Summary

Work package (WP) 1 coordinates the SeDOA project and establishes the governance and communication structure. The core elements for external and internal project communication are the SeDOA Office, the spokesperson and the Steering Committee.

The SeDOA Office is represented by three consortium members: ULB Darmstadt, HU Berlin and MWS Bonn. As a single point of contact, the SeDOA Office provides a simple, central point of contact for all services and distributes tasks to the relevant WPs.

Communication activities are supported by a knowledge base (KB) to be developed using the KB of the project “Creating a Robust Accessible Federated Technology for Open Access – CRAFT-OA”. Both the KB and the ticket system are provided by the SUB Hamburg.

The members of the Steering Committee are made up of the organisations responsible for the five project facets, representatives of the SeDOA Office and one person representing the University Publishers Working Group.
The Steering Committee is responsible for strategic decisions regarding the development and operation of SeDOA. The Steering Committee is advised by the Stakeholder and International Advisory Board on strategy and project development.
In its function as the strategic part of SeDOA, the Steering Committee discusses the results of the responsible APs and coordinates network activities. The APS are tasked with drafting position papers or statements, which are published in the service of the Communities of Practice.

Within the framework of the Diamond Open Access Distribution Hub, SeDOA acts as a central link for Diamond Open Access services: after initial consultation, journals, book series or individual publication projects are referred to suitable Diamond OA publication services in Germany and abroad. Through a series of required quality standards, SeDOA will thus strengthen existing Diamond OA publication venues and help to increase the quality of Diamond OA providers, regardless of their membership in the consortium.

Provision of publication services: For publications that cannot be referred to existing services, SeDOA offers publication services for Diamond Open Access journals and books. This also includes advice on indexing in relevant databases (DOAJ, DOAB, WoS, Scopus, Dimensions, OpenAlex, etc.) and support with the corresponding processes. Finally, this work package also includes the provision and referral of long-term archiving options. To achieve this, experienced project partners will make their current services available to a wider audience.

Since the underlying infrastructures require a long-term commitment, the editorial teams are advised that the financing modalities may change after the DFG project has ended, e.g. in the form of a fee-based membership model for institutions. 

Expansion of the scope of services: In addition to providing basic publication services, SeDOA will also develop improvements. In the first funding phase, the focus will be on three areas in particular:

1. Optimised XML workflows using standard formats
2. Guidelines and training on digital accessibility
3. Facilitation of long-term archiving

The Community Support Services provide support for publishing in Diamond Open Access through information services, events and networking. The services are tailored to the needs of the various target groups, which are identified in an initial survey. We take into account existing information services offered by other projects and initiatives and are in contact with them. The Community Support Services fill gaps where no services are yet available. 

Services:

• Provision of reusable information materials
• Establishment of an OJS network
• Organisation of workshops
• Clarification of legal issues relating to Diamond OA publishing

SeDOA networking and exchange services
SeDOA brings people, ideas and services together to strengthen Diamond Open Access nationally, across Europe and globally. Results from the Innovation Lab, the Registry and the publication services are bundled and passed on to the European Diamond Capacity Hub (EDCH). At the same time, the SeDOA portfolio of services is refined and further developed through exchange with international partners and their offerings.

The aim is to create connections between local initiatives and global solutions and to promote the transfer between general standards and subject-specific requirements.

Offers and focus areas:

• Establishment of exchange formats between SeDOA (Diamond Capacity Centre in Germany), the EDCH and the Global Diamond Open Access Alliance – for interoperable data, processes and standards across national borders
• Networking with existing open access initiatives at state and federal level – to exploit synergies and avoid parallel structures
• Promoting the acceptance of Diamond Open Access through participatory communities of practice – for discipline-specific solutions and linking DOA with subject-specific reputation logics
• Promoting publishing in DOA in order to develop it into a recognised pillar of academic career development.

According to the DFG call for proposals, AP 5 “Mapping and establishing a registry” aims to establish ongoing and publicly accessible monitoring of public, non-commercial and non-profit publication offerings in Germany. These will be systematised according to disciplines and other criteria, and the registry will contain statements on quality standards and processes at the level of editing, peer review of contributions and technical standards. The initial focus will be on mapping diamond open access journals in Germany. The mapping builds on the results of the CODRIA and CRAFT-OA projects and takes into account developments at the DOAJ and the EZB. Data from the registry will also be incorporated into the international Diamond Discovery Hub (DDH), which is currently under construction.

The “SeDOA Innovation Lab” (SIL) is the project’s think tank, observatory and sounding board. SIL identifies and documents the needs of the scientific community in Germany, researches DOA-relevant actors, publication practices and innovations at national and international level, and makes these available in case studies. The aim is to improve participatory OA research infrastructures. SIL supports the SeDOA project tasks with agile co-creation and co-design processes, offers a protected testing ground for innovations, collects and plans next steps, and maintains close contact with the SeDOA working groups. The aim is to establish SIL as a German contact point and hub for sustainable developments in the field of Diamond OA.

• Networking and exchange with the scientific community
• Needs analyses, innovation analysis, scaling
• Participatory formats for improving DOA structures
• Field of experimentation for innovations