Invitation to the SOAP Symposium - 1/13/11, Berlin

[polydoratou@mpdl.mpg.de]

This announcement has been posted to various lists. Apologies if 
you have received it more than once.

The SOAP Symposium.

Study of Open Access Publishing. What publishers offer, what 
researchers want.

Facts for publishers, funding agencies and libraries.

The SOAP project (Study of Open Access Publishing 
http://soap-fp7.eu), describes and analyses the open access 
publishing landscape as well as exploring the risks and 
opportunities of the transition to open access publishing for 
libraries, publishers and funding agencies. The project partners 
would like to invite you to the SOAP Symposium on January 13th, 
2010 in Berlin, at the Harnack House (the day after the APE2011 
conference)

Attendance is free but registration is mandatory at
http://indico.cern.ch/event/soap-symposium

This event will present the final results of SOAP. Definitive 
facts about open access publishing with in-depth analysis will 
foster a lively debate between key stakeholders who will 
elaborate on these groundbreaking findings.

The audience for this event are publishers (open access and not) 
(re-)considering their business models, libraries considering 
financial steps for the support of open access, funding agencies 
and policy makers evaluating options for open access publishing. 
And of course anyone with a keen interest in this transformative 
disruption in scholarly communication.

Over its two-years duration, the project has performed the most 
detailed study so far of the current supply and success of gold 
open access journals, publishers and models, spotlighting the 
amazing difference between large and small publishing houses and 
learned societies, licensing practices and business models. (A 
summary of results is available at 
http://arxiv.org/abs/1010.0506).

The project performed a comprehensive survey of opinions and 
attitudes on open access of 50000 researchers across all 
disciplines and around the world. This largest survey to date 
shows that "one size does not fit all", and there is a myriad 
factors that libraries, publishers and funding agencies have to 
consider to trace a path through these shifting sands 
(Preliminary results were presented at COASP 2010: 
http://www.slideshare.net/projectSoap/first-results-of-the-soap-projects).

By the time of the workshop, the ?demand? for open access 
publishing and the ?supply? will have been further analysed with 
further input from leaders in the field, presenting a picture of 
open access, and well established facts, on which to base 
decisions shaping the scholarly communication of the future.

The event will also celebrate the release in the public domain of 
the data collected by the SOAP survey, with a hands-on workshop 
for those interested in mining this valuable resource for further 
re-use.

Note: The project is funded by the European Commission and 
comprises publishers (BioMed Central, SAGE Publication Ltd., 
Springer Science and Business Media), research institutions (CERN 
- European Organization for Nuclear Research, Max Planck Society) 
and funding agencies (STFC - Science & Technology Facilities 
Council UK).

On behalf of the SOAP consortium,

Panayiota Polydoratou