(1) Overview
Repository location
The dataset is available on Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/records/14513243
The live version of the dataset is available as a browsable DSpace database hosted by OAPEN, but may be updated in the future:
Context
The data was produced as part of the PALOMERA project (2023–2024), funded by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe program. The project investigated the landscape of open access (OA) policies for academic books in the European Research Area (ERA). PALOMERA broadly defines an academic book as a scholarly, peer-reviewed work encompassing monographs, book chapters, edited collections, critical editions, and other long-form scholarly outputs. The idea behind this definition was to open it as much as possible to local perspectives.
The analysis of the OA book policy landscape aims to pinpoint obstacles faced by research funders and institutions in integrating books into their OA policies. By identifying both challenges and best practices, the project provides evidence-based recommendations to help stakeholders develop effective and sustainable OA book policies. The project’s Knowledge Base (KB), as described in this paper, provides structured access to PALOMERA’s data on European OA book policies.
(2) Method
This section provides an essential description of the complex methodology behind the dataset. Maryl et al. 2024 provide a detailed overview, along with guidelines and templates.
Steps
Development of the data collection methodology. This included workshops with researchers and stakeholders, the creation of guidelines, and consultations with the project Advisory Board. The methodology was designed to provide a comprehensive overview, despite the scarcity of data available and the unevenness in OA book policy adoption among countries and organisations. Special attention was given to GDPR and ethical issues pertinent to data collection.
Data collection was performed through desk research, interviews, and surveys. Desk research focused on policy documents on OA monographs, grey literature, research articles, reports, and outputs of other projects. Interviews were conducted with stakeholders from different countries and stakeholder categories. Surveys were used to collect quantitative data on OA book publishing across the ERA. To ensure comprehensive data collection, regional coordinators oversaw data gathering within their assigned country groups, while local experts were contacted in each country to provide general insights and identify relevant resources. Researchers conducted desk research and interviews adhering to detailed guidelines and protocols to ensure consistency and quality in data collection.
2.1. Document collection. The document collection process was guided by a rigorous data collection protocol. A contextualised abstract and pertinent passages (excerpts) were created for each document. The documents were tagged with metadata, including the country of origin, stakeholder group, and PESTLE category (i.e. whether it is pertinent to political, economic, social, technological, legal, or environmental issues).
2.2. Interviews. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather in-depth information on the challenges and best practices regarding OA books, as well as the reasons behind the presence or absence of OA policies. Interviews were transcribed with HappyScribe and translated into English with DeepL, if conducted in another language. Interviewees were asked to validate the anonymised transcripts and if they agreed to publication, the transcripts were subsequently incorporated into the Knowledge Base.
Validation and feedback implementation. The collected data was validated, coded, and ingested into the KB. Validation workshops were held with stakeholders to gather feedback on the KB and improve it by adding additional content.
Sampling strategy
The document and interview sampling strategy were designed to be comprehensive and inclusive, aiming to capture the diversity of open access policies for academic books across the European Research Area, rather than to serve as an exhaustive resource.
Documents. Geographically, the sampling strategy aimed to cover all ERA countries. The documents included in the Knowledge Base were sampled from 2012 to the present, reflecting the period following the European Commission’s formalisation of its open science approach. The sampling strategy targeted various stakeholders involved in OA book publishing in each country, including researchers, research-performing organisations (RPOs), scholarly societies, publishers, infrastructure providers, research funding organisations (RFOs), and policymakers. The collection yielded 633 policy documents, grey literature, research articles, reports, and outputs of other projects, which cover a wide range of OA policies for academic books. The passages about OA policies to monographs were extracted as accompanying excerpts from those documents and translated into English, when necessary.
Interviews. Throughout the process, the research team strived for diversity regarding gender, geographic coverage and role. Individual and three group interviews – 42 in total – were conducted, each lasting approximately 60 minutes. The interview sample (see Figure 1) included 47 individuals, with a nearly even gender distribution (24 female, 23 male) and representation from various stakeholder categories (one person could represent multiple categories), including RPOs (19), RFOs (10), libraries (11), publishers (8), and policymakers (5). The interviews – 36 of them – were anonymised and published in the Knowledge Base, upon the permission of the interviewees.
