Advocacy organizations for OA

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This list is part of the Open Access Directory.


  • This is a list of organizations which make OA advocacy a significant part of their mission. For this purpose, advocacy goes beyond providing OA to other forms of promoting OA.
  • Please annotate organizations with the location of their headquarters, the nations or regions in which they work, the sorts of advocacy in which they engage, and their launch date.
    • If organizations have notable OA advocacy projects, please list them under the organizations rather than as separate entries.
  • If an organization has since folded, please include it with an annotation rather than exclude it.

A

  • access2research
    • Focused on the campaign for OA and free access over the Internet to journals.
    • Focused on promoting taxpayer-funded research and OA.
  • African Access to Knowledge Alliance (AAKA) (no web site)
    • Based in Botswana.
    • Focused on A2K in Africa, including OA.
    • Launched as the Africa Copyright and Access to Information Alliance (ACAIA) on November 28, 2005, and re-launched as the AAKA and registered as a Botswana trust in January 2007.
  • African Commons Project
    • Based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
    • Focuses on turning "communities into active participants in the digital economy and to defend, protect, support and encourage the freedom of South African societies to create, build upon and share knowledge".
    • Launched in 2008
  • Akada Network
    • Based in Abuja, Nigeria
    • Focused on promoting visibility in higher education and the research sector to bridge knowledge gaps
    • Launched 2013
  • Alliance for Taxpayer Access (ATA)
    • Based in Washington D.C. Administered by SPARC (below).
    • Focused on OA for publicly-funded research in the US.
    • A membership organization of US universities, libraries, societies, patient advocacy groups, and public-interest groups.
    • Launched August 24, 2004.
  • American Academic & Scholarly Research Center (AASRC)
    • Based in the United States of America.
    • Focused on "research, education, and policy advice promoting access to knowledge" worldwide, and especially in developing countries.
  • Arbeitskreis Open Access
    • Based in Berlin, Germany
    • Focused on promoting science and access to research at Leibniz Association member institutions
  • AusGOAL
    • Stands for "Australian Governments Open Access and Licensing Framework"
    • Provides support for government and related sectors to facilitate open access to publicly funded information
  • Authors Alliance
    • Based in Berkeley, California
    • Focused on representing the interests of authors who support open access policies
    • Launched on May 21, 2014

B

  • Biblioteca Regional de Medicina (BIREME)
    • Based in São Paulo, Brazil.
    • Focused on access to medical information in Latin America and the Caribbean.
    • Launched in 1967. Re-launched in 1982 under the name, Latin-American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information, but retaining the acronym (BIREME) of its old name.

C

  • Cambridge Open Research
    • Based in Cambridge, U.K.
    • A once a month meeting to promote ideas of "sharing and collaboration among academics as well as between academics and non-academics."
  • Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC)
    • Based in the capital cities of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
    • "A network of resource, research and training centers," which offers "scholars and practitioners stable opportunities for integrated research, training and collaboration in the region."
    • Established in 2003.
  • Center for Open Science (COS)
    • Based in Charlottesville, Virginia
    • Focused on "improving the alignment between scientific values and scientific practices to improve the accumulation and application of knowledge".
    • Launched in March 2013.
    • Also see its blog, Open Science Collaboration.
  • Center for the Study of the Public Domain (CSPD)
    • Based at Duke Law School, Durham, North Carolina.
    • Focused on "promot[ing] research and scholarship on the contributions of the public domain to speech, culture, science and innovation, to promote debate about the balance needed in our intellectual property system" and " translat[ing] academic research into public policy solutions."
    • Launched in September 2002.
  • Centre for Open Science (CEON)
    • Based at University of Warsaw Poland
    • Formed as a separate unit within ICM (Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling) to provide tools and advocate for the "OA approach in research."
    • Formed in 2010.
  • ContentMine
    • Based in the UK
    • Focused on freeing up scientific facts, making them available to all outside paywalls.
    • Launched in 2014.
  • Centrum Cyfrowe Projekt: Polska
    • Based in Warsaw
    • English name: Center for Digital Design
    • Focused on facilitating open government, open NGOs, and open culture as a way of increasing civic engagement
  • Commons Strategies Group
    • Launched October 2010.
    • Focused on "advanc[ing] the commons as a paradigm in diverse settings -- both in theory and practice."
  • Communia Association
    • Based in Brussels.
    • Launched in June 2011.
    • Focused on the mission "to educate about, advocate for, offer expertise and research about the public domain in the digital age within society and with policy-makers."
    • Successor to the Communia Thematic Network, launched in September 2007 and funded by the European Commission until February 2011.
  • Couperin
    • French academic consortium that brings together more than 200 members.
  • Creative Commons (CC)
    • Based in San Francisco.
    • Focused on spreading open licenses and libre OA, for all kinds of digital content, worldwide.
    • Launched May 15, 2002.
    • Also see Science Commons, focused on libre OA for research literature and data, launched January 1, 2005.

