In May 2023, the NISO Information Policy & Analysis Topic Committee approved the Work Item “Recommended Practice for Operationalizing OA Business Processes.” A Working Group was formed, starting work in December 2023. They delivered the “NISO Open Access Business Processes Charge and Work Plan” in April 2024, approved in May 2024. The final Recommended Practice is expected in June 2025 after a public comment period (February–April 2025).
The Charge identifies challenges in the business processes in transitioning from pay-to-read to open access, impacting stakeholders like authors, libraries, institutions, publishers, consortia, and funders. The Working Group will develop a recommended practice with the following deliverables:
- A glossary of standard terms
- Standardized schema(s) for OA processes
- A report on infrastructure gaps
- Recommended tools and best practices
Scope
This Recommended Practice provides guidance for standardizing open access business processes across diverse business models. It spans the OA article lifecycle, covering submission, publication, metadata, reporting, communication, and payments. Phase 1 focuses on journals, while Phase 2 expands to books, preprints, proceedings, and other outputs. Although systemic inequities in OA are acknowledged, addressing them is beyond the current scope.
The full “NISO Open Access Business Processes Charge and Work Plan” can be found here.
