Studies on Subject-Specific Requirements for Open Access Infrastructure

The OpenAIRE «Studies on Subject-Specific Requirements for Open Access Infrastructures» highlight the subject-specific requirements to get an in-depth understanding of today’s research infrastructures and future needs.

Executive Summary

This study addresses subject-specific requirements for research infrastructure with a focus on the influences of Open Access (OA). OA is treated in a broad sense covering open access to literature, open data and open science. Considering the wide variety of aspects to be analysed and the early stages of developing a general account of OA infrastructure, the study took a case- based approach and deliberately did not attempt to provide a representative account of research. In the pragmatic approach taken, six partners (institutions and organisations) were chosen to provide their subjective view on OA infrastructure. These partners are considered as exemplars of research and infrastructure institutions in a given subject area.

When comparing the chapters, the most obvious observation can be summarised in one word: “diversity”. On the first view, this subject-specific diversity may appear to be the natural enemy of infrastructure, since infrastructure is about commonalities in terms of global standards, joint facilities and shared resources rather than about differences between diverse subject-specific requirements. Simultaneously, it is obvious that research must be extremely diverse in terms of thematic and methodological specialisation in order to tackle the ever more specific research challenges of the world. Thus, any roadmap for OA infrastructure must address this natural tension field between diversity and infrastructure.

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