Catalysts Limited

The Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association, OASPA, was launched in London in October. This new trade body will represent the interests of open access journal publishers in the fields of scientific, technical and scholarly studies.

From its first appearance around 10 years ago, open access publishing has become an important aspect of scholarly publishing - 3,500+ peer-reviewed journals are already listed by the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).

Open access publishing has also been taken up by several conventional publishers such as Springer and SAGE-Hindari, though most titles come from professional bodies, university libraries and independent publishing teams. Membership of OASPA is open to for-profit organisations as well as the non-profit sector. Members need to demonstrate their commitment to the concept of open source publishing by signing the Budapest or Berlin Declarations and by publishing at least one open access journal.

The new Association will hold its first General Meeting next year but, in the meantime, an interim board will run the body.

More at: http://www.oaspa.org