Sustainable open access for scholarly journals in 6 years – the incubator model at Utrecht University Library Open Access Journals

Key points Humanities and the social science journals need flexible funding models. Pragmatism and collaboration are key to transforming traditional publishing initiatives. The Uopen Journals model sets a 6‐year development target for developing sustainable journals. Actively involved editors are key to a journal's success.


INCUBATOR
Instead of steering towards another open access publishing venue, the Utrecht University Library developed a new strategy to support open access journal publishingone that shifted our focus from hosting journals to the development of high-quality, peer reviewed journals, setting a 6-year period for them to implement a sustainable publishing model based on open access. The choice of 6 years was made because our experience has been that a journal is really on track only after 4 years. Then there are 2 more years to strengthen and develop the publication strategy.
We divided the 6-year period into two parts. After an initial 3 years, there will be a contract renewal if things are going well, and we can adjust certain strategies and make new arrangements if required. If, however, we question the viability of the journal, the contract will be terminated at this point. Some other journals in the Uopen Journals portfolio do have a well-organized editorial workflow and offer high-quality content, but still experience financial challenges. Overall, it is a diverse list. Each journal is unique and therefore requires a different approach. We look for solutions in all kinds of direction and encourage experiments with funding models, whether by looking at different business models such as freemium/premium, investing a cooperative approach, or some kind of cooperation with an initiative or a publisher.

HOW?
In his 2012 article, 'The future role of publishing services in university libraries', Tyler Walters discussed four possible scenarios of institutional publishing that the university library could support. In the fourth scenario, 'Libraries as curators and consultants in publishing', he says the following: 'Libraries may key on roles that are less about production and more about consulting, instruction, and content stewardship. They may focus on assisting faculty with rights issues and promoting awareness of open access approaches to disseminating scholarly resources' (Walters, 2012). With the incubator model, we have deliberately moved to this scenario: being a library as curator of scholarly research and consultant in publishing.
The Uopen Journals team offers publishing expertise on various levels. We support the editorial workflow: our editorial coordinator and publishing assistant support our journal managers with copy flow, contact with possible typesetting partners, website adjustments, and many other tasks. Uopen Journals also offer guidance related to business models: many open access journals are funded by either an affiliated association or an external sponsor, or are looking for new ways to cover costs. We advise journal managers on innovative or more traditional financial models.
Thirdly, outreach or public engagement is a flourishing initiative in academic publishing since sharing knowledge with the public can drive progress. The Uopen Journals online marketer supports our journal managers in setting up a marketing strategy or creating campaigns. We also support sustainable archiving using the CLOCKSS network.
The in-house period of 6 years is mostly subsidized by the library and is only available to journals that have a link with Utrecht University. Only a reasonable fee is charged for using the infrastructure. The journals start at different stages in terms of As a service of the Utrecht University Library, we embrace the open access principles.
Besides some common open access principles such as the use of Creative Commons licensing and retention of article copyright by the authors, one of the most crucial aspects is that editorial boards (or their respective owners other than the publisher) own the copyrights or their journals, following the FAIR principles of open access stated by the FAIR Open Access Alliance (https:// fairoa.org/). At Uopen Journals, editorial boards' representatives and/or their related institution are in charge from the start. Not only do we think this is the right thing to do, we also think that it makes the transfer process as easy as possible. The Uopen Journals will mediate and give advice. The editorial board makes the decision(s). We consider ourselves to be facilitators rather than advocates. This is also clearly visible in our focus. The Uopen Journals aim to resolve the HOW-question: How can one publish an open access scholarly journal in a sustainable manner? What are long-term solutions? This is a challenge for all disciplines, maybe even more pressing for the humanities and the social sciences (HSS) (Eve, 2014).
An important step in the incubator model is to create a publishing roadmap. This map will act as a framework for the period of development within the library. Uopen Journals and the journal's editorial board will also draw up financial plans in line with the foreseen growth of the journal (e.g. by gradually introducing APCs) and sketch a possible transfer scenario (e.g. publisher, institution, or foundation). Together we outline goals in terms of usage, reach, and impact that would make such a transfer feasible. The library's publishing team collaborates with the boards of each journal in many ways, in order to ensure that these goals are reached.
In short, we try to prepare the journals for the open access market by developing them into high-quality open access journals and helping to find a sustainable financial model.

