SCOSS
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| SCOSS | |
|---|---|
| Name | SCOSS |
| Formation | 2016 |
| Type | Nonprofit advocacy initiative |
| Purpose | Support of open scholarly infrastructure |
| Location | International |
| Leader title | Coordinators |
SCOSS The Supporting Consortia for Open Scholarly Services initiative unites librarians, publishers, funders, and research organizations to secure sustainable funding for critical open scholarly infrastructure. Founded through collaboration among consortial leaders, university libraries, and philanthropic partners, SCOSS engages with stakeholders across the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Wellcome Trust, National Science Foundation, European Commission, and national consortia such as Jisc and CRKN. It operates at the nexus of advocacy, fundraising, and governance for projects that underpin platforms like DOAJ, Crossref, ORCID, SHERPA/RoMEO and repositories used by institutions including Harvard University, University of Oxford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University.
Overview
SCOSS functions as a coordinated campaign model to achieve long-term financial sustainability for shared digital infrastructure used by academics, researchers, and libraries. The initiative builds coalitions among organizations such as Association of Research Libraries, International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, SPARC, Coalition S and regional bodies including CAUL and LIBER, while engaging major publishers like Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley, Taylor & Francis and infrastructure providers such as PKP and DSpace. SCOSS emphasizes transparency, stewardship, and community governance, drawing on precedents set by entities like Creative Commons, Internet Archive, Wikimedia Foundation, OpenAIRE and Crossref.
History
SCOSS emerged from meetings of library consortia and funding agencies concerned with the fragility of open infrastructures after high-profile funding lapses affected services affiliated with DOAJ, Open Library of Humanities, and CLOCKSS. Early advocates included leaders from JISC Collections, Canadian Research Knowledge Network, Bibliothèque nationale de France and university consortia in the Nordic Council of Ministers region. The initiative formalized its campaign approach drawing lessons from the establishment of ORCID and the community-driven models of arXiv and PubMed Central. Pilot campaigns targeted repositories and registries that had demonstrated technical robustness but lacked predictable revenue streams, aligning with policy agendas from Horizon 2020, Plan S, UK Research and Innovation and other funders.
Mission and Objectives
SCOSS aims to secure collective financial commitments to ensure the continuity of core open scholarly services used by researchers at institutions such as Columbia University, University of Toronto, University of Melbourne and National University of Singapore. Objectives include identifying candidate services like Crossref', DataCite, OpenCitations, Unpaywall, and SHERPA/Fact, assessing their governance models, and mobilizing pledges from consortia, libraries, and funders including Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Gates Cambridge Scholarship stakeholders. The initiative promotes community stewardship, resilience planning, and alignment with standards set by organizations such as NISO, ISO, RDA and W3C.
Funding Model and Supported Initiatives
SCOSS operates campaigns that invite annual or multi-year pledges from academic libraries, consortia, and funders to meet funding targets for designated services. Campaigns have supported projects including DOAJ, LOCKSS, PKP Public Knowledge Project, OpenAIRE and Crossref Event Data by aggregating contributions from entities like Research Councils UK, German Research Foundation, Swiss National Science Foundation and university systems such as California State University and University of California. The model emphasizes equitable contribution scales inspired by consortial tiers used by ARL and national license negotiations, and coordinates with procurement and budgeting practices at institutions including Yale University and University of Cambridge.
Governance and Partnerships
Governance for SCOSS campaigns typically involves steering committees composed of representatives from consortia, libraries, funders, and the beneficiary service’s board, mirroring collaborative structures seen in Crossref and ORCID. Partnerships extend to standards bodies and advocacy groups such as SPARC Europe, EIFL, RLUK, Ithaka S+R and philanthropic partners including Open Society Foundations and Rockefeller Foundation. The initiative liaises with technical communities around GitHub, Zenodo, Figshare and research infrastructure projects funded under Horizon Europe and national research infrastructures like CERN and European Bioinformatics Institute.
Impact and Recognition
SCOSS campaigns have helped stabilize funding for multiple open services, contributing to continuity for platforms relied on by researchers at Princeton University, University of Chicago, ETH Zurich and Peking University. Recognition has come from library leadership networks, funders, and policy initiatives including Plan S advocates and national ministries of education and research. The model has been cited in reports by OECD, UNESCO, European Commission policy briefs and analyses from Science Magazine, Nature and The Chronicle of Higher Education as an effective mechanism for community-funded sustainability.
Criticism and Challenges
Critics argue that SCOSS’s reliance on voluntary pledges from consortia and libraries can perpetuate funding inequities affecting institutions like small colleges and universities in low-income regions, drawing comparisons with debates involving Elsevier negotiations and subscription models criticized in the Open Access movement. Challenges include measuring return on investment for contributors, coordinating cross-border procurement rules (illustrated by tensions in European Research Area negotiations), and ensuring beneficiary services adopt robust governance akin to Wikimedia Foundation or arXiv to prevent mission drift. Observers from institutions such as University of Cape Town and networks like Southern African Regional Universities Association have highlighted capacity constraints and competing priorities among libraries and funders.