Present: David Condon (Chair), Beth Harn, Andy Kern, Ann Miller, Susan Breakenridge, Miriam Rigby, Margaret Sereno, Franny Gaede, Mark Watson
Welcome/Introductions: David asked everyone to introduce themselves and provide some professional context for their participation on the group:
- David (Psychology – 1 year @ UO): excited to work on this project as Open Access (OA) is a topic of long-term personal and scholarly interest; involved with PsyArXiv launched in 2016, a pre-print service for the psychological sciences that has really taken off in the last 18 months is now growing by 150% to 200%
- Franny (UO Libraries, Digital Scholarship Services – 2 years @ UO): worked as a scholarly communications librarian before coming to the UO; sees digital scholarship as an extension of OA; also works with the library’s Institutional Repository (IR) called Scholars Bank and collaborates with Data Services; considers OA an issue of social justice
- Susan (UO Libraries, Assistant Dean, Library Administrative Services – 2 years @ UO): has worked in libraries for over 26 years; appointed to SSOA for her financial expertise and familiarity with licensing issues
- Miriam (UO Libraries, Social Sciences Librarian – 11 years @ UO): serves as the liaison to Anthropology, Sociology, Indigenous, Race and Ethnic Studies, African Studies and Asian Studies; has also taken a leadership role as a primary contact for scholarly communications; notes that the flagship journal for Sociology is open access; serving as co-chair of the library’s Open Access Advisory Group (OAAG)
- Margaret (Psychology – 28 years @ UO): is chairing the University Library Committee this year; notes that OA is an important and moral issue for her; intellectual products should be available to everyone
- Beth (Special Education and Clinical Sciences (COE) – 16 years @ UO): says she is a newcomer to OA but notes there is related activity happening within COE; looking forward to learning more; serves on the Senate and the ULC this year
- Andy (Biology & Institute of Ecology and Evolution – 2 years @ UO): computational geneticist and longtime activist for OA; has been sharing pre-prints for over 20 years; serving as the Provost’s appointee to SSOA; surmises that his views may be considered extreme by some
- Ann (UO Libraries, Interim Associate Dean for Collection Services – 12 years @ UO): serving with Miriam as co-chair of OAAG, a library group established to support and provide data for SSOA; notes she is responsible for negotiating licenses, managing journal packages and overseeing the library’s collections budget
- Mark (UO Libraries, Interim Dean of Libraries – 33 years @ UO): grateful that the Library has the opportunity to help with this investigation; the UO has taken some small steps forward in endorsing OA but could do much more as a result of SSOA’s work
Group Structure, Culture and Future meetings: David expressed his appreciation for all the expertise encompassed around the table, and stated his intention to make the most of it. He expressed hope that everyone will feel comfortable speaking up and contributing to the group’s discussions. David said that he thinks SSOA should meet three times in Winter term, in close proximity to the corresponding ULC meetings (if possible). He also suggested a weekly standing meeting with a sub-set of the SSOA membership to keep things moving. Mark will work with Abigail to get the meetings on everyone’s calendars.
Handout from the Chair [pdf]: David distributed a handout and led a discussion about SSOA’s charge, breaking down its main components and reviewing the expected deliverables. Discussion points included:
- The time available for SSOA’s work is shorter than one might think at first glance; it might be worth considering an arc of activity over two years if supported by the Senate leadership
- The UC system engaged in a protracted communication process to build faculty support for severing the relationship with Elsevier; achieving that level of consensus at the UO would be very challenging over the next five months
- The impact on breaking the Elsevier agreement is minimal at present because UC has perpetual access to all the journal backfiles; users are only losing access moving forward, reducing the number of interlibrary loan (ILL) requests
- The main components of the charge might offer the possibility to frame recommendations at different levels of specificity
- The SSOA WordPress site is now operational and can be accessed at: openaccess.uoregon.edu
- The WP site could offer a password protected section for member documents or there may be other platforms that the group could use: GitHub, OneDrive, Google Docs, Microsoft Teams, etc. David will ponder and recommend an approach
- SSOA could consider distributing a survey; inviting speakers; holding information events, etc. OAAG would support the logistics for undertaking these activities
Moving forward: In addition to scheduling for subsequent meetings (in Winter Term), David has suggested the need to prioritize the first component of SSOA’s charge: to prepare a review of the state of open access trends and practices. A draft of this review (including a listing of informational resources) should be prepared during the first half of the Winter term, preferably by the end of January. This will ensure that the SSOA has time to comment and, if desired, disseminate this resource to SSOA stakeholders before beginning to address the remaining components of its charge. David is optimistic that this can be achieved with support from the OAAG.