LESSONS LEARNED SO FAR
With the constant changing world of open access publishing, it is important to stay on top of recent developments and initiatives.
The Uopen Journals incubator is available for all disciplines. In the last 5 years, we have received primarily requests from researchers from the HSS. We believe that this is directly related to the fact that more options are available for open access publishing in the sciences than in the HSS areas. However, the diffi- It is of great importance to introduce a more business-like approach and support editors and the journal's owning institutions to adopt a stronger sense of cost awareness and market relevance. This is without doubt challenging, but it is helpful to make the chief editors aware of a more entrepreneurial mindset.
After all, the owner is responsible for the future of the journal, not Uopen Journals. And this is something we cannot emphasize enough.
The APC model is dominant in the sciences, but not an obvious choice for the arts and humanities, social sciences, or law. This forces us to look for answers in more creative models, such as freemium/premium models where the customer can access the information online in for exmple HTML, but needs to pay for extra services or other formats, and partnerships between different journals. We have investigated a publisher cooperation, but it failed because of the high costs requested to cover the risk of publishing in open access. There is a limit to what journals or their owners (relatively small organizations) can afford. However, we are still interested in seeking cooperation with publishers as we believe that a healthy relationship between different stakeholders (e.g. publishers and libraries) is part of journal development.
Our programme and criteria for selection have adapted following our experiences and lessons learnt. As a result we demand, besides a clear link with the local academic community, an active and entrepreneurial editorial board, and a (reasonably good) financial basis (e.g. available funds for the initial 3 years, secured governance, etc.).

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
We are constantly sharpening the ideas of the incubator and we  • Promoting open access to scientific publications (open access).

TOWARDS OPEN SCIENCE
• Promoting optimal use and reuse of research data.
• Adapting evaluation and award systems to bring them in line with the objectives of open science (reward systems).
Research libraries already play an important role in the first two goals and could possibly also be a partner in the adaptation of corresponding evaluation systems for recognition and reward-

CONCLUSION
We at Uopen Journals will adjust our publishing services in response to these developments, if necessary for instance by extending our focus beyond journal publishing to include other, non-traditional carriers of scholarly output. In short, we aim to support the communication needs and publishing efforts of our researchers according to their (changing) needs, external circumstances, and in a pragmatic and professional manner. The incubator model allows us to change our services along the immediate wishes of the editorial boards and individual researchers.
In the context of the changing world, we transformed from a traditional publishing venue into a solution-oriented advisory service with the underlying purpose to support our researchers.
Important words in our model are pragmatism and collaboration. Via the incubator we try to improve the journals while navigating them through the current scholarly publication landscape. In other words, we first develop the journal and then in our search for sustainable solutions we proactively seek cooperation with other stakeholders in the scholarly publishing ecosystem, whether this involves traditional publishers, new initiatives, or organizations such as ourselves.
Despite the strong on-going emphasis on open access, the actual transition is going slower than expected. The field includes several networks and initiatives, projects, and communities that are fragmented by discipline and stakeholders (publishers, academics, repositories, etc.). Often these actors behave in quite an antagonistic manner. With the incubator approach, we try to mediate these different stakeholders by helping researchers to develop viable journals, and to interest publishers and publishing platforms in high-quality open access journals that can enrich their portfolio. And last but not least, we involve library colleaguesnational and internationalto set the standard for a new role in consultancy, curation, and stewardship. In this way, we seek solutions with respect to, and appreciation for, all stakeholders. And as the scholarly publishing world keeps on reinventing itself, we will continue to adjust our service wherever and whenever necessary.