Partners in Progress: Publishers and Librarians Support Open Access Publishing

Abstract

There is a tendency to discuss open access (OA) publishing as though it is monolithic. Those of us engaged in the work of researching, preparing, and negotiating, however, know OA agreements are as unique as the community they serve. Open access agreements are created based on local needs, with the input of a variety of stakeholders, and require flexibility on the part of the publisher and institutional client. Open access agreements represent a partnership, and ideally one that furthers the goals of both parties. This discussion between Joseph Lerro, Open Research Business Development Manager with Taylor & Francis, and Rachel Scott, Associate Dean for Information Assets at Illinois State University (ISU) and Editor of Library Resources & Technical Services, explores one such partnership that led to an innovative, social-sciences focused OA agreement. By sharing our experiences as publisher and librarian, our hope is to add complexity to discourse that has pigeonholed transformative agreements. The following prompts and our responses to them frame the considerations we brought into the partnership, reiterate our shared goals, and highlight some takeaways that we hope will be of interest to those newer to negotiating OA agreements.