OA agreement stories: Jeff Carroll, Rutgers University

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 first blog in the series, we caught up with Jeff Carroll, Director of Collections Strategy at Rutgers University.

Tell us about yourself, your role in the library, and its OA agreement.

I live in Old Chatham, NY with my wife. We are now “empty-nesters” since our adult son and adult daughter are both living in other cities.

I am currently the Director of Collections Strategy at Rutgers University. I have been at Rutgers for five years. Previously I spent 22 years at Columbia University, first in Serials Acquisitions before moving on to collection development.

Rutgers came on board with the Springer Nature OA agreement via NERL, which is a consortium that unites several US universities. NERL has a transformative agreement with Springer Nature. Through this agreement, researchers affiliated with participating institutions – such as Rutgers – are eligible to publish their OA articles in hybrid journals across the Springer Nature portfolio, with their fees covered. The other aspect of this agreement is that researchers can enjoy full access to all Springer subscription journal content.  

This triumvirate of OA agreements has also positioned the library as a leader within the institution for expanding our researchers’ ability to publish OA, and to be in compliance with federal and funder mandates.

What was the primary reason for Rutgers University becoming part of an OA agreement with Springer Nature, in your opinion?

Well, this agreement completes the triumvirate of OA agreements with the three largest STM (science, technology, medicine) journal publishers. Being part of this agreement means that it is easier to direct our researchers to appropriate options to pursue OA publication without incurring fees.

Can you walk us through your core responsibilities related to Rutgers University’s participation in the OA agreement?

My work days start and finish with checking for new articles to approve.  This process is pretty straightforward and involves verifying that the corresponding author is affiliated with Rutgers; ensuring the article type and chosen journal are included in the OA agreement; checking funding caps and compliance with funder requirements; and ensuring appropriate licensing terms and rights retention.

We have a team of subject specialists who support me with regards to my responsibility for the OA agreement. They help field specific questions in their respective areas of expertise (for instance, which journals qualify).

“[The OA agreement] has definitely helped our researchers find expanded opportunities to publish their work OA without paying additional fees and therefore be able to share their work with the world without the typical barriers to access.”

As one of the people in charge of implementing the Springer Nature OA agreement, can you share how it has affected your workflows or practices, or what kind of impact it had on your daily routines?

The OA agreement hasn’t required too much time and effort to bring into my daily work. The system that has been set up to manage approval of article submissions, etc., is very efficient, easy to use, and doesn’t really impact staff workflows much.

Furthermore, response from the team at Springer Nature has been outstanding. For instance, we recently had an article come up for approval from a faculty member who was actually affiliated with a different participating NERL institution. By the end of the day, the team had a solution in place that enabled us to transfer the article to the appropriate institution for approval there.

Most importantly, the benefits to our researchers from Rutgers University’s participation in the OA agreement far outweigh any of the additional effort on the back end (which is minimal anyway). The OA agreement has definitely helped our researchers find expanded opportunities to publish their work OA without paying additional fees and therefore be able to share their work with the world without typical barriers to access.

Stay tuned for the next blogs in this series, 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, check out 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
• Librarians in the age of open access: An evolving role
• 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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