Exploring Values-Driven Models for Innovation in Scholarly Communication

The software and service marketplaces have not kept pace with the growth of small, mission-driven, digital-first publishers. While technology has lowered many barriers to entry into electronic publishing, these publishers, including libraries, university presses, and independent, scholar-led presses, have limited options when it comes to publishing platforms that meet their unique needs and align with academic values. With interoperability as a guiding principle, Next Generation Library Publishing (NGLP), is developing a model that combines the values alignment of open source software with the convenience of turnkey publishing and repository solutions. The project is simultaneously building interoperable software components tailored to the unique needs of digital publishers and designing the business and governance models, values-based assessment frameworks, and pilot implementations that will bring our code to life. This presentation describes NGLP’s approach to building a sustainable, values-led open source community to support our interoperable digital publishing stack. We will report on our work to develop a community governance model that encourages service providers to adhere to ethical business practices, contribute back to the maintainers of all components, and provide flexible and cost-effective solutions for small publishers. NGLP is a collaborative effort of Educopia, California Digital Library (CDL), and Strategies for Open Science (Stratos), in close partnership with Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) and Longleaf Services and is generously funded by Arcadia, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin.