Nordic Open Access Forum
Meeting time: Friday, October 23, 2020
Meeting address: https://helsinki.zoom.us/j/65911537266?pwd=UitZTjFGbTRCMloxSnU3YURodjhodz09
Participants: Dorte Andersen, Joanna Ball, Karin Byström, Mette Detlevsen, Jan Erik Frantsvåg, Karen Hytteballe Ibanez, Jyrki Ilva, Nina Karlstrøm, Riitta Koikkalainen, Petra Lachouani, Camilla Lindelöw, Jessica Lindholm, Dom Mitchell, Pekka Olsbo, Sara Parmhed, Janne Pölönen, Niels Stern, Michael Svendsen, Sami Syrjämäki, Johanna Säll, Jesper Boserup Thestrup, Timo Vilén, Katarina Wiberg
Time | Topic | Description | |
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1 | 15 min | Welcome and introductions |
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2 | 60 min | Country updates | A brief overview of the OA situation, current plans and advocacy efforts in each of the Nordic countries (10 min each) |
3 | 15 min | Short updates on other initiatives | (5 min each)
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4 | 30 min | Future plans for NOAF and Nordic co-operation |
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5 | (if time allows) | Any other business |
Jyrki Ilva opened the meeting. There was a round of introductions.
Denmark (see the presentation slides)
Finland (see the presentation slides)
Norway (see the presentation slides)
Sweden: Camilla Lindelöw gave an update on Swedish situation. There is a research bill coming up. The Royal Library is currently responsible for advancing open access for publications, the Swedish Research Council for the research data.
Due to Plan S, funders have become much more active than in the past. Three of the funders are now Coalition S members, and there's a high-level stakeholder group, in which the Royal Library is represented. The funders are updating their OA terms. There is still discussion on a number of issues, including funding for OA publishers, monitoring of immediate OA and the role of transformative agreements in this. There will be a journal checker tool, which will be widely used in the universities.
There is also ongoing work for building a national platform for journals, but no funding system so far. There's also a discussion on what to do with books and book chapters.
The Royal Library itself is going through a re-organization. One of the aims in this is to find out new ways to work with open science issues.
Katarina Wiberg noted that Royal Library is applying for Operas membership. There is also ongoing co-operation with Wikipedia and activity with schools. Jessica Lindholm highlighted a number of grassroots efforts, including a new network for OA people, with a mailing list and monthly meetings. Several universities are now looking at their own OA policies, which should not to be just devised by libraries and signed by vice-chancellors but also aligned with how the researchers themselves see these issues.
DOAJ (see the presentation slides)
Dominic Mitchell gave a brief update on the current activities at DOAJ.
Helsinki Initiative (see the presentation slides)
Janne Pölönen encouraged the participants to sign the initiative and try to get their home organizations to do it as well.
Nordic COPIM workshop
Niels Stern summarized the outcomes of a recent Nordic workshop.
COPIM has been set up to create models for co-operation between libraries and publishers in support of OA. Libraries can pool their money to a common funding model which would support open infrastructures. Rupert Gatti has described this as a "book club". The publishers would provide services (like MARC records for their publications), and there would be more transparency on how the publishers work and how the funds are distributed. However, small scholar-led publishers are often at an disadvantage in working with library consortia, which are used to negotiating with big actors; what could be done to provide better support for small initiatives?
Jyrki Ilva noted that NOAF has been largely inactive for the last 2-3 years, and asked whether it should be continued as previously or whether it would be better to figure out new ways to organize Nordic co-operation in this area.
Niels Stern added that NOAF was founded in 2012 after a Nordbib project had ended, to make sure that the participants wouldn't lose contact with each other. The meetings were kept informal, without much of bureaucracy, and everyone was welcome to join. There was a mailing list and in-person meetings were organized twice a year, often in connection with another event.
The participants agreed that it is a good idea to share what each of us is doing, since we are all dealing with similar issues. It was noted that an on-line meeting like this works fine for this purpose, especially now that it's not possible to meet in person.
Michael Svendsen volunteered to organize the next meeting with his Danish colleagues.
Jan Erik Frantsvåg mentioned the upcoming virtual Munin conference. He also noted that many of the reports heard in this meeting would provide excellent material for an article in Nordic Perspectives on Open Science.