YOUR GO-TO INTELLIGENCE RESOURCE FOR THE SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING INDUSTRY

Open science efforts aim to make research outputs freely accessible by 2030. Implementation depends on librarians who connect research, access, and infrastructure, and who now also advise on copyright, analyze research impact, and negotiate institutional publishing agreements. Their work influences open science practices locally and across broader academic networks.

Frontiers describes fully open access publishing as a collaborative model with libraries, research centers, consortia, and funders, and outlines approaches intended to align institutional mission, infrastructure, and funding.

Transformative agreements have enabled libraries budget shifts from subscriptions to publication costs but can maintain legacy pricing and opaque negotiations. Coverage gaps may leave out some disciplines, smaller institutions, or early-career researchers, raising equity and sustainability concerns. An alternative emphasizes full open access agreements that are predictable in cost, transparent in structure, and inclusive for all affiliated authors without individual APCs, with librarians positioned as co-designers in dissemination systems.

Funder open access mandates increase compliance work, but institutional engagement extends to transparency and public accountability. Librarians advance these through open education initiatives, data stewardship, and collaboration with research offices. Publishing partnerships can reduce author costs, improve visibility and discoverability of institutional research outputs, and support evidence of social and academic impact—particularly important for public institutions seeking public access to publicly funded research.

Beyond prestige metrics, librarians track impacts such as community engagement, policy uptake, interdisciplinary collaboration, and global reach. Frontiers offering usage and impact dashboards to support internal reporting and discussions of impact. Data from institutional agreements can help justify budgets and strategic decisions.

Institutions may target mandated compliance, lower APC burdens, or greater visibility. The collaboration model focuses on moving budgets from closed or hybrid models to fully open models, co-creating inclusive approaches so all researchers can participate, and developing resources that surface societal impact. Librarians already drive this shift through policy work, open education, repository management, and negotiation; the publisher’s role is to support that leadership.