU Libraries seeks to partner with an advisory group of OSU faculty to continue on the path toward a more sustainable, transparent and open scholarly communication system. This group, the Open and Sustainable Scholarly Communication Committee, includes members of the Faculty Senate Library Committee as well as key library personnel. In the coming months, we will seek to establish and gain endorsement of principles that articulate what OSU scholars and authors seek from scholarly communication. These principles will guide OSU Libraries in its negotiations with journal publishers, supporting the goal of achieving sustainable and transparent agreements.

We anticipate multiple opportunities for OSU community members to participate in discussions and forums to further understanding of the issues, gather critical feedback in the principles’ development, and endorse the final version of OSU’s guiding principles.

For more information about this initiative, please consult the guide: Open and Sustainable Scholarly Communication at Oregon State University.

These library faculty members are available to answer questions:  Michael Boock, [email protected]; Kerri Goergen-Doll, [email protected]; Zach Welhouse, [email protected].

Sincerely,

Susan Capalbo, Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs

Faye A. Chadwell, Donald & Delpha Campbell University Librarian