The creation of this European consortium, of this network, is a foreshadowing of the evolution of scientific publication in the years to come
Jean Kempf, director of the University Press of Lyon (PUL), presents the European project, Open Access Publishing in European Network (OAPEN). Six European countries are stakeholders in OAPEN including France through the participation of PULs. Five other university presses and two universities for technology and research represent Germany, Denmark, Great Britain, Italy and the Netherlands. For part of this project, the University Press of Lyon benefit from the support of the CNRS via the TGE Adonis.
Question: The project launch meeting Open Access Publishing in European Network (OAPEN) took place in early September. Can you remind us of the ideas which are at the origin of this project funded by the European Commission, the values shared by the different partners (1)?
Jean Kempf: OAPEN is specifically a project of medium-sized scientific publishers concerning the publication of monographs (“books”) in the humanities and social sciences. The creation of this European consortium, of this network, is a foreshadowing of the evolution of scientific publication in the years to come, namely an increasingly fundamental use of digital technology. However, it is a question of keeping the publisher of his role of true "producer" (as for the cinema): he goes to the front of the project, participates in its intellectual shaping, ensures its scientific validation. Of course, he is also an actor in the technical promotion of the "product" and seller.
The project is funded, for a period of three years, under the eContentplus program, one of the conditions having been the adoption of the Open Access model for the digital version which will be made available on the platform.
Q: Can you tell us the objectives of the project, what are the main expected results?
JK: OAPEN is not only a dissemination project, because in this case it would be enough to transform the paper version into PDF, but digital editing. The technical objective of the project is to create, from the existing, an evolving publishing platform which will be available in open source. It is envisaged to offer it as a publishing service provider, as does www.revues.org (2) for magazines for example. The aim is also to offer a catalog of monographs. The latter will be initiated by a selection made by each of the partners in their own collection. Criteria of quality and scientific interest will allow OAPEN to be a kind of label.
Continuation and end: http://openaccess.inist.fr/spip.php?article191