About us

The OAPEN Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation based in the Netherlands, with its registered office at the National Library in The Hague. OAPEN is dedicated to open access, peer-reviewed books.

OAPEN operates three platforms:

OAPEN (Open Access Publishing in European Networks) was developed as a 30-month targeted project co-funded by the EU in its eContentplus-program (2008-2010). The goal of the project was to achieve a sustainable publication model for academic books in humanities and social sciences and to improve the visibility and usability of high quality academic research in Europe. After the close of the project, OAPEN continued its activities as a foundation.

OAPEN Foundation was established by the University of Amsterdam (UvA), the University of Leiden (UL), the University library of Utrecht University (UU), the Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW), the National Library of the Netherlands (KB) and Amsterdam University Press (AUP).

Mission

OAPEN’s goals are:

  • to build a branded collection of open access peer-reviewed titles;
  • to increase the visibility and retrievability of high-quality publications;
  • to promote open access book publishing.

Board

The Board of Directors consists of the following members:

  • Bas Savenije (chair)
  • Kurt De Belder (secretary) – Leiden University
  • Reinier Groen (treasurer)
  • Lidia Borrell-Damián - Science Europe
  • Charles Watkinson - University of Michigan
  • Antia Wiersma – Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences

OAPEN Advisory Board

In 2021 the Board of Directors agreed to set up an Advisory Board. The role of the Advisory Board is to provide the Board of Directors with solicited and unsolicited advice on the business matters of OAPEN. The Advisory Board also has the right to render a binding nomination for one member of the OAPEN Board of Directors.

The Advisory Board comprises members from different stakeholder groups and geographical regions. The members are:

  • Dirk Pieper, Deputy Director, Bielefeld University Library
  • Natalia Grygierczyk, Director, Radboud University Press
  • Claire Redhead, Director, OASPA
  • Regula Graf, Scientific Officer, Swiss National Science Foundation
  • Wendy Queen, Director, Project MUSE
  • Marin Dacos, National Open Science Coordinator, French Ministry of Science
  • Brian Hole, Founder and CEO, Ubiquity Press
  • Agnès Ponsati, Director, CSIC - Unit of Information Resources for Research, Director (Spanish National Research Council)
  • Cameron Neylon, Professor of Research Communications, Curtin University, Co-lead COKI