OA.Works

Background: OA.Works was started by students who wanted to make research available to everyone and worked closely with libraries to build the tools to make that happen. Originally known as the Open Access Button in 2013, it has expanded with the support of foundations and libraries to become OA.Works and now includes OA.Report and ShareYourPaper.

Mission: Its focus is on making open access easy and equitable by providing free, open-source tools. OA.Works’ vision is for a just and kind information age where the knowledge ecosystem reduces inequality and protects human rights by opening up how research is shared.

Community over Commercialization:

“For us, Community over Commercialization involves carefully thinking through what makes sense for the community we’re trying to serve, not following the default, which is designed to extract a profit.”

“Scholarship is about trying to discover as much as we can and benefit as many people as we can. Commercial models are not compatible with that.

“We want it to be easy to do open scholarship in a way that is equitable, that doesn't put up barriers like APCs.

“Community over commercialization is embedded in every aspect of our work—in our governance, the way we're organizationally structured as a nonprofit—we’re not obligated not to make a bunch of money for our shareholders, but instead to advance the mission.”

“It’s important for us to have a board that is composed of the library community and people who are joining us in the fight for open knowledge, rather than shareholders and investors. It's important for us structurally to be transparent with the community, to share how the organization works, where our money comes from, and what our interests are. With our business model, it's really important for us to think about how we optimize not for making money, but for making change.”

“We work in service of librarians and open knowledge advocates who are the owners of the work and of the organization. They have the ultimate authority over what we do. We have structured our governance so that they are able to exercise that power.”

-Joe McArthur, co-founder, OA.Works.