2025
Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association
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Research Consulting collaborated with OASPA to support a strategic initiative examining the future of open access publishing. The project explored how the sector could shift focus from measuring the percentage of open access outputs to enabling broader participation in open scholarly exchange.
Through a combination of survey research, stakeholder workshops and engagement at OASPA’s annual conference in Leuven, the project gathered evidence from across the international scholarly publishing community. This project identified five key problems limiting progress in open access (inequitable models, lack of funding, excessive focus on research articles, commodification of outputs, and lack of coordination), alongside three interlocking barriers to participation: geographic and economic exclusion, linguistic hegemony, and disciplinary fragmentation.
The culmination of this work was a position paper, which acknowledges uncertainty about solutions whilst providing an honest assessment of what the sector does and does not know, as well as outlining short, medium and long-term goals that will inform OASPA’s strategic planning in 2026.
Working with Research Consulting on the Next 50% project was a genuinely positive experience. We knew this was complex territory, and while we didn’t land exactly where we’d anticipated, the outcome was all the better for being different. The project gave us not just a wrap-up of OASPA’s efforts to date, but a springboard for strategic planning we’re now actively building on. We particularly valued the understanding of the landscape Research Consulting brought and the ability to have an independent partner for facilitation. It was a joy working together, and overall we’re really pleased with the output. Malavika Legge, Program Manager, OASPA
