Further education
This group coordinates the information and training events that largely result from the work of the topic groups, takes up suggestions for events from all members, establishes contacts with external experts and encourages the topic-specific exchange of experiences and best practices. The virtual training courses aim to promote innovation or provide practical support for institutional publication services.
Image rights, copyright & CC licenses
The image rights, copyright & CC licenses topic group deals with issues relating to copyright, image rights and Creative Commons licenses, especially if they have a specific connection to the work of university presses. The topic group reviews relevant sources of information on these topics and prepares them in a structured manner.
Quality standards & assessment
The aim of the quality standards & assessment working group is to provide all members of the working group with knowledge and resources on the topic. This involves bringing together the expertise available in the working group and further developing existing standards and tools as well as developing new standards and resources. To this end, AG-wide definitions and knowledge bases, tools and expert pools are to be developed. The results of the AG’s work will be communicated at AG training events. Current work priorities are
- further development of the AG’s quality standards for OA monographs,
- analysis and further development of quality assurance and review procedures specifically for OA monographs.
Accessibility
The accessibility working group deals with the question of which requirements arise from the Directive (EU) 2016/2102 for university presses and how these can be implemented. In addition, tools and guidelines for checking and creating accessible or low-barrier documents are to be made available.
Sustainable Development Goals/Sustainability
Sustainability is already an important aspect in many university presses. Motivated by the sustainability discourse in IFLA and the United Nations SDG Publishers Compact, the topic group is particularly concerned with questions arising from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): What do they mean for university presses? How can institutional publishing be made more sustainable?
Indexing (OAPEN/DOAB)
The indexing topic group has set itself the goal of supporting the visibility and dissemination of the output, in particular of open access monographs, of the individual members of the working group and of the working group as a whole. It identifies important platforms, exchanges information on data delivery and harvesting and discusses possibilities of scalability for other members. The current focus is on oapen/DOAB (merging the holdings of AG members into one collection) and Thoth.
OJS journals
The OJS topic group provides a space for exchange and cooperation with regard to journal services with Open Journal Systems (OJS). The members deal with questions of quality assurance, technical requirements and the framework conditions of such services as a publishing service. In the long term, we want to learn from the experiences of the participants and utilize the synergy effects of bundled competencies.
Workflow management
The Workflow Management topic group primarily serves to exchange information on the challenges of workflow management among member publishers, collect needs and good practices and document the results in a suitable form. The production of an open access publication is a complex process in which aspects of project, business process and workflow management must be taken into account. The planning, administration, implementation and organization of publication projects requires the support of technical systems that document project statuses and make tasks plannable. Interfaces to publication, production, publishing and distribution systems as well as communication with internal and external stakeholders and service providers are also of interest.
The thematic group supports the joint project “Workflow Management Systems for Open Access University Publishers (OA-WFMS)” in analyzing the requirements for a generic workflow management tool.
Single Source Publishing (XML/SSP)
The Single Source Publishing topic group serves to exchange information on methods and techniques for the efficient creation and management of content and its subsequent publication in multiple file formats, which are essentially generated from a single source. The long-term goal of the topic group is to identify best practices in Single Source Publishing in the form of a guideline and to network with the wider community.
(Print) service providers
The topic group (print) service providers compiles the experiences of publishers with service providers in the Wiki of the AG and thus facilitates the search for information on new cooperation opportunities.
Third-party funding applications
The topic group initiates applications for third-party funding for current needs of the other active thematic groups. The funds raised will be used to set up additional infrastructures or develop new tools in order to support and further promote the work of the working group in the best possible way.
