The presentation will address the various ways in which the German Research Foundation (DFG) is working toward the standardization of cost and other publication metadata in the scientific publishing sector.
It will embed this support in the strategic discussion on open access and address the framework conditions and objectives of information budgets. It also explains the funding strategy...
The Open Library of Humanities (OLH) is an award-winning, scholar-led publisher of humanities research based at Birkbeck, University of London. OLH plays a leading role in journal flipping, supporting the transition of titles away from commercial publishers and returning ownership to scholarly communities. Over the past two years alone, OLH has welcomed 14 journals, including several...
For over a decade, the Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics–a unique collaboration involving over three thousand libraries, key funding agencies, research centers and intergovernmental organizations across in 47 countries–has successfully transitioned key journals in High-Energy Physics to Open Access, while removing financial barriers for both readers and...
Since 2014, OpenAPC has been collecting and publishing cost data on open access publishing from research institutions and consortia. Until now, the infrastructure has been purely publication-centered: contract information was previously only visible indirectly, through associated articles. Given the growing variety of publishing agreements – including transformative agreements, memberships,...
TSOSI, Transparency to sustain open science infrastructure, is a new web platform, launched in June 2025, that aims to broaden financial support to open science infrastructure. This contribution will first explain the context and goals of TSOSI. Its aim is to make support for infrastructures as evident as, for example, subscribing to a ‘publish and read’ agreement. How can we make the practice...
One key focus of the second phase of the openCost project is the development of a generic openCost “internal format”:
A prerequisite for using and integrating the openCost exchange format is to record publication cost data systematically within the institution. The information must simply be available in order to be processed further. However, many institutions are not yet able to record...
This contribution discusses JQuant, a Diamond Open Access journal in quantum science that is currently under development, as an early and non-exhaustive case for examining ex-ante approaches to cost estimation and modelling in non-APC-based scholarly publishing. The analysis is grounded in projected workflows and preliminary cost assumptions and reflects an ongoing design process rather than...
Diamond Open Access is often perceived as a particularly fair and cost-efficient mode of scholarly publishing - free of article processing charges and therefore seemingly “free of charge.” However, Diamond Open Access publications also entail costs, which are covered through a variety of funding models. In the presentation, we look at this topic form the perspective of the DFG-funded project...
The shift towards Open Access (OA) and associated necessities of budget planning and contract negotiations require reliable information on publication cost data. The openCost project supports this by creating a technical infrastructure that enables the exchange of publication cost data via standardized formats and interfaces. During its second phase, the project will aim to expand the...
Since 2021 the [oa.finder][1] displays information on list-price APCs for around 5.000 pure OA journals as derived from the DOAJ and more than 6.000 hybrid journals that come from an own longitudinal data collection. The later increased over time adding more publishers and hybrid journals to the collection. All APCs are converted at the historical spot rates to Euro. This unpublished data...
The working group ‘Systemlandschaft E-Ressourcen’ aims to achieve a better understanding of data exchange processes in the management of electronic resources (including e-journals, e-books, and databases). This is accomplished by systematically collecting, analyzing, and documenting data flows, including cost-related data, to enable academic libraries to visualize workflows, identify...
The systematic recording, evaluation and management of publication costs is becoming increasingly important in the context of increasingly complex open access transformation processes. At the University of Oldenburg, a central publication cost monitoring system and consolidated licence recording in Ex Libris Alma have been established for this purpose. The poster presents the structure,...
Open Library Economics (OLEcon) is an initiative of the ZBW Leibniz Information Centre for Economics. OLEcon offers journal editors support to publish in Diamond Open Access by either helping them to flip their journal or, in the case of a new publication, to appear directly in Diamond Open Access. Existing open access journals can also apply for OLEcon funding. Cost transparency plays an...
Achieving cost transparency in scholarly publishing depends on consistently recording and reporting expenditure data across institutional systems. This poster presents a practice oriented overview of how publication related costs can be managed within the cloud-based library management system Alma (Ex libris) to support auditability, reporting, and downstream reuse. We further integrate Alma...
When evaluating models for the financing of Diamond Open Access publications, the costs, their appropriateness and transparency are closely interdependent topics. More importantly, these are highly relevant criteria for institutions choosing to financially support Diamond Open Access publications. Consequently, the topic has its separate section in [KOALA's Requirements][1] that apply to...
The openCost project is developing a technical infrastructure that will make publication costs freely accessible via interfaces and formats. In the context of the open access transformation, this will enable greater cost transparency.
Due to its research profile (medicine and STEM subjects), Ulm University's publication output has largely been converted to a publication-based logic, and...
At the University of Hohenheim, a comprehensive technical and organisational workflow and cost-management framework for scholarly publishing is being developed, which simultaneously forms the basis of a university-wide information budget. The central instrument is the publication fund established in 2024, which is administratively managed by the Communication, Information and Media Centre...
Several projects in the field of open access transformation share the common goal with openCost of creating cost transparency by focussing on interrelated topics and tasks such as funding, financial sustainability, budgeting, monitoring, appropriate workflows and tools, networking, and promoting exchange. Four projects are particularly closely linked: Since 2019, open-access.network has...
Especially in the context of the open access transformation and the associated shift from subscription costs to publication costs, transparent monitoring of available funds and expenses regarding information provision and publishing activities are paramount for scientific institutions. It is an important instrument to track and regulate cost developments. In Germany there have been several...
