OSI Global

What OSI Global does

OSI Global (Open Scholarship Initiative) is a nonprofit global network launched in 2015 that convenes over 400 senior scholarly communication leaders from more than 250 research and publishing institutions across 28 countries to coordinate open scholarship reform. Operating in official partnership with UNESCO and managed by the Science Communication Institute (a 501c3 public charity, EIN 27-4690007), OSI functions as a multi-stakeholder coordinating body rather than a commercial enterprise, producing policy frameworks such as the DART Framework (Discoverability, Accessibility, Reusability, Transparency, plus Sustainability) and Plan A (a 2020-25 action plan), alongside issue briefs, studies, and annual summits (OSI2016-OSI2019).

Its core outputs are knowledge and policy artifacts, not software products, though OSI has signaled plans to develop technology products to improve scholarly communication infrastructure. The organization operates through community-led and event-driven go-to-market motions, engaging participants via invitation-based summits, workgroups, listserv discussions, and policy submissions to UNESCO for the UN General Assembly's global open science roadmap (target review by late 2021).

OSI's revenue mechanics are nonprofit subscription and donation-based. Institutional and individual OSI Members pay $10/month, while OSI Sponsors commit to a $250/month ($3,000/year minimum) tier with conference tickets and logo placement. One-time and recurring donations are accepted and routed through the Science Communication Institute with no overhead charge. OSI does not disclose revenue or financial statements, and there are no funding rounds, acquisitions, or app products. The organization employs 101-250 staff and is headquartered in Seattle, United States, under the executive direction of Glenn Hampson.

Name

OSI Global

Legal name

OSI Global

Website

https://osiglobal.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

OSI Global is a nonprofit network that convenes 400+ senior scholarly communication leaders from 250 institutions across 28 countries, working in UNESCO partnership to coordinate open scholarship reform through policy frameworks, annual summits, and publications.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Open Scholarship Policy Advocacy

NAICS

Business Associations (813910), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417), International Affairs (928120)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600), International Affairs (9721)

akta.pro primary industry

International & Comparative Education Policy Organizations (EDADADAL)

akta.pro secondary industries

Open Educational Resources (OER) & Open Access Academic Publishing (MPAJABAG), United Nations System & Specialized Agencies (BPADAAAA)

Keywords

• Open scholarship policy
• Scholarly communication reform
• Open science advocacy
• Research policy frameworks
• Academic stakeholder coordination

Headquarters

HQ city

Seattle

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Membership Fees: OSI offers institutional and individual memberships at $10/month (OSI Member tier) providing listing in conference materials and monthly/annual payment options. The OSI Sponsor tier at $250/month provides five tickets to OSI conferences, logo placement on website and conference materials, with a typically $3,000/yr minimum commitment.
2. Donations: One-time donations accepted at any amount. OSI is managed by Science Communication Institute, a 501c3 nonprofit public charity, and 100% of contributions go to OSI with no overhead charge. Financial contributions may be tax deductible for US individuals and institutions.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

OSI Global is a nonprofit initiative that convenes over 400 senior scholarly communication leaders from 250+ institutions across 28 countries to develop coordinated policy frameworks, issue briefs, and action plans for open scholarship. Operating in official partnership with UNESCO, it produces research publications (issue briefs and studies), coordinates annual summits, and submits policy recommendations that inform global open science policy.

Product overview

OSI Global (Open Scholarship Initiative) is a policy and advocacy organization, not a software product company. It operates as a global network in partnership with UNESCO, working to improve the future of open scholarship. Its offerings consist of policy frameworks, research publications, and planned technology initiatives rather than commercial software products. The core offerings include Issue Briefs (policy synthesis documents), Studies (research on scholarly communication), Tech Products (planned infrastructure tools not yet specified), and Plan A (a 2020-2025 action framework).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Plan A OSI's 2020-25 action plan synthesizing themes and recommendations from five years of work, recommending actions to discover missing pieces of open scholarship, design open infrastructure tools, find common ground solutions, and educate the research community.
• OSI Issue Briefs Issue briefs and policy perspectives that synthesize hot-button issues in scholarly communication, including who is working on what and how change is likely to occur. Targeted at scholarly communication leaders, policy makers, and stakeholders in research and publishing institutions.
• OSI Studies Research studies on scholarly communication topics that OSI is working on or considering to address knowledge gaps in open scholarship.