Figure 1
Interviews breakdown.
Quality control
PALOMERA project implemented several quality control measures, including regular meetings to maintain methodological alignment across research teams and adherence to detailed data collection guidelines and procedures. The scope of data collection was coordinated with other work packages to ensure all key issues and stakeholders were addressed. Additionally, ERA countries were divided into groups with appointed coordinators responsible for data gathering in their respective areas. The project also validated its methodology and document collection through consultations with the Advisory Board and local experts, and two workshops were held to validate the method and Knowledge Base.
(3) Dataset Description
Repository name
Zenodo
Object name
PALOMERA_KB_overview.xlsx (203.3 kB); PALOMERA_KB_overview.xlsx – Content.csv (501.1 kB); PALOMERA_KB_overview.xlsx – Description.csv (1.5 kB); PALOMERA_KB_documents.zip. (486.1 MB); PALOMERA_KB_interviews.zip (6.8 MB).
Format names and versions
Overview files (.xlsx, .csv) list all the documents in the collection and basic metadata such as ID, collection, and folder in the dataset, title, author, country, handle, and brief abstract (defined in the description file). Archives (.zip) contain documents and interview transcripts (.pdf, .jpg, .txt), document excerpts (.html, .txt), Dublin Core metadata (.xml), and DSpace metadata files (no extension) containing the handle, collection ID, and contents of each record (list of files).
Creation dates
2023-01-01 to 2024-11-30
Dataset creators
Contributors have participated in Conceptualization (C), Data curation (DC), Investigation (I), Methodology (M), Software (S), Supervision (SU), and Validation (V). Laura Bandura-Morgan (I), Oliver Blake (I), Lorena Caliman (DC, I), Andrea Davidson (I), Malte Dryer (I), Maria Especiosa (DC, I), Nelson Henrique Silva Ferreira (I), Françoise Gouzi (I), Davide Emanuele Iannace (DC, I), Mikael Laakso (C, I, M), Gabriela Manista (C, DC, I, M, SU), Frank Manista (C, I), Maciej Maryl (C, DC, I, M, SU), Pierre Mounier (V), Aleš Pogačnik (I), Vanessa Proudman (I), Sînziana Păltineanu (C, I, DC, S), Ursula Rabar (V), Marco Raciti (I), Cezary Rosiński (DC), Ronald Snijder (C, I, DC, S), Neils Stern (C, I, M, SU), Graham Stone (I), Jan-Philip Tummes (I), Erzsébet Tóth-Czifra (I), Hanna Varachkina (I, DC, S), Magdalena Wnuk (I, DC).
Language
The dataset metadata and interview transcripts are in English. The documents are available in original languages, depending on the source country.
License
CC BY 4.0
Publication date
2024-12-18
(4) Reuse Potential
Research on OA policies for academic books. The KB can be used to conduct comparative analyses of OA policies across different countries and stakeholder categories. Researchers can examine the prevalence of different policy types, identify trends and patterns in policy development, and investigate the factors influencing policy adoption (e.g. Laakso et al. 2024).
Developing new OA policies. The KB can be a source of inspiration and best practices for organisations developing their own OA policies. Policymakers can use the KB to learn about different approaches to OA policy development, identify successful policy models, and adapt existing policies to their specific context. The KB is accompanied by a set of recommendations aimed at helping stakeholders using the resource develop their policies (e.g. Bandura-Morgan et al. 2024).
Advocating for OA policies. The KB can provide evidence to support the development and implementation of OA policies. Advocates can use the KB to demonstrate the benefits of OA policies, highlight the challenges stakeholders face in adopting OA policies, and make the case for increased investment in OA infrastructure and support (e.g. Bandura-Morgan et al. 2023; Stern, & Rooryck 2023; Stern et al. 2024).
Acknowledgements
The authors want to express their heartfelt gratitude to everyone involved in creating and validating the resource.
Competing Interests
The authors have no competing interests to declare.
Author Contributions
Maciej Maryl: Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Writing– original draft, Writing – review & editing.
Gabriela Manista: Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – review & editing.