OASPA’s Response To The Recent Article In Science Entitled “Who’s Afraid Of Peer Review?”

Below is a statement from the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) in response to the recent “sting” that was reported in Science in an article entitled “Who’s Afraid of Peer Review?”

OASPA was established in 2008 to bring together a growing community of high-quality publishers, who were showing how research could be published according to the highest standards and made freely and openly available at the point of publication.  Our goal was, and continues to be, promoting best practices in open access publishing and providing a forum for constructive discussion and development of this field.  Open access publishing has continued to grow since the establishment of OASPA, and is now a well-established part of the scholarly publishing landscape.

A second reason for the establishment of OASPA was the emergence of a group of publishers that were engaging in open access publishing without having the appropriate quality control mechanisms in place.  OASPA’s approach to addressing this issue was to establish strict criteria for entry into the Association, such that applicants are screened for policies relating to publication fees, peer review, licensing, etc. For publishers that do not initially meet our criteria, we provide a detailed list of our concerns to the publisher and encourage them to adjust their policies accordingly.