D

  • Don't Pay Twice
    • Focused on Campaign for OA.
    • Don't Pay Twice is supported by American Medical Student Association and Universities Allied for Essential Medicines.
  • Digital Repository Federation in Japan (DRF)
    • Digital Repository Federation (DRF) is a federation consisting of 87 universities and research institutes (as of February 2009), which aims to promote Open Access and Institutional Repository in Japan.
    • DRF is based on one of the research and development projects, managed by Hokkaido University, Chiba University, Kanazawa University, Osaka University and Hiroshima University.
  • DuraSpace
    • Launched May 12, 2009, as a merger of the DSpace Foundation and Fedora Commons.

E

  • Elektroniczna BIBlioteka (EBIB)
    • EBIB is a non-profit organisation of Polish librarians working for OA.
    • Launched in 1999.
  • ElibUkr Electronic Library of Ukraine
    • The ELibUkr is a nation-wide linked Electronic Library/Knowledge Centers network.
    • Promotes OA and OA repository development in Ukrainian Universities.
    • Supports ELibUkr-OA - a shared national repository for Ukrainian researchers without institutional repositories.
  • Enabling Open Scholarship (EOS)
    • The EOS Board
    • International
    • Based at the University of Liege.
    • Focused on helping universities adopt OA policies.
    • A membership organization of research institutions.
    • Launched as EurOpenScholar, October 2007. Relaunched as Enabling Open Scholarship, September 22, 2009.
  • EPrints Community
    • International
    • Open Access Policy-Making Tools and Guidance
    • Focused on institutions hosting OA repositories based on EPrints software.
  • European Scientific Institute (ESI)
    • ESI is a global academic platform, cooperating with universities and institutions on five continents to organise conferences, workshops and collaborative projects.
    • Hosts one of the largest interdisciplinary open access journals in Europe.

F

  • FinnOA
    • The national site for OA in Finland.
  • FLOK Society
    • Based in Ecuador.
    • "FLOK" stands for "Free/Libre Open Knowledge".
    • A "Free Open Knowledge Society, designing a world for the commons."
  • Force11
    • Focused on transforming scholarly communication, including support for OA.
    • The name stands for "Future of Research Communication and e-Scholarship 2011".
    • Launched in March 2011.
  • FOSTER
    • FOSTER stands for "Facilitate Open Science Training for European Research"
    • Based in Minho, Portugal, but European-wide in scope.
    • Focused on assisting young researchers in integrating open access principles into their workflow, facilitating the adoption and implementation of open access policies for European funders, and increasing institutional support and training for open access policies.
    • Launched in 2014
  • Free Ebook Foundation
    • Focused on the access and distribution of free Ebooks.
    • The Free Ebook Foundation is a non-profit corporation based in the United States, founded in June, 2015, in coordination between projects Unglue.it and GITenberg.
  • Free Culture Foundation
    • Chapters based in universities in the United States.
    • Focuses on undoing "the exploitation enabled by private ownership of technology, media, and communication networks".
    • Launched in 2003. Previously known as Students of Free Culture.
  • Free Knowledge Institute
    • Based in Amsterdam.
    • Formerly, Science Education and Learning in Freedom (SELF), re-launched as FKI January 14, 2008.

G

  • Gold Open Access Infrastructure
    • Based in the U.K.
    • Promotes discussion on "the subject of the technical infrastructure needed to support Gold Open Access to published research papers."
    • Launched in April 2013.

H

  • Harvard Open Access Project (HOAP)
    • Based at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
    • Focused on developing effective OA policies at universities and funding agencies (worldwide), and providing accurate and timely information about OA itself.
    • Launched in the fall of 2011.
  • Hungarian Open Repositories (HUNOR)
    • The HUNOR consortium was set up to advance national open access practices in Hungary.
    • Run by the University Library of Debrecen.

