OA agreement stories: Mark Robison, University of Notre Dame

Author: Nicole Jackson

When your institution is part of an open access (OA) agreement, what does that mean on a daily basis? What do OA librarians actually do with regards to an OA agreement? In this new blog series, we meet librarians and those in charge of implementing Springer Nature OA agreements from various research institutions. They share their experiences and offer insights into how OA agreements impact their work, the library, and the researchers they serve.

For the second blog in the series, we caught up with Mark Robison, Department Head of Academic Collections and Services at the University of Notre Dame, which is part of the Springer Nature NERL transformative agreement (TA) in the United States.

Tell us about your role in the Hesburgh Libraries at the University of Notre Dame.

Following a reorg, my title as of July 1 is Department Head for Academic Collections & Services. Our department oversees the Hesburgh Libraries' collection strategy, including all print acquisitions work.

What was the primary reason for the University of Notre Dame to become part of an OA agreement with Springer Nature, in your opinion?

As a library, we are working to adopt OA deals with the publishers with whom our faculty publish most frequently. Springer Nature is squarely in this category, and in March 2024 we became part of the OA agreement. The price was also right, representing a minor percentage increase to our previous subscription agreement.

“The primary benefit is to the researchers, most of whom never would have published OA to begin with, but the rest of whom would have needed to pay out of their budgets. In both scenarios, we realise a collective greater good across campus.”

What is your team’s role in managing OA agreements?

The Academic Collections & Services Department and the Electronic Resources Department work together to evaluate, monitor, renew, and otherwise administer the library's OA agreements. When it comes to our Springer Nature OA agreement, we are responsible for checking and approving the requests for verification as they come in. This means confirming that the corresponding author or co-authors of an article are affiliated with the university and therefore eligible for coverage under the OA agreement.

These verification requests are in fact the most significant impact of the OA agreement from a workflow perspective, but this impact is really minimal. While we monitor these requests as a team, two of us are generally the go-to people to approve them. In this context, a good tip I can offer for managing the routine verification requests is to have them sent to a group email account, rather than to an individual’s email account. That way, multiple people can field the requests.

“The OA agreement has greatly increased the campus’ goodwill toward the library, and many faculty have been writing to express their gratitude and excitement.”

As one of the people in charge of implementing the Springer Nature OA agreement, can you share how it has impacted your workflows or practices?

Our library was not involved in our faculty’s publishing with Springer Nature journals in the past, so in that sense, workflows have not directly changed. The OA agreement, however, has greatly increased the campus’ goodwill toward the library, and many faculty have been writing to express their gratitude and excitement.

The primary benefit is to the colleges, departments, and individual researchers, most of whom never would have published OA to begin with, but the rest of whom would have needed to pay the article processing charges (APC) out of their budgets. In both scenarios, we realise a collective greater good across campus.

Check out the first blog in this series, and meet Jeff from Rutgers University. And stay tuned for the upcoming blogs, in which we’ll meet more OA librarians from different institutions, and find out about their work and responsibilities relating to an OA agreement.

Meanwhile, visit the OA agreements website, where you can find more information and resources on OA agreements.

Related content:

• Librarians in the age of open access: An evolving role
• Transitioning to open access: Reflections from three US organizations
• Open access and the mission of the academic library
• Empowering librarians to promote open access
• Open access agreements: Empowering librarians to be OA champions
• Libraries leading the transition to open access
• The Impact of a Transformative Agreement

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