Advocacy

The OPERAS Advocacy SIG‘s primary goals are to advocate for open scholarly communication in the social sciences and humanities.  The Advocacy SIG strives to coordinate community central positions for the OPERAS RI and to ensure that the broader OPERAS community is involved in this process. Addressing all stakeholders involved in scholarly communication (e.g. service providers,  policy makers, e-Infrastructures and research infrastructures, funders,  academic and research Institutions), the group aims to give ideas and advice on advocacy actions for the social science and humanities in order to strengthen Open Science in the the European Research Area. The work of the Advocacy SIG has a strong focus on empowering communities to influence decision-making processes. Currently, the group is working on a guide to choosing tools for scholarly publishing.

Visual material from OPERAS Advocacy White Paper, July 2018. Created by Elisabeth Ernst. CC BY 4.0

A brief history

The Advocacy SIG has produced a White Paper on advocacy for Open Access published in July 2018. The White Paper addresses the importance of Open Science for the SSH, highlighting the role of a distributed research infrastructure like OPERAS in advocating for Open Access publishing models. While OPERAS does not endorse a specific Open Access publishing model, the infrastructure partners advocate for publication processes that can meet the present demand for Open Access, transparency, and open source tools in scholarly communication. The scope of the Advocacy SIG has widened: While the 2018 White Paper has ultimately focused on advocacy targeting researchers at different career stages, with the OPERAS-P Delieverable: Advocacy Guide published in October 2020 the target audience includes policy- and decision-makers, both at a national and European level as well. 

The scope of communication, advocacy, and lobbying. Created by Elisabeth Ernst and Marlen Töpfer. CC BY 4.0.

Publications

Advocacy White Paper, version 2018
Advocacy Guide, OPERAS P Project, 2020
How-to-Advocacy, White Paper, version 2021

Events and Projects

  • OPERAS Reviewathon, November/December 2021, Session “Advocacy” held by Elisabeth Ernst (Max Weber Foundation)
  • OPERAS Conference: Opening up Social Sciences and Humanities in Europe: From Promises to Reality, November 2020, Panel “How to advocate for social scienes and humanities, Chairs/Moderation: Sally Chambers, Elisabeth Ernst, Mateusz Franczak, Speakers: Alíz Horváth, Nina Kancewicz-Hoffman, Jane Ohlmeyer, Jack Spaapen, Marc Vanholsbeeck

Contact Point

Sona Arasteh (arasteh@maxweberstiftung.de), Max Weber Foundation

SIG members

Sona Arasteh, SIG coordinator, Communication Officer TRIPLE project, Max Weber Foundation

Aysa Ekanger, Open Access Advisor, Library at Universiteit van Tromsø -The Arctic University of Norway

Mateusz Franczak, Open Science Officer at IBL PAN

Alíz Horváth, researcher at Eötvös Loránd University

Iraklis Katsoulis, EKT

Magdalena Wnuk, Open Science Specialist at IBL PAN