Commitment to Global Open Access Transition Collaboration: Outcomes and Lessons from SCOAP3- Korea

Eight years have passed since the Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics (SCOAP3) was launched. SCOAP3 is one of the most successful global partnerships and funds for Open Access and has been benchmarked by other Open Access initiatives. The Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) joined as the first Asian partner in 2011, and has supported its shared vision and contributed its financial commitment since the beginning of SCOAP3. SCOAP3-Korea is the first bottom-up collaboration for local libraries to re-direct funds previously used for subscriptions to Open Access publishing. This paper explores the roles and responsibilities of KISTI in the Open Access quest. It describes the commitment to SCOAP3 in South Korea, including how the collaboration model for SCOAP3-Korea differs from the global model. This paper also discusses the impact of SCOAP3-Korea by analyzing publications affiliated by Korean authors in SCOAP3 journals for the last six years (2014- 2019). We have integrated the national R&D; project and research outcome data from NTIS (National Science and Technology Information Service) to investigate the research articles benefited by SCOAP3 and research publications in non-SCOAP3 journals. The positive impact of SCOAP3 in increasing research publication in the discipline was revealed compared to non-SCOAP3 journals. In addition, the financial benefit of SCOAP3-Korea has been proven. With regard to the investment for readers, 137,094 USD was saved during the SCOAP3 Phase 1 and 2, while $748,923 USD was saved with regard to publication fees. We discussed the lessons from SCOAP3-Korea for commitment to a larger-scale Open Access transition.