EIFL, a prominent international organization supporting open access publishing, has co-authored a comprehensive report on best practices for open access publishing. The report, published as part of the DIAMAS project (Developing Institutional Open Access Publishing Models to Advance Scholarly Communication), focuses on quality evaluation criteria and assessment systems for Institutional Publishing Service Providers (IPSPs).
Diamond Open Access, the model promoted by the DIAMAS project, emphasizes scholarly publication without charging fees to authors or readers. With the aim of fostering high-quality and sustainable open access publishing, the project seeks to establish common standards, guidelines, and practices for the institutional publishing sector.
Co-authored by Iryna Kuchma, Manager of the EIFL Open Access Programme, and Milica Ševkušić, Project Coordinator for the EIFL Open Access Programme, the report draws on extensive analyses of existing evaluation criteria, best practices, and assessment systems for IPSPs. These resources were collected from international associations, Research Performing Organizations, governments, and international databases. The report also incorporates insights from academic literature on research evaluation of IPSPs, assessment criteria, and indicators.
The report offers a set of recommendations and tips organized into seven categories, which align with the core components of the Extensible Quality Standard for Institutional Publishing (EQSIP). Additionally, the report includes a self-assessment checklist that IPSPs can use to evaluate their publishing practices against the recommended criteria.
The seven categories covered in the report address various aspects of open access publishing: Funding: Topics include transparency and conflict of interest policies, non-profit and collaborative publishing models, and long-term vision; Ownership and governance: Topics encompass transparent ownership structure, community governance, editorial freedom, mission, aims and scope, content ownership, and the relationship between the editor and the IPSP; Open science practices: This category explores open access and open science policies, rights retention, copyright and licensing, research data sharing, open peer review, preprints, publication of negative scientific results, research protocols and methods sharing, open research software, transparency and openness promotion guidelines, and incentives and rewards; Editorial quality, editorial management, and research integrity: Topics include publishing timelines transparency, policies and guidelines transparency, quality assurance, rigorous and transparent peer review, and reader feedback and post-publication discussions; Technical service efficiency: This category covers publishing infrastructure requirements, requirements for online editions of journals or books, and requirements for articles or chapters; Visibility: Topics encompass indexation, communication, marketing, and impact; and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI): This category addresses stakeholders, governance practices, inclusive and accessible website content and metadata, decision-making on content, open science practices, multilingualism, and gender equity.
The DIAMAS project and the report produced by EIFL provide valuable guidance for IPSPs in enhancing the quality and impact of their open access publishing initiatives. By adopting these best practices, IPSPs can contribute to the advancement of open scholarly communication and the promotion of equitable access to knowledge.
Click here to read the original press release.
