Building Support for
Open Access:
a comprehensive program at the
University of Pittsburgh
Timothy S. Deliyannides
Director, Office of Scholarly Communication and Publishing
University Library System, University of Pittsburgh
Vanessa Gabler
Electronic Publications Manager
University Library System, University of Pittsburgh
PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference 2013
August 20, 2013
Open Access: key to strategic plan for
Innovation in Scholarly Communication
 Support researchers in
– efficient knowledge production
– rapid dissemination of new research
– open access to scholarly information
 Build collaborative partnerships
around the world
 Improve the production and sharing of scholarly
research
 Support innovative publishing services
 Establish trusted repositories for the research output of
the University
A Comprehensive Program for OA
 Support for Gold Open Access:
– Publishing journals, books and conference proceedings
– Open Access Author Fee Fund; COPE
 Support for Green Open Access:
– 6 global, subject-based repositories
– Local institutional repository and OA Mandate
 Learning and teaching about OA
 Advocacy and support for our OA partners
 Measuring and marking success
Why become a Publisher?
 Incentivize Open Access
 Transform the subscription pricing system that
punishes libraries and scholars
 Provide services that scholars understand, need
and value
 Deepen our understanding of scholarly
communications issues
ULS E-Journal Publishing
http://www.library.pitt.edu/e-journals
 35 scholarly journals published by ULS
 42 additional journals hosted by ULS
(through Scholarly Exchange® hosting service)
 Most are Open Access (CC-BY is standard)
 Based on PKP Open Journal Systems (OJS)
 Editorial teams are located around the world
 Six journals have multilingual content
Added-Value Services beyond OJS
 Hardware platform
 ISSN registration
 Assignment of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs)
 Consultation on editorial workflow and
management
 Advice on best practices in e-publishing
 Graphic design services
 Custom article template design
Added-Value Services
beyond OJS (continued)
 Web-based training for editorial staff
 Hosting of back issues
 Registration with major abstracting
and indexing services
 Web site usage statistics
 Marketing and promotion
 Archiving and preservation (LOCKSS)
 Print on demand (Espresso Book Machine)
Journal Publishing Strategies
 Maintain quality and
academic integrity
 Choose partners carefully
 Rely on self-sufficient editors
 Work smart, not hard
 Keep costs low
 Ongoing monitoring/evaluation of academic quality
Ensuring and Maintaining Quality
 Selection Criteria
 Publications Advisory Board
– Advises on major policy decisions
– Reviews journal proposals
 Periodic Review of Journal Content
 Periodic Review of Peer Review Process
 Assessment of Research Impact
Documentation to aid the process
 Journal proposal form
 About our program (PowerPoint)
 Service agreement
 Author copyright agreement
 Communication protocol
 Web site design brief
 Article template questionnaire
 “Establishing your own domain name” setup guide
 Google Analytics account setup documentation
Innovation in peer review
Dialogic Pedagogy: An International Online Journal
http://dpj.pitt.edu
• 2 parallel OJS sites
• Initial check for scope by
Editors
• Submission is posted
immediately on community
forum for public comment
• Simultaneous traditional peer
review
• Peer reviewer comments are
posted to the public comment
forum for additional
discussion for 4 weeks
• Final acceptance decision is
made by the Editors
• Refereed content is formally
published in a separate area.
Scholarly Exchange®
 http://www.scholarlyexchange.org
 42 additional Open Access journals
 Acquired by the ULS on August 1, 2012
 Hosting service only
 ULS is NOT the publisher and does not provide full
publishing services
 Benefits small journals in low-resource settings
Open Access Monographs an early experiment
 Press Digital Editions
– collaborative project between Press and
Library
– 750 books digitized by ULS
– includes both in-print and out-of-print titles
– all are Open Access
– increased sales for some titles
Monographic publishing for new
content
 Based on PKP’s Open Monograph Press (OMP)
 Pitt participating in early testing and software
development
 forthcoming titles:
– Rescher, Nicholas. Leibniz and cryptography: an account on
the occasion of the initial exhibition of the reconstruction of
Leibniz’s cipher machine
– Russell, Daniel S. The emblem and device in France
Author Self-archiving Repositories (Eprints)
 2001 PhilSci Archive
 2001 Electronic Theses & Dissertations
 2002 Archive of European Integration
 2003 Minority Health Archive
 2003 Aphasiology Archive
 2009 D-Scholarship@Pitt
(general Institutional Repository)
 2010 Industry Studies Working Papers
 2012 Archive for Essential Limb Care
Conference Hosting
 Based on PKP’s Open Conference Systems (OCS)
 Complements other Open Access repositories
 Offered to publishing partners only
 Authors must agree to perpetual Open Access
Pennsylvania Digital Library
 Based on PKP’s Open Harvester Systems
 Uses OAI Protocol for Metadata Harvesting
 Includes digital collections from universities, public
libraries, and cultural institutions
 Content is by, for, or about Pennsylvania
Documents in repositories and journals
60,000
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
FY2000 FY2001 FY2002 FY2003 FY2004 FY2005 FY2006 FY2007 FY2008 FY2009 FY2010 FY2011 FY2012 FY2013
Growth in number of titles published
Subject based archives and repositories
35
e-journals
27
16
9
4
-
2
2
3
-
-
-
5
5
5
2
3
5
5
6
7
7
6
7
FY2000 FY2001 FY2002 FY2003 FY2004 FY2005 FY2006 FY2007 FY2008 FY2009 FY2010 FY2011 FY2012 FY2013
Sustaining our publishing program
 Since July 1, 2012, we charge fees for services to all
new publishing partners
 We incentivize Open Access through subsidies
 We subsidize Pitt publications
 Pitt student publications are still free!
Advocacy for OA publishing
 Founding member of Library Publishing Coalition
 Member of Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity
(COPE)
 Major Development Partner for Public Knowledge Project
(PKP)
 First library publisher in North America to
join the Open Access Scholarly Publishers
Association (OASPA)
Learning and teaching about OA
 Pitt Open Access Web site (openaccess.pitt.edu)
 Lunch and learn series for liaison librarians
– Monthly series of informal talks
– 24 topics on wide range of Open Access & scholarly
communications issues
– Inform ourselves and strategize how we can best talk to our
patrons about the issues
 Outreach to the university community
– Faculty and student orientations
– Elevator talks
– Open Access Week activities
Measuring success: altmetrics
 Altmetrics pilot
project (PlumX by
Plum Analytics)
 Aggregates dozens of
traditional and new measures
 Coming soon:
article-level altmetrics widget
imbedded in OJS journals
http://www.library.pitt.edu/e-journals