I

  • iCommons
    • Based in the UK.
    • Focused on "open education, access to knowledge, free software, open access publishing and free culture communities around the world."
    • Apparently launched in 2006.
  • International Advisory Group, PLoS
    • Based in San Francisco, USA.
    • A group of eminent individuals within PLoS, focused on addressing research barriers and encouraging global participation.
  • INIST-CNRS
    • L'Institut de l'Information Scientifique et Technique du CNRS, France.
  • Informationsplattform Open Access (IPOA)
    • The national site for OA in Germany. In October 2010, it began offering similar coverage for Austria and Switzerland.
    • Launched in September 2006.
  • Institute for Open Leadership (IOL)
    • Developed by Creative Commons (CC) to "train new leaders in education, science, and public policy fields on the values and implementation of openness in licensing, policies, and practices."
    • Formed in December, 2013

J

K

  • Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
    • Based in Washington, D.C. and Geneva.
    • Focused on "better outcomes, including new solutions, to the management of knowledge resources. KEI is focused on social justice, particularly for the most vulnerable populations, including low-income persons and marginalized groups."
    • Launched in 2006, "assimilating the staff and work program of the Consumer Project on Technology (CPTech), while redefining the mission of the organization."

L

  • Libraria
    • Founded in February 2015.
    • Focused on supporting open access in academic publishing.
  • La Referencia
    • Focused on green OA in Latin America, with support from IADB is promoting the development of digital respositories national systems en the region. Started in 9 countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, México, Perú, Venezuela.

M

  • Metamorphosis Foundation
    • Based in Skopje, Macedonia.
    • Launched Digital repositories website as an adaptation of the “Digital Repositories” toolkit published by JISC infoNet.
    • Launched in 1999 ("as part of the e-publishing program of the Foundation Open Society Institute – Macedonia"), and became an independent foundation in 2004.
  • Mediterranean Open Access Network (MedOANet)
    • Focused on "coordinating Open Access policies, strategies and structures in six Mediterranean countries: Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Turkey."
    • Launched April 5, 2012.
  • Mediterranean Open Access Network - Useful Links (MedOANet)
    • Focused on "coordinating Open Access policies, strategies and structures in six Mediterranean countries: Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Turkey."
    • The Useful Links page provides links to other organizations throughout the Mediterranean countries and Europe.
  • MIT Society for Open Science
    • Student group based out of MIT
    • Raises awareness for open science and knowledge through conferences, meet-ups, hackathons, and talks.

N

  • National Academic Research and Collaborations Information System (NARCIS)
    • Based at the Koninklijke Nederlandse Academie van Wetenschappen (or, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, KNAW) in Amsterdam.
    • Focused on green OA in the Netherlands. Incorporating several earlier programs, including Digital Academic Repositories (DARE) and DAREnet.

