PKP partner TIB in Germany, is asking academic libraries to collectively fund seven open access journals from quantum physics, computer science, and mathematics in order to help these journals adhere to high publishing standards and to publish without author fees. PKP supports this approach and encourages those interested to answer the call for libraries to participate in the KOALA funding round by contacting TIB.
About KOALA
Konsortiale Open-Access-Lösungen aufbauen, or KOALA, is an approach to joint funding of diamond open access journals taken by Leibniz-Informationszentrum Technik und Naturwissenschaften und Universitätsbibliothek (TIB), a large research library in Germany and a key partner of PKP. Initially launched as part of a joint project with the University of Konstanz and supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany, KOALA is now run as a stand-alone service as part of TIB’s commitment to foster fair open access.
The major goals of KOALA are to sustain open access journals from library budgets and to avoid author-facing fees. The funds support journals that must adhere to clear, high standards, thus supporting the integrity of such publishing in the open access ecosystem.
Journals and book series can be included if they meet the requirements, have realistic funding goals, and fit into a planned disciplinary bundle. These disciplinary bundles are then offered to interested institutions for joint funding.
During the pledging round, supporters can commit to contributing to the costs. If the pledging target is met, supporters contribute according to their size and the volume of the bundled periodicals. The periodicals will then receive funding over three years. If there are not enough supporters, the KOALA funding will not come into effect.
This year’s journals
KOALA has organised this year’s options into two groups. One group comprises six independent journals from computer science and mathematics:
- Australasian Journal of Combinatorics
- Electronic Journal of Qualitative Theory of Differential Equations
- Epijournal de Géométrie Algébrique
- Logical Methods in Computer Science
- SMAI Journal of Computational Mathematics
- TheoretiCS
The other group consists entirely of the large physics journal
Together, these journals publish almost 600 articles per year. With adequate funding from KOALA, they will be able to continue publishing without any access barriers for readers or authors.
PKP’s interest
PKP has been deeply rooted in supporting open access and independent publishing for a quarter of a century. We have been a driving force behind the ‘Subscribe to Open’ or S2O model, which is similarly trying to use collective library payments to switch journals to open access. KOALA aims to strengthen and sustainably finance diamond open access journals, that is, journals without any author-facing publishing fees. As in the case of the journals presented above, this mostly involves scholar-led journals published by societies or other groups of academics.
Call to action
KOALA calls on academic libraries to contribute to the collective funding of these journals. PKP supports this request and asks the community to join the funding round in order to promote the growth and reach of quality, independent publishing for the greater public good.
Supporters need to have a personalized link in order to proceed. Interested parties can contact colleagues at TIB by emailing them at koala@tib.eu to request their personalized link.
More information
Please access and share this information and social media to help support the cause:
- KOALA website including the new funding round official information
- KOALA FAQ blogpost
- KOALA on mastodon
Stay tuned to KOALA and PKP for updates. Thank you for your support!
