The aim of the project openCost is to create a technical infrastructure that makes publication costs freely accessible and interchangeable via standardized interfaces and formats.
In a first step, the openCost team is developing a metadata schema in collaboration with (inter)national experts for which it proposes an xml-representation that is particularly suitable for exchange via OAI-PMH. The metadata schema attempts to consider all costs related to publication („total cost of publishing”), including Open Access and non-Open-Access costs as well as costs for processing fees (e.g. costs for bank transfer, credit cards etc.). The intended goal is to provide an overview over all payments to publishing houses made by an institution (the so-called information budget). In addition, the standardized, machine-readable format enables easy exchange of cost data worldwide.
This repository tracks the evolution of the relevant schemas including their documentation.
Since we want to involve the community in our work as early as possible, we have decided to publish our project results successively and to make a first draft available as a request for comment now.
In a first step we developed a metadata schema for fee-based, individual articles (opencost:publication).
A common use case would be articles in Gold Open Access journals funded by APCs.
However, this schema already includes the coverage of cost items beyond Open
Access fees. In a second step, we developed a schema that includes costs from
so-called transformative agreements (opencost:contract). Special payment modalities, such as DEAL,
were abstracted and mapped accordingly. Both schemes are applicable for open access,
transformative agreements and subscription fees.
The openCost team invites you to participate in the development of the metadata schema and is looking forward to a constructive discussion! Please feel free to open issues in this repository so we can address your suggestions easily and nothing gets lost. Alternatively, comment on our web site or send us feedback by email. We will then convert them to issues for you.
More information about our project you will find on our website www.opencost.de.