O

  • OAK Law (Open Access to Knowledge) Law Project
    • Based at Queensland University of Technology.
    • Focused on OA in Australia, especially copyright and licensing issues.
    • Created February 21, 2006, and officially launched November 29-30, 2006.
  • Open Access Network Austria (OANA)
    • A joint activity by UNIKO and FWF.
    • Focused on developing policy recommendations for open access implementation in Austria, activities of the research institutions, funding organisations and research policies (incl. taking into account international developments; positioning towards the information providers (mainly publishing houses; offering contact persons and source of information for scientists, research institutions and (research-) policies
    • Founded in 2012.
  • Open Access India
    • Founded in 2012.
    • Focused on open access, open data and open education advocacy and developing community-based e-infrastructure.
  • Open Access Implementation Group (OAIG)
    • The closest thing to a national site for OA in the UK, at least at the time of launch.
    • At launch time, the group had representatives from the University of Edinburgh, the University of Salford, Universities UK, Research Libraries UK, the Society of College, National and University Libraries, JISC, the Research Councils UK, the Wellcome Trust, the Association of Research Managers and Administrators UK, and the Public Library of Science.
    • Launched October 28, 2010.
  • Open Access Network Austria Working Groups
    • Formed as a part of OANA
    • Focuses on a wide variety of issues including Open Access policy, financing of Open Access, legal and political frameworks, and publishing models.
  • Open African Innovation Research and Training (Open AIR)
    • Based in institutions throughout Africa, Canada, India and Europe.
    • Focused on investigating "how intellectual property (IP) regimes can be harnessed in Africa to facilitate innovation through collaboration – and to make processes more participatory, knowledge more accessible, and benefits more widely shared".
    • Launched in 2011.
  • Openforum Academy
    • Openforum Academy is a think tank concerned with OA in computing.
    • Openforum Academy was established by Openforum Europe.
  • Open Book Alliance (OBA)
    • Based in San Francisco. An offshoot of the Open Content Alliance (below).
    • Focused on OA books worldwide.
    • Launched August 26, 2009.
  • Open Content Alliance (OCA)
    • Based in San Francisco. Also see the Open Book Alliance (above) and Open Knowledge Commons (below).
    • Focused on digitizing and providing OA to books, worldwide.
    • Launched October 3, 2005.
  • Open Data Foundation (ODaF)
    • Focused on open data, and open standards for metadata, and open-source software for statistical data.
    • Apparently launched in 2006.
  • Open Data Institute
    • Based in London
    • Focused on facilitating the use of open data to create economic, environmental, social, and cultural value.
  • Open Education Consortium
    • OEC is a global community of higher education institutions and associated organisations committed to advancing open education and its impact on global education.
  • Open Education Europa
    • “The main goal of the Open Education Europa portal is to offer access to all existing European Open Educational Resources in different languages in order to be able to present them to learners, teachers and researchers.” - Open Education Europa, About This Portal
    • Initiated in September, 2013 by the European Commission.
  • Open Knowledge Commons (OKC)
    • Focused on digitization for OA. A spin-off of the Open Content Alliance (above).
    • Launched September 2008.
  • Open MENA
    • Dedicated to open governance, data, and knowledge focused in North Africa and the Middle East.
    • Announced February, 2014.
  • Open Policy Network (OPN)
    • A project of Creative Commons.
    • Supports the "creation, adoption and implementation of open policies around the world." Works to help maintain "existing policy frameworks" in order to ensure "effective and long-lasting" open policies.
    • Developed in October 2012.
  • Open Research Exchange
    • ORE is a hub built by PatientsLikeMe to facilitate collaboration between researchers, clinicians, academics and patients.
    • The goal of ORE is to position patients at the center of the clinical process to develop better collective understanding of diseases and new health outcome measures.
  • Open Scholarship
    • Based in Edinburgh.
    • Focused on promoting knowledge and and working practices within the University of Edinburgh.
    • Launched in 2012.
  • Open Scholar Foundation
    • The organization's aim is to "improve the efficiency of scholarly communication by providing incentives for researchers to openly share their digital research artifacts, including manuscripts, data, protocols, source code, and lab notes."
    • Formed in 2013.
  • Open Science ASAP
    • Based in Austria.
    • "Open Science ASAP" stands for "Open Science As A Practice."
    • Provides a framework for sharing projects such as: research, blogs, software, course ideas, development tools.
  • Open Science Federation (OSF)
    • Focused on the advance of open access, open data, and open science.
    • Launched in 2010.
  • Open Science in ICM
    • A project of the ICM – Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling, the University of Warsaw, Poland.
  • Open Science Working Group
    • Part of the Open Knowledge Network
    • A global network of researchers, librarians, students, policy-makers, data-curators, coders, entrepreneurs, activists and citizens who believe in open science, develop open projects, and foster a growing open community.
  • Open Steps
    • An online diary and platform based upon the travels of Marguerite Thierry and Alejandro Corbi.
    • Itinerary includes: South-East Europe, Turkey, India, South-East Asia, Japan and South-America.
    • Thierry and Corbi seek to document examples of knowledge sharing in various environments; among collectives, universities, creative spaces, individuals and organizations.
    • The travel project begins June 2013 and can be followed via Thierry and Corbi's Open Steps blog.
  • OpenSciDev
    • Based in Cambridge, UK
    • Focused on building a research community with a diverse group of stakeholders to help support and enable greater engagement with open science.
  • Oxford Open Science WIki
    • A Wiki from the OKF that is focused on Oxford and Open Science.
    • Focused on a Working Group formed Science and Oxford Open Science.
  • Open Textbook Network (OTN)
    • "The Open Textbook Network (OTN) promotes access, affordability, and student success through the use of open textbooks."
    • Manages the Open Textbook Library, founded in 2012.
    • Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the University of Minnesota, Center of Education and Human Development.
  • OpenTox Association
    • Based in Switzerland.
    • Focused on promoting "the community-based exchange and use of open knowledge, software, methods, tools, data, reference resources, and standards in the scientific activities of predictive toxicology, safety assessment and risk management."
    • Launched March 27, 2015.

