About us

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The OAPEN Foundation (OAPEN) is an independent, not-for-profit Dutch foundation registered at the National Library in The Hague. Dedicated to supporting open access (OA), peer‑reviewed scholarly books, we manage three key infrastructures:

  • The OAPEN Library: A global digital library for hosting and disseminating scholarly OA books, free to use, no registration required.
  • Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB): A free global discovery service developed in partnership with OpenEdition to index peer-reviewed OA books
  • OAPEN Open Access (OA) Books Toolkit: A free resource intended to help authors to better understand open access book publishing and to increase trust in open access books.

Our Vision

Inspired by Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, OAPEN envisions a world where “everyone has the right to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.” We believe that scholarly books should be shared and distributed openly and equitably for the benefit of all.

Our Mission

Our mission is to sustain and evolve the OAPEN Library and related open infrastructure services for peer-reviewed books. We serve a diverse set of stakeholders including publishers, libraries, research funders, and researchers, with the ultimate goal of advancing open access for the public good.

Core Goals and Value Propositions

OAPEN delivers value to its stakeholders through core services that define its purpose and justify its existence. Guided by the Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure (POSI), we operate with transparency, trust, and a strong commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. These values shape our technical and organisational practices and are promoted through initiatives like the Open Access Books Network (OABN), as well as through our active role in international projects, advisory boards, and public engagement. While our infrastructure remains fully open and free to use without registration, we also recognise the importance of collaborating with both non-profit and commercial partners when it supports our mission.

Governance

The OAPEN Foundation is led by a Managing Director, who is accountable to the Supervisory Board. The Advisory Board provides the Supervisory Board 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 Supervisory Board.

Supervisory Board

Chair: Kimmo Tuominen, National Library of Finland Vice-Chair: Kurt De Belder, Leiden University Audit Committe: Antia Wiersma, Royal Netherlands Historical Society at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) & Reinier Groen, OpGroen Verzekeringen B.V Additional members: Charles Watkinson, University of Michigan/University of Michigan Press & Lidia Borrell-Damián, Science Europe

Advisory Board

Members until the end of 2025

  • Marin Dacos, French Ministry of Science
  • Regula Graf, Swiss National Science Foundation
  • Wendy Queen, Johns Hopkins University Press

Members until the end of 2026

  • Elisabeth Elbers, Radboud University Press
  • Cameron Neylon, Curtin University, Co-lead COKI
  • Claire Redhead, OASPA

Members until the end of 2027

  • Alex Kohls, CERN Scientific Information Service
  • Iva Melinscak Zlodi, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb

Organisational structure

OAPEN Foundation Organisational Chart

Read OAPEN’s Articles of Association.

A short timeline of the OAPEN Foundation

2008

  • OAPEN kicks off as a 36-month project co-funded by the EU under its eContentplus programme.

2010

  • The OAPEN Library is launched at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
  • The OAPEN project ends.

2011

  • OAPEN is established as an independent, not-for-profit Dutch foundation.

2013

  • DOAB is officially launched at the “Open Access Monographs” conference at the British Library.

2014

  • OAPEN Collection Service launched with its first partners, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and Knowledge Unlatched.

2015

  • Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) is added as a partner of the OAPEN Funder Collection Service.

2017

  • OAPEN-ERC project supports ERC grantees in depositing OA books and chapters through the OAPEN Funder Collection Service.

2019

  • OAPEN becomes founding member of the European research infrastructure OPERAS as its national node for the Netherlands.
  • DOAB is established jointly by OAPEN and OpenEdition as an independent, not-for-profit Dutch foundation.
  • OAPEN and DOAB are selected for the second SCOSS funding campaign cycle.

2020

  • The Dutch Research Council (NWO) is added as a partner of the OAPEN Funder Collection Service.
  • OAPEN Library migrates to DSpace (via the EU-funded OPERAS-P project).
  • The OAPEN OA Books Toolkit is launched (in cooperation with Oxford University, Utrecht University, Glasgow University, and SpringerNature).
  • The Open Access Books Network (OABN) is launched, with OAPEN contributing one of three coordinators (alongside Open Book Publishers and SPARC Europe).
  • OAPEN’s first Director Eelco Ferwerda retires.

2021

  • Niels Stern begins as Director of OAPEN.
  • DOAB migrates to DSpace (via the EU-funded OPERAS-P project).
  • SCOSS fundraising goal met.
  • DOAB launches a Scientific Committee.

2022

  • CERN selects OAPEN as the hosting library of the SCOAP3 book collection.
  • DOAB rolls out the Peer Review Information Service for Monographs (PRISM).
  • OAPEN partners with the Open Book Collective; Niels Stern becomes a member of their Board of Stewards.

2023

  • OAPEN becomes Scientific Coordinator of the EU funded PALOMERA project.
  • OAPEN adopts a Supervisory Board structure with Kimmo Tuominen (National Library of Finland) as Chair and Niels Stern as Managing Director under the new governance structure.
  • OAPEN and DOAB publish their first POSI self-audit.
  • The German Research Foundation (DFG) is added as a partner of the OAPEN Funder Collection Service.

2024

  • OAPEN enters partnership with CERN about hosting of the OAPEN and DOAB DSpace servers in the CERN Data Centre.
  • The OAPEN OA Books Toolkit is relaunched with a new design, new articles, and a new section on funding and policies.
  • UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is added as a partner of the OAPEN Funder Collection Service.

2025

  • The ERC collection is absorbed into a wider European Union (EU) funder collection.
  • Curtin Institute of Data Science performs a full technical review of the OAPEN and DOAB infrastructures and provides recommendations for technical developments.
  • The OAPEN Library celebrates its 15th anniversary at the Frankfurt Book Fair.