Open Access (OA) is reshaping how research is shared across the academic community and beyond.

In the past, the academic publishing landscape has been dominated by subscription-based models, restricting valuable research by placing it behind paywalls.

Publishing your research through OA allows for it to be accessed by readers at no cost, making it increasingly favoured by researchers, institutions, and policymakers. Furthermore, as demonstrated by OA mandates and polices across the globe, the increased accessibility of scientific information is no longer just a preference but a growing requirement.

This shift has significantly changed the role of academic libraries, which have evolved from traditional information providers to key stakeholders within the infrastructure of open science.

In this article, we explore the expanding responsibilities of libraries and place them within the new paradigm of OA.

Libraries support OA infrastructure

For thousands of years, libraries have served as essential platforms for knowledge exchange through collecting, preserving, and providing access to information.

Long before the advent of the internet and digital technologies, the earliest libraries stored written works which were often exclusive to the scholarly elite. However, over time, libraries have become synonymous with ideas of public learning and the democratization of knowledge. These values are woven into the very fabric of OA, positioning libraries as natural advocates for the ongoing movement to make research easily and freely accessible to all.

OA has grown exponentially. Due to this, the responsibilities of librarians have evolved to accommodate the needs of modern scholars. As a result, libraries have shifted from simply storing knowledge to actively creating, managing, and distributing it.

Hosting institutional repositories

As digitalization continues to move scholarly communication online, libraries have undertaken the role of managing institutional repositories.

An institutional repository (IR) is a digital archive for scholarly works originating from a specific college, university, or research institution. They can include, but are not limited to, peer-reviewed articles, pre-prints, theses, datasets, images, and technical reports.

In the context of OA, they are important as they champion accessibility at an institutional level. They allow students or faculty members to ‘self-archive’ their research outputs, making them freely accessible online.

By self-archiving their works into an IR, researchers can achieve Green OA status – an important requirement for many funders who mandate OA. They also benefit both individual researchers and wider institutions by supporting the discoverability and usage of an institution’s intellectual output.

Some libraries also allow researchers and faculty members to deposit software code, multimedia outputs, and open educational resources (OERs) into IRs. Some even integrate repositories with researcher profiles, ORCID identifiers, and institutional reporting systems to understand the impact of research and how it is shared.

Managing transformative agreements and APCs

In addition to hosting institutional repositories, libraries now have important financial and administrative responsibilities in the pursuit of OA.

Libraries have become key actors within the management of transformative agreements:

“Transformative agreements are those contracts negotiated between institutions (libraries, national and regional consortia) and publishers that transform the business  model underlying scholarly journal publishing, moving from one based on toll access  (subscription) to one in which publishers are remunerated a fair price for their open access publishing services”. –  Efficiency and Standards for Article Charges (ESAC).

Each transformative agreement is tailored to its respective institution, meaning they are inherently unique. By enabling authors to publish their work under the OA model, transformative agreements reduce the need for authors to carry the burden of publishing costs.

Beyond managing transformative agreements, libraries maintain a key responsibility in supporting Article Processing Charges (APCs). They also oversee institutional funds, monitoring spending, and guiding scholars towards APC discounts or waivers to address financial challenges.

Ensuring compliance

Where scholars may lack sufficient knowledge regarding funder and policy requirements, libraries offer guidance and practical support in ensuring compliance with OA mandates and guidelines.

They also help researchers navigate dynamic publisher policies, copyright licensing, embargo periods, and other funder requirements.

As a result, libraries have become central coordinators within institutional OA publishing ecosystems, giving researchers the knowledge and tools they need to increase the accessibility and visibility of their work whilst ensuring compliance.

Libraries as educators and advocates for OA

In addition to supporting the very infrastructure which supports open science practices, the responsibilities of libraries has extended to actively educating researchers about open science principles and championing increased transparency throughout the research process.

Libraries often host online guides, training sessions, talks, and webinars, which serve to give scholars insight into various aspect of OA publishing and open science. Examples of this can be seen at institutions such as the University of Cambridge, UK, and Duke University, USA. Topics covered can include:

• Understanding OA
• Pathways for OA publishing
• Creative Commons (CC) licensing
• FAIR Data principles
• Research impact and visibility
• Selecting a suitable OA journal
• Copyright and author rights retention

For early career researchers who may be less familiar with OA, these sessions provide invaluable insight and empower them to adopt OA practices effectively.

Importantly, not all libraries may offer these sessions. To ensure emerging scholars are well informed regarding OA publishing, MDPI offers Academic Publishing Workshops (APWs), which covers the topics listed above in addition to further insight into MDPI’s editorial process.

Learn more about APWs can empower researchers.

Challenges for libraries and OA

Libraries remain crucial in advancing OA at an institutional level. However, this does not come without its own challenges.

OA makes research free to access, download, and share for readers. However, APC costs and transformative agreements can place financial burdens onto smaller institutions, especially considering that the transition to OA is often coupled with existing subscription-based expenses. With constrained budgets, this can be a challenge for libraries.

Also, the added administrative complexity of their evolving responsibilities requires substantial staff expertise and technological infrastructure. Smaller institutions in particular may struggle with limited budgets affecting staffing capacity and training.

MDPI’s Institutional Open Access Program

MDPI’s Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP) helps librarians by working to alleviate their administrative burden.

MDPI’s IOAP was introduced to support institutions and their affiliated researchers in the transition to OA, with cost-effective and easy-to-implement publishing solutions.

By providing simple workflows and flexible agreements which are tailored to each institution’s unique needs and priorities, MDPI is committed to supporting libraries as they make the transition towards OA.

See our article ‘How the IOAP Helps Librarians’ to learn more. Alternatively, learn everything you need to know about MDPI’s IOAP.

MDPI supports institutions whilst advancing open science

MDPI is leading the transition to OA and understands the deeply important role of libraries within this process.

As libraries continue to manage increasingly complex OA responsibilities, MDPI’s IOAP demonstrates how publishers and institutions can collaborate to bolster the efficiency, transparency, and accessibility of scholarly communication.

We’re dedicated to giving you all the information you need to understand Open Access. Our article All You Need to Know About Open Access covers a range of topics.