LYRASIS Open Access Community Investment Program (OACIP)

OACIP is a community-driven framework that enables collective stakeholders to evaluate and fund open access content initiatives in a strategic way. It brings together investment opportunities in one place and provides consistent information to support informed and principled investment decisions. The program provides tailored match-making between mission-driven scholarly publishers seeking financial investments and entities wanting to support OA publishing aligned with their mission and values.

Focus: Funding for OA Diamond journals - journals that publish immediate open access content with no fees for authors or readers

Geographic Scope: International (56 institutions from 4 countries have committed support as of program reports)

Program Structure:

• Round 1 (2020): Pilot program with 2 OA Diamond journals
• Round 2: Three additional OA Diamond journals:
  • Algebraic Combinatorics (ALCO) - Funding goal: $125,000 for 5 years
  • History of Media Studies (HMS) - Funding goal: $62,500 for 5 years
  • Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication (JLSC) - Funding goal: $90,000 for 5 years
• Round 3: Planned launch Fall 2022

Round 2 Participation:

• 39 institutions from 4 countries connected to 3 journals
• 18 institutions participated through consortial efforts (Colby-Bowdoin-Bates Consortium, Big Ten Academic Alliance)
• $277,500 committed over 5 years by funding community

Overall Impact (as of report date):

• 56 institutions from 4 countries committed $522,535
• Support for 5 OA Diamond journals sustainably for 5 years
• Endorsement by steering committee of Budapest Open Access Initiative (20th Anniversary Recommendations)

Eligible Publishers: Mission-driven scholarly publishers of OA Diamond journals seeking sustainable funding

Key Features:

• Templated annual reporting for journals to communicate fund usage and impact measures
• Formal OACIP Community being created with representatives from contributing institutions
• Strategic, informed investment approach
• 5-year funding commitments

Supporting Institutions Include (2023 Round):

• Big Ten Academic Alliance members (13 universities)
• Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium (3 colleges)
• Additional academic institutions from US and international locations