Transformative Agreements and OA Policies in Italy: a Focus on Astronomical Libraries

Gasperini, Antonella

doi:10.5281/zenodo.17749596

Transformative Agreements and OA Policies in Italy: a Focus on Astronomical Libraries

Gasperini, Antonella

Publisher: Zenodo
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17749596
Repository: zenodo.org
Language: en

Abstract

The scholarly publishing market is increasingly shaped by oligopolistic commercial interests, creating structural barriers to the open dissemination of publicly funded research. In response, various actors within the Italian academic and research community have been actively working to foster synergies and promote the free circulation of knowledge. This contribution explores the current state of policies and initiatives undertaken in Italy, particularly by university and research libraries, in support of OA and transformative agreements with scientific publishers. We examine the outcomes of recent national efforts to manage and negotiate publishing contracts, focusing on unresolved issues and emerging trends in the scientific publishing ecosystem. Special attention is given to the implementation and monitoring of publication fees and institutional expenditure, as well as the development of national guidelines for tracking Article Processing Charges. The paper also investigates alternative models of scientific communication and publishing beyond the APC-based paradigm, and considers the role of emerging European platforms. Focusing on the field of astronomy, we analyze how Italian astronomical libraries contribute to, and are affected by, these broader developments. Their long-standing engagement with open practices, international collaboration, and discipline-specific infrastructures provides valuable insights into both challenges and opportunities of the transition to OS.

Full text

LISA 10– Santiago (Chile), November 3-7, 2025 Transformative Agreements and OA Policies in Italy: a Focus on Astronomical Libraries Antonella Gasperini, Laura Abrami, Gioia Delbello INAF National Institute for Astrophysics [email protected] LISA 10– Santiago (Chile), November 3-7, 2025 98 universities and research centers 48 contracts with publishers , 10 active transformative agreements Inside CRUI (Conference of Italian University Rectors) a coordinating group called CARE (Coordination Group for Access to Electronic Resources) manages the negotiations with international publishers for most of the Italian academic and research libraries with the aim to have a stronger bargaining power The aims of CARE: - facilitate the acquisition and the management of electronic resources economically - obtain better contractual conditions and the security in the access and preservation - strengthen the position of the universities and research institutes against the monopoly of the international publishers - promote the collaboration with other library consortia internationally CARE and national negotiations 3 R&P CARE-CRUI Cambridge University Press Elsevier IEEE IOP Publishing Oxford University Press Springer Nature Wiley DIRECT SPIE S2O CARE-CRUIAnnual Reviews DIRECT EDP Transformative agreements in INAF LISA 10– Santiago (Chile), November 3-7, 2025 Transformative agreements in INAF The conditions vary from one contract to another: ØA fee covering access (Read) ØA fee covering Open Access publication (Publish) ØCC licenses, mainly CC-BY ØThe corresponding author must be affiliated with INAF ØManagement of publication workflows via the publisher's platforms ØAffiliation verification by the Approval Manager ØAn annual limit (e.g., Springer, Wiley) ØNo limit (e.g., CUP, IOP) ØCovers only certain types of scientific contributions (mainly articles and review articles) ØMay cover only hybrid journals (e.g., Springer, Wiley) or hybrid + gold (e.g., IEEE, IOP) ØMay include a discount on APCs in case the fund is exhausted (Wiley) LISA 10– Santiago (Chile), November 3-7, 2025 The specifics of each contract are summarized in https://openaccess-info.inaf.it/oa-in-inaf/contrattitrasformativi LISA 10– Santiago (Chile), November 3-7, 2025 Widespread information to astronomers Oxford University Press / Royal Astronomical Society LISA 10– Santiago (Chile), November 3-7, 2025 2023 May – 2024 December : Very difficult negotiation A survey among researchers to gather their opinions and gain support for potential decisions, both by INAF and by CARE. INAF Technical Report n. 314/2024 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12386/35287 https://doi.org/10.20371/INAF/TechRep/314 2024 May : Negotiation for the contract renewal via CRUI-CARE began 2025 January : Unacceptable proposal with an exorbitant cost increase and a reduction in content 2025 February : IEEE started to negotiate directly with the institutions and suspended access to the content 2025 March : The institutions maintained a united position and the negotiation with the consortium was resumed 2025 October : The contract was signed with a contained cost increase, but with limitations on the number of available OA articles The long and difficult negotiation with LISA 10– Santiago (Chile), November 3-7, 2025 INAF does not participate in Open APC due to difficulties in obtaining information on costs, caused by a lack of consistency in administrative management •Decentralized administrations distributed across the national territory •Lack of consistency in the management of budget chapters •Incomplete and non-homogeneous descriptions The importance of analyzing APCs Initiative https://treemaps.openapc.net/ Linee guida per il monitoraggio delle Article Publication Charges (APC) ovvero spese di pubblicazione in Open Access // Guidelines for monitoring Article Publication Charges (APC) DOI: 10.15161/oar.it/143140 https://www.openaccessrepository.it/records/kkgws-c9567 LISA 10– Santiago (Chile), November 3-7, 2025 Key considerations (1) üWith TAs a cost containment (for some publishers even a saving compared to the previous subscription-only model) →the VAT component remains a variable, which can be significant in some contracts üStreamlined administration with a single institutional contact üJoining a consortium allows a medium-small institution like INAF to engage in negotiations with aggressive commercial publishers that would otherwise be difficult to handle independently (although some challenges remain in contract management) üImpact on library workflows: dedicated team, affiliation validation, researcher support (copyright, licenses, etc) üTAs have encouraged researchers to publish in OA LISA 10– Santiago (Chile), November 3-7, 2025 üNeed and importance of a continuous monitoring of publishing and reading data