Themed Information Standards Quarterly Issue on Open Access Infrastructure Published by NISO

Press release – September 17, 2014

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) announces the publication of a special themed issue of Information Standards Quarterly (ISQ) on the topic of Open Access Infrastructure. As Guest Content Editor, Liam Earney, Head of Library Support Services, Jisc, notes, `2013 seems to have been a watershed for open access (OA). Driven by a number of policy announcements from funding bodies and governments worldwide, the question is no longer whether open access will or should happen, but rather how will it be implemented in a sustainable way.` Earney has gathered in this issue of ISQ a wealth of insights from a wide variety of viewpoints—publishers, funders, universities, intermediaries, standards bodies, and open access experts on where we are and where we are going with a sustainable OA infrastructure.

In the feature article, ISQ Managing Editor Cynthia Hodgson highlights, through a series of interviews with experts in the OA arena, some of the major areas of infrastructure that are needed, including institutional policies, compliance tracking and reporting, publishing tools, new economic models and licensing, and sustainability. A glossary of key OA terms used throughout the issue is included.

The In Practice section describes the OA experiences of both a library and a publisher. Martin Moyle, Catherine Sharp, and Alan Bracey (University College London) describe the research library’s perspective in The Role of Standards in the Management of Open Access Research Publications. The UCL Library is responsible for both the green OA repository and the management of gold OA publications within its institution. David Ross (SAGE Publishing) in A Publisher’s Perspective on the Challenges of Open Access describes the experiences of SAGE in responding to `this evolving, competitive landscape.`

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