We are very pleased to share that University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries has joined the Open Journals Collective. We greatly value their support and commitment and look forward to partnering with them. The OJC is dedicated to transforming the way that academic research is published and disseminated, and the support of UMass Amherst will be instrumental in helping us achieve our objectives of making journals free to read and publish in, offering a viable alternative to commercial transformative agreements, and empowering journals to flip to diamond open access.
UMass Amherst Libraries have a longstanding commitment to supporting and advancing open scholarship. Their Framework Principles for Provider Agreements ensures that their investment in collections is aligned with mission and values to advance education and knowledge through open access and the widest possible use, reuse, analysis, discovery, curation, and preservation of scholarship. We are delighted that they have chosen to invest in the Open Journals Collective as part of their commitment to open scholarship.
Rachel Caldwell, Head, Academic Engagement at UMass Amherst Libraries, said: "The Open Journals Collective represents a concerted effort among libraries and publishers to support Open Access to research and scholarship while easing the burden on authors and scholars to pay for OA. There are many alternatives, developments, and new models in this space and UMass Libraries is excited to be part of this innovative community.”
Tom Shaw, the Open Journals Collective’s Library Engagement Lead, said: “I am delighted that University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries has joined us and I look forward to collaborating with them as we build a community-based nonprofit alternative to the world of commercial academic publishing. We are reliant on investment and engagement from libraries to grow OJC, and I am very pleased that our vision has resonated with them”.
Sally Bell, Operations Manager for the Open Journals Collective, said: "Having engagement from the active community of librarians at UMass Amherst is going to be a huge asset to OJC and I look forward to working with them via our Boards and Working Groups to ensure a wide range of experience and knowledge feeds into our operations.”