Q: Who are you, and what is your relationship with Open Science?

Niels Stern: My name is Niels Stern and, since 2021, I have been OAPEN’s Managing Director and DOAB’s Co-Director. I have been involved in scholarly publishing for over two decades, with over 10 years of experience as an independent expert for the European Commission on open science and e-infrastructures, along with several years working with open science policies in an international governmental environment and the library sector, overseeing licensing and acquisitions at the main university libraries in Denmark, including the national library consortium. More recently, I was the Scientific Coordinator of the EU-funded Horizon Europe PALOMERA project, which provided key recommendations to support OA book publishing in the European Research Area and the OA Books Toolkit, from which stems a new Policy Forum for OA Books. This is a standing committee focusing on OA policies for academic books composed of European research funders and policymakers.

Q: Can you introduce your organisations and their missions?

NS: OAPEN is a not-for-profit organisation for peer-reviewed OA books dedicated to supporting the global transition to OA for academic books. We provide services for publishers, funders, libraries, and researchers through three key platforms:

• The OAPEN Library, operational since 2010
• The Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB), launched in 2013
• The Open Access Books Toolkit, established in 2020

OAPEN aligns with the UN’s Agenda 2030, particularly Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 4, Quality Education; 9, Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure; 10, Reduced Inequalities; and 17, Partnerships for the Goals. OAPEN is guided by the Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure (POSI), and its 2025–2028 goals are to:

• Improve our services in alignment with the demands of our stakeholders
• Promote and ensure high quality standards for books in the OAPEN Library while respecting bibliodiversity
• Improve the user experience of the OAPEN Library
• Explore how generative AI can drive innovation
• Build productive partnerships and collaborations with other open infrastructures and relevant stakeholders

DOAB curates a trusted index of open scholarly books, listing over 90,000 titles from more than 750 publishers in 95 languages. All of DOAB’s services are free of charge and the metadata are available under the public domain dedication CC0. DOAB’s trusted network includes OAPEN, Project MUSE, Thoth, SciELO, Fulcrum, JSTOR, and the African Platform for Open Scholarship and Open Edition. DOAB’s 2025–2028 strategic goals are to:

• Make DOAB known and available to publishers globally
• Establish a community of practice for quality assessment of OA books
• Establish DOAB as a trusted source and reference point for institutions and funders in their strategies and policies for OA books
• Make DOAB operationally and financially robust and resilient
• Bring innovation to DOAB services and reduce its potential obsolescence

Q: What challenges has your organisation faced in promoting Open Science within your community?

NS: Academic books have often been overlooked in OA policymaking, largely due to the dominance of journal publishing. Factors like market value, the complexity of book publishing, and the continued focus on print formats have slowed down progress. Books were also not included in early OA initiatives like the Budapest Open Access Initiative. However, we’re seeing a shift in recent trends, with more research funders and institutions, including the European Commission and cOAlition S, adopting OA book policies.

Despite this progress, significant challenges remain, including:

• Ensuring equitable and inclusive global distribution of OA books
• Upholding quality assurance and peer review standards of academic OA books, respecting bibliodiversity
• Maintaining high metadata standards
• Securing technical capacity to manage global indexation and distribution of OA books
• Financing a sustainable operation and governance of community-led infrastructure services for OA books

Q: Why did OAPEN decide to become a member of FORM?

NS: Because we share FORM’s core values and its mission to advance Open Science in research libraries and universities. OAPEN developed in Europe over 15 years ago and has naturally grown and created a network mostly within Europe and North America. Conscious of that, OAPEN’s efforts in the future will include developing partnerships in areas like the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and Asia.

Q: How do you think we can best work together to help both our organisations achieve their shared goals and mission?
NS: OAPEN brings extensive experience in fostering Open Science partnerships, monitoring policies, and developing OA infrastructure, insights that can help FORM strengthen its initiatives in various regions. Also, DOAB, with its vast collection of open academic books, also aligns with FORM’s mission of enhancing accessibility and discoverability. This complements DOAB’s goal of becoming the primary discovery tool for open access books globally, ensuring that scholarship is readily available to all, regardless of location or economic status.

Q: Is there anything else you’d like us to include in the interview?

NS: Our plans for the coming year. This year marks the 15^th anniversary of the OAPEN Library, which was officially launched at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2010. To commemorate this occasion, we’re planning to host a celebratory event with publishers, which will provide a valuable opportunity to reflect on the journey of OAPEN as an organisation and to examine the evolution of the OA landscape over the past 15 years.

Additionally, the European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN) and OAPEN have expanded their collaboration to promote OA to books. As of 2024, the CERN data centre is hosting the OAPEN Library and the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) in its Data Centre. This will increase the operational efficiency and reliability of OAPEN and DOAB. All the details can be seen in the press release.

We are also conducting a technical review to evaluate our current technological environment, including existing infrastructure, systems, and processes. Also, we will be meticulously examining our current documentation to identify any gaps, inconsistencies, or areas for improvement. We aim to develop and implement a set of actionable recommendations to optimize our technological landscape and enhance our overall operational efficiency.

Beyond our current projects, we are also allocating resources to upgrade our present DSpace installation. By transitioning to the most recent version, we aim to achieve several key improvements that will significantly enhance user experience. This is crucial considering the continuous growth in usage and the overall number of readers we serve. A robust and reliable technical infrastructure is essential to ensure uninterrupted access to our resources and to support our expanding user base.