The OAPEN Open Access Books Toolkit – An Easy-to-use Toolkit Supporting Research Managers in the UK

Within the UK, there is increasing interest in and uptake of OA book publishing amongst authors as commercial, scholar-led and university presses increasingly offer OA book publishing options for its authors. In parallel, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and its constituents are considering OA for books as announced in its 2018 OA Policy Review. While OA book publishing is on the rise, a number of challenges persist, such as a lack of awareness and misconceptions about OA publishing amongst authors. To help authors better understand OA for books and increase trust in OA book publishing, OAPEN has created a brand new free online resource for book authors: The OAPEN Open Access Books Toolkit. This toolkit provides reliable and easy-to-find information, relevant both for researchers and those supporting researchers. It offers guidance at different stages of the research life cycle, such as planning and funding and publishing options. Moreover, this toolkit includes guidance on how research organisations support authors and it serves as a practical tool, which can be easily incorporated into local resources – all the more essential due to a shift to digital for researcher support services as a result of Covid-1

A randomised comparison of the effect of haemodynamic monitoring with CardioMEMS in addition to standard care on quality of life and hospitalisations in patients with chronic heart failure: Design and rationale of the MONITOR HF multicentre randomised clinical trial

Background: Assessing haemodynamic congestion based on filling pressures instead of clinical congestion can be a way to further improve quality of life (QoL) and clinical outcome by intervening before symptoms or weight gain occur in heart failure (HF) patients. The clinical efficacy of remote monitoring of pulmonary artery (PA) pressures (CardioMEMS; Abbott Inc., Atlanta, GA, USA) has been demonstrated in the USA. Currently, the PA sensor is not reimbursed in the European Union as its benefit when applied in addition to standard HF care is unknown in Western European countries, including the Netherlands. Aims: To demonstrate the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of haemodynamic PA monitoring in addition to contemporary standard HF care in a high-quality Western European health care system. Methods: The current study is a prospective, multi-centre, randomised clinical trial in 340 patients with chronic HF (New York Heart Association functional class III) randomised to HF care including remote monitoring with the CardioMEMS PA sensor or standard HF care alone. Eligible patients have at least one hospitalisation for HF in 12 months before enrolment and will be randomised in a 1:1 ratio. Minimum follow-up will be 1 year. The primary endpoint is the change in QoL as measured by the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ). Secondary endpoints are the number of HF hospital admissions and changes in health status assessed by EQ-5D-5L questionnaire including healt

Crowd-funding the Open Science and Open Access Infrastructure: Reports from the Field 1/2

As part of the 2020 Charleston Conference we participated in a, virtual, Lively Discussion organised by SCOSS and moderated by Vanessa Proudman (SCOSS). During this session, Eelco Ferwerda (DOAB / OAPEN) together with Lars Bjørnshauge (DOAJ), Kevin Stranack (PKP) and Silvio Peroni (OpenCitations) shared their reports from the field forming the basis for an exciting conversation around the crowd-funding of Open Science and Open Access infrastructure. This blog post is a short summary of this s..

OA Week 2020 Interview: the Dutch Research Council (NWO) funding for Open Access Books

The OAPEN Library is a partner of the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and provides a quality hosting environment for all peer-reviewed academic books, book chapters and collected volumes which are the result of or report on research funded partly or in whole by NWO and are primarily aimed at an academic reading audience. The interview below discusses the new funding scheme for Open Access books introduced by the NWO in June 2020. The first two books financed through this new funding scheme can b..

Scholar-led open access book publishing in Linguistics - an interview with Language Science Press

Language Science Press (LangSci) is a scholarly-led open access book publisher in Linguistics. Initiated in 2012 by academics for academics, the press fully embraces new publishing possibilities and offers open access book publishing to its authors, free of any charges. Rooted within the field and with an active and involved researcher community, LangSci has published well over 120 open access books thus far and continues to publish around 30 books per annum. To learn more about the press and..

OPERAS-P and OASPA workshop report: innovative business models for OA books

This blog post describes the ‘innovative business models for open access book publishing – 6 approaches in Europe’ workshop that took place on April 7th, 2021 (please scroll down for the video). Together with the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA), OPERAS is hosting a series of three European workshops ((While these three workshops focus on innovative business models and approaches used within Europe, we would like to emphasise similar innovative business models have..

International Open Access Week interview: NWO-funded book editor Janneke van Bergen

Since the start of our collaboration with NWO – The Dutch Research Council, the OAPEN Library has seen the NWO collection grow, now containing almost 200 titles. To celebrate Open Access Week, OAPEN asked 3 authors/editors of books arising from NWO-funding to share their experiences and views, kicking off with Janneke van Bergen. Janneke van Bergen is a landscape architect and PhD researcher at the TU Delft. Over the past decade she worked in the field of water and infrastructure, including..

Empowering universities and researchers: Two practical toolkits for New University Presses and Open Access Book Publishing

The landscape is evolving rapidly for open access books. In 2020 the community began to realise a transition to open access for books by establishing new initiatives, infrastructures and networks in an effort to create sustainable and meaningful change. As part of this work, two open access toolkits were developed -- one by the OAPEN Foundation and one by Jisc -- to offer practical support and guidance to the community. The OAPEN Open Access Books Toolkit aims to help authors better understand OA for books, increase trust in OA book publishing, provide reliable and easy-to-find answers to questions from authors. The Jisc open access toolkit aims to support New University Presses and library-led publishing. The toolkit includes advice and guidance on all aspects of the publications workflow The two toolkits are free-to-access and include articles, each written by an international group of experts. They have been developed in parallel in order to complement each other and to give relevant information and consistent information to their communities. These two toolkits offer individuals and organisations with practical guides, tools, expert information and answers to many questions - enabling their communities to thrive. This session will focus on the lessons we have learned since the launch of the toolkits in the autumn of 2020, challenges we faced along the way, their impact and future plans

Accuracy of Optical Coherence Tomography for Subtyping Basal Cell Carcinoma: Using Histopathology of Biopsy and Entire Lesion as Reference Standard

Abstract is missing (Short communication