P

  • Public Knowledge (PK)
    • Based in Washington, D.C.
    • Focused on user rights in the digital culture, including OA to publicly-funded research in the US.
  • Public Library of Science (PLoS)
    • Based in San Francisco.
    • In addition to publishing OA journals, advocates green and gold OA worldwide.
    • Also see the PLoS advocacy page.
  • Public.Resource.org (PRO)
    • Focused on providing OA to public-domain government information in the US, including the primary sources of US law.
    • Launched in the spring of 2007.

R

  • RECOLECTA, Spain
    • A joint program of REBIUN/FECYT to promote, support and coordinate the development of the Spanish digital repositories infrastructure for open access, dissemination and preservation of Spanish publicly funded research results.
  • Research Data Alliance (RDA)
    • Organized through an international steering group funded by agencies in the US, EU and Australia.
    • Focused on aiming "to accelerate and facilitate research data sharing and exchange".
    • Launched in August 2012
  • Research Group Acceso abierto a la ciencia
    • The Research Group's goal is to become a source of information about Open Access and a forum for discussion and sharing experiences.
    • The portal offers tools for authors, providing information about publishers copyright terms and self-archiving policies (Dulcinea), an updated directory of Spanish Institutional Open Access Repositories (BuscaRepositorios) and an International Directory of institutional OA policies (Melibea).
  • Right to Research Coalition
    • Based in Washington DC, USA.
    • Focused on promoting open access to scholarly and medical research.
    • Encourages student and early-career researcher participation.
    • A division of SPARC
    • Host of OpenCon

S

  • Scholarly Communication in Africa Programme (SCA)
    • Based in Cape Town, South Africa.
    • Focusing on Africa in general, and four institutions in particular: the Universities of Botswana, Cape Town, Mauritius, and Namibia.
    • Launched in September 2010.
  • Science and Development Network (SciDev.net)
    • Based in London.
    • Focused on OA scientific and technological information for developing countries.
    • Launched in 2001.
  • Science Ouverte Haïti Afrique
    • Full project title: "La science ouverte comme outil collectif de développement du pouvoir d’agir et de la justice cognitive en Haïti et en Afrique francophone : vers une feuille de route / Open science as a collective tool of empowerment and cognitive justice in Haiti and French-speaking Africa : building the roadmap."
    • International open science initiative and research project focused in Haiti and French-speaking African countries.
    • Produced open science network, “Réseau interdisciplinaire d'information de d'échanges sur la science ouverte en Haïti et en Afrique francophone (RISOHA)”.
    • Supports online network, le Collectif SOHA.
    • Set duration of January 2015 - December 2016.
  • SHERPA Partnership
    • Based at the University of Nottingham. "SHERPA" stands for "Securing a Hybrid Environment for Research Preservation and Access," though the organization is better known by its acronym.
    • A body which has been active in open access research communications since 2002. The partnership now includes over 30 research-led institutions in the UK.
    • Launched in 2002.
  • Students for Free Culture
    • Focused on advancing free culture, including OA from funding agencies and universities, especially in the US.
  • SURF
    • Based in Amsterdam.
    • SURF is a Dutch higher education and research partnership for information and communication technology. Open Access is one of the programmes.
    • Also see its page on openness.

T

  • The Access Initiative (TAI)
    • Focused on "access to information, participation, and justice in environmental decision-making."
    • Launched in 1999.

U

  • UK Working Group on Open Access
    • This is not the group's official name. The group doesn't seem to have an official name (yet).
    • Focused on OA for academic research in the UK, especially journal articles, conference proceedings and monographs.
    • Announced September 15, 2011 by UK Science Minister David Willetts.

V

W

  • Welsh Repository Network (WRN)
    • The Welsh Repository Network is a collaborative venture between the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Wales to establish, develop and populate a network of interoperable institutional repositories.
    • The vision that underpins the network is to facilitate and encourage the sharing of resources across the principality and to maximise the impact of Welsh research across the globe.

Y

  • Yale University Open Data Access Project (YODA)
    • Based in New Haven, Connecticut.
    • Facilitates "access to patient-level clinical research data" to "ensure that patients and physicians possess all necessary information about a drug or device when making treatment decisions."