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 Library - a central repository for hosting and disseminating OA books
• OAPEN Open Access Books Toolkit - a toolkit on OA book publishing for authors
• Directory of Open Access Books - a discovery service indexing OA books, in partnership with OpenEdition

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.

Governance Structure

Supervisory Board

The Supervisory Board consists of the following members:

• Kimmo Tuominen (Chair), Director General, The National Library of Finland (Kansalliskirjasto)
• Kurt De Belder (Vice-Chair), Director, Leiden University
• Antia Wiersma (Audit Committee), Director, Royal Netherlands Historical Society at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW)
• Charles Watkinson, Associate University Librarian for Publishing, University of Michigan / Director, University of Michigan Press
• Lidia Borrell-Damián, Secretary General, Science Europe
• Reinier Groen (Audit Committee), Managing Director Quality & Risk & Financial Reporting, OpGroen Verzekeringen B.V.

Advisory Board

In 2021 an Advisory Board was established. The role of the Advisory Board is to provide 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.

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

• Marin Dacos (until end of 2025), National Open Science Coordinator, French Ministry of Science
• Regula Graf (until end of 2025), Scientific Officer, Swiss National Science Foundation
• Wendy Queen (until end of 2025), Chief Transformation Officer, Johns Hopkins University Press
• Elisabeth Elbers (until end of 2026), Publisher, Radboud University Press
• Cameron Neylon (until end of 2026), Professor of Research Communications, Curtin University, Co-lead COKI
• Claire Redhead (until end of 2026), Director, OASPA
• Alex Kohls (until end of 2027), Group Leader, CERN Scientific Information Service
• Iva Melinscak Zlodi (until end of 2027), Scholarly communication librarian, University of Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

OAPEN Articles of Association

You can find OAPEN’s Articles of Association linked.

OAPEN Strategic Plan 2025 – 2028

OAPEN was established in 2011 as a not-for-profit and independent Dutch foundation (stichting) operating a digital library for peer-reviewed open access (OA) books. OAPEN is fully open and free to use for humans and machines without any payments or registrations required. OAPEN is based on the FAIR principles and adheres to the POSI principles for open scholarly infrastructures (POSI self-audit). These principles are at the heart of our governance, financial management, and technical operations. Furthermore, we live by values such as equity, (biblio)diversity, and inclusion. Our strategic plan will show how we translate these values into action.

Our vision is based on the Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stating that “Everyone has the right […] to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.” To support this universal goal, we believe that all scholarly books should be shared and distributed openly and fairly for the collective benefit of humanity.

Our mission is to maintain and develop the OAPEN Library and related open infrastructure services for peer-reviewed scholarly books, open textbooks, and OER to relevant stakeholders, such as publishers, research funders, libraries, and researchers to the benefit of the public at large.

Download and read the full OAPEN Strategic Plan 2025 – 2028.

Goals and Objectives