Open-Access-Transformation komplementär zu DEAL: Forum 13+

Abstract

The Forum 13+ working group is an independent committee of experts from German library consortia involved in supraregional licensing, open access infrastructure projects, university libraries, the German Library Association (dbv) and the focus area “Digitality in Science” of the Alliance of German Science Organisations. The group's activities focus on open access transformative agreements. In addition to developing guidelines and standards for modelling such agreements, the group concentrates on supporting negotiation projects that are conducted decentrally and independently by the stakeholders represented in the working group within the scope of their respective mandates and, where appropriate, in teams. Finally, the group also aims to make a strategic contribution to the open access transformation. The Alliance context, from which the group originally emerged, supports Forum 13+ and sees the working group as a complementary and equally important science policy initiative in relation to DEAL, with the Alliance's open access strategy as a common frame of reference. In contrast to DEAL, the work of Forum 13+ focuses on the open access transformation of the portfolio of small and medium-sized publishers and learned societies. The working group is available to these publication service providers as a point of contact for transformation projects.

The article introduces the working group, its members, its working methods and its position in the supraregional context of negotiating open access transformative agreements – also in relation to DEAL. In addition, concrete work results and negotiation projects are used to provide insight into the practical work of Forum 13+ and the specific challenges of a changing publication market.