The Open Scholarship Initiative
Working together in partnership with UNESCO to create the global future of open
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Studies

Overview

Missing pieces

OSI studies target issues in scholarly communication where a lack of firm understanding is making it difficult to create effective policy reforms. 

Global

Studies in scholarly communication don’t always give equal weight to perspectives from all parts of the world. OSI studies try to see the global landscape.

Open mind

OSI studies don’t assume there are any sacred truths in scholarly communication. What do we really know about open? What do we still need to know?

Including OSI Policy Briefs

Recent Studies

April 28, 2021

OSI 2020 Annual Report

OSI made strong progress in 2020 toward our goal of developing a workable, global policy framework for open solutions. See the full report for details.
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February 15, 2021

Recommendations to UNESCO on developing a unified approach to open

PDF (full) The need for knowledge sharing has never been clearer and more urgent than today. From climate change to food security, HIV to COVID-19, humanity needs global solutions to global challenges. The vast international community of stakeholders involved in the creation and sharing of knowledge has been responding to this need for many years—researchers,...
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June 1, 2020

Open science roadmap recommendations to UNESCO

PDF (full) Many organizations are committed to improving the future of open science, and many ideas and policies have been put in place to try to achieve this goal. Yet no single agency is leading the coordination of these efforts; there are a dizzying array of ideas about what “open science” even means and how...
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April 20, 2020

Common Ground in open research

PDF (full) PDF (summary) Scholarly communication is incredibly important to modern research—a vast field, where many different organizations, interest groups and experts tackle a dizzying array of issues related to how research gets communicated. These organizations, interests and issues overlap and intersect in important ways, but they most often exert separate and distinct forces on...
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February 5, 2020

OSI 2019 Annual Report

OSI finalized its action plan in 2019 and is ready to begin a suite of initiatives by early 2020. This report describes what's ahead for OSI, and also provides a detailed recap of OSI's deliberations, finances, and other matters in 2019.
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March 13, 2019

OSI Policy Perspective: Plan S & the quest for global open access

Plan S is an ambitious, EU-based effort attempting to accelerate the global transition to open access. While this plan isn’t the only one trying to improve open, or the first, it has generated much interest and discussion. Some in OSI support Plan S as written. Others support it with minor changes. Still others support the...
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November 15, 2017

OSI2017 Summary Report

Executive Summary The Open Scholarship Initiative (OSI) is the world’s only global, large-scale, multistakeholder effort to improve the flow of information within research and between researchers, policymakers, funders and the public. This effort, which is nearing its third full year of operation, was developed in partnership between the Science Communication Institute (SCI) and the United...
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November 9, 2017

Report from the Summit Group

Introduction During the open discussion on Thursday morning there was consensus among the delegates that the formal governance structure proposed was premature. This eliminated the need for the summit group, at least for the time being. Several of those who had been elected (or volunteered) in our stakeholder sessions met on Thursday morning anyway as...
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November 9, 2017

Report from the Scholarly Societies Stakeholder Group

Introduction The 2017 Scholarly Societies and Society Publishers Stakeholder group discussed the various approaches to publishing that was represented around the table. Representatives in this group came from science disciplines and represented all sizes of organizations and publishing arrangements (i.e. small and large independent publishers, and those that partner with for-profit publishers under various arrangements).
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Upcoming

Studies under consideration (pending funding)

  • Journal embargos: Are embargos really necessary and if so, what is the ideal balance between embargo period and open? This study will be done in collaboration with commercial publishers.
  • The global flip: Will this work globally? Some are concerned the flip will only widen the access gap in the global south.
  • Publisher profit margins: What are the actual margins across various actors in the publishing industry (and why does this matter)? This study will be done in collaboration with publishers to present authentic (certified but de-identified) interpretations of balance sheets.
  • Open impacts: A meta-analysis of what we might know so far about the impact of open, and what we still don’t know.