Named customers4 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• UNESCOcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015OSI has been working in official partnership with UNESCO since early 2015 to develop a better understanding of the broad range of perspectives in research communication and understand how the world can make rapid, sustainable progress toward more open research. UNESCO's efforts entered a new phase in fall 2019, gaining official approval from UN General Conference to develop a global open science roadmap on behalf of all UN agencies. OSI released its open science recommendations for UNESCO's consideration in June 2020, representing the culmination of five years of international consultations. The goals and outputs of OSI's Plan A are designed to inform and align with UNESCO's efforts to craft a global recommendation for open science by late 2021.
• Science Communication InstitutecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOSI is managed by the Science Communication Institute (SCI), a 501c3 nonprofit public charity (EIN 27-4690007). SCI serves as the administrative parent organization, handling financial management of OSI contributions with no overhead charge. Financial contributions to OSI pass through SCI, and for US individuals and institutions may be tax deductible.
• COASP (Conference on Open Access Scholarly Publishing)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerOSI participants have participated in COASP conferences, including the 10th anniversary conference in Vienna in 2018 where OSI leaders engaged with the broader scholarly communication community on open access topics.
• SciELOminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerOSI participated in SciELO's 20th anniversary celebration, with 10 OSI representatives attending the conference bringing together over 600 leaders from across scholarly communication. SciELO is considered the world's most successful example of a decentralized, researcher-led journal platform.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• cOAlition S: cOAlition S is an international consortium of research funders implementing Plan S for full and immediate open access — directly comparable to OSI as a multi-stakeholder policy coalition shaping open scholarship rules.
• OpenAIRE: OpenAIRE is a European open science infrastructure supporting open access and FAIR data policies — comparable to OSI as a multi-country open scholarship infrastructure and policy support organization.
• SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition): SPARC is a global advocacy organization that works to make open the default for research and education — directly comparable to OSI's open scholarship coordination mission across libraries, funders, and institutions.
• COAR (Confederation of Open Access Repositories): COAR is a global network of repository initiatives working to align open access repository strategies — comparable to OSI's role as a coordinating body across stakeholder groups in scholarly communication.

Emerging players

• Impactstory: Impactstory builds open tools to track the reach and impact of research outputs — comparable to OSI in the open science ecosystem, though focused on impact metrics rather than broad policy coordination.
• Knowledge Unlatched: Knowledge Unlatched is an international initiative making scholarly books open access through collective funding — comparable to OSI as a multi-stakeholder open-access coordinating effort, though focused on monograph publishing.
• Dryad: Dryad is an open data repository serving the scholarly community — comparable to OSI as a participant in the open scholarship ecosystem, though narrower in scope to data publishing infrastructure.

Broad incumbents

• Creative Commons: Creative Commons provides the legal licensing infrastructure underpinning open scholarship — comparable to OSI as a globally influential open-knowledge organization, though focused on licensing rather than policy coordination.
• PLOS (Public Library of Science): PLOS is a large established open-access publisher and advocacy organization — comparable to OSI in its open scholarship mission, but operates as a commercial publisher rather than a neutral convener.
• ORCID: ORCID provides a researcher identifier infrastructure widely adopted across the scholarly ecosystem — comparable to OSI as a multi-stakeholder, globally coordinated open scholarship infrastructure initiative.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/OSIUnited
• Facebookfacebook.com/openscholarshipinitiative
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-open-scholarship-initiative

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about OSI Global