Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association

What Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association does

OASPA is a Dutch-registered non-profit membership association (Stichting under Dutch law), founded in 2008 and headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands. It convenes more than 270 members across six continents - including commercial publishers, society publishers, university presses, infrastructure providers, and individual supporters - operating in the open access (OA) scholarly publishing sector. Named members and recognizable brands in the roster span PLOS, Elsevier, Springer Nature, Frontiers, and MDPI, indicating broad legitimacy across the industry's commercial and non-commercial segments.

Its core products and outputs are the OA Journals Toolkit (jointly developed with DOAJ), the OA Books Toolkit, the Principles of Transparency (co-developed with COPE, DOAJ, and WAME), the Wayfinders equity program, and an annual conference. The underlying delivery stack is conventional and lightweight: a website, Mailchimp for email, Plausible Analytics for traffic, Eventix for event ticketing, and Zoom for virtual convening. The association's primary intellectual assets are codified standards and curated reference resources rather than software platforms.

OASPA's revenue model is membership-fee driven, with annual dues tiered by organizational size from approximately €57 (individual supporter) up to €10,749 (Very Large publisher). Additional revenue comes from conference registrations, event sponsorships, and supporter contributions. Membership confers directory listing, Code of Conduct adherence, and a recognized signal of credibility within the OA community, which functions as the primary go-to-market proposition for retaining and recruiting members.

Name

Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association

Legal name

Stichting Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association

Website

https://oaspa.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

OASPA is a non-profit membership association that convenes more than 270 open access scholarly publishers, infrastructure providers, and academic institutions worldwide to set publishing standards and develop OA resources.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Industry Association Services for Open Access Scholarly Publishing

NAICS

Business Associations (813910), Professional Organizations (81392)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600), Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Open Educational Resources (OER) & Open Access Academic Publishing (MPAJABAG)

akta.pro secondary industries

Open Access Scholarly Journals & Monographs (EDAGAFAJ), OER Quality Review, Alignment & Certification (rubrics/standards) (EDAGAJAN)

Keywords

• Open access publishing
• Scholarly communications standards
• Publisher membership services
• Academic publishing advocacy
• Scholarly publishing governance

Headquarters

HQ city

The Hague

HQ country

Netherlands

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Membership Fees: Annual membership fees from organizations across multiple categories including Professional Publishers (Small, Medium, Large, Very Large), OA Scholar Publishers, and Infrastructure & Services (Commercial and Non-Commercial). Fees are paid annually in advance, with half fees charged for applications accepted after August.
2. Supporter Fees: Annual supporter fees from organizations and individuals who support OASPA's mission but do not qualify for membership categories. Supporter tiers include Academic Institutions, Large organizations, Small organizations, Individuals, and Enhanced Support contributions.
3. Conference Registration: Revenue from the annual OASPA conference and other events. Members and supporters receive discounted rates.
4. Event Sponsorships: Sponsorship revenue from organizations supporting OASPA events and initiatives.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

OASPA is a global membership association that represents organizations engaged in open access scholarly publishing. It sells tiered annual memberships (Professional Publishers by size, OA Scholar Publishers, Infrastructure & Services) and supporter categories, evaluates applicants against rigorous criteria and a Code of Conduct, and convenes the community through an annual conference, virtual seminars, and the Wayfinders equity program. It also produces open resources such as the OA Journals Toolkit (with DOAJ) and the OA Books Toolkit, and co-authors the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing.

Product overview

OASPA is a not-for-profit association (Stichting) registered in The Hague, Netherlands, representing a diverse network of organisations engaged in open scholarship. Rather than offering a unified software product, OASPA provides a portfolio of membership services, events, and resources including the annual OASPA Conference, the OA Journals Toolkit (developed with DOAJ), the OA Books Toolkit, and the Wayfinders equity program. The organisation facilitates membership applications and reviews against rigorous criteria, provides Crossref sponsored memberships for Scholar Publishers, publishes the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice guidelines, and hosts virtual seminars. OASPA's offerings are designed to advance open access publishing through collaboration, standards development, advocacy, and community engagement across over 270 member organisations worldwide.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• OASPA Publisher and Infrastructure Membership Program Annual tiered membership for organizations engaged in open access journal and book publishing and for infrastructure and service providers, priced from €100/year (Scholar Publishers) to €10,749/year (Very Large Professional Publishers) based on publishing revenue, with rigorous application review against OASPA's criteria and Code of Conduct. Members receive Member Directory listing, member-only mailing list access, discounted conference rates, and the right to use OASPA membership as a credibility signal.
• OASPA Supporter Program

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 270 members and supporters across six continents demonstrating global reach and impact
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers14 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core, founding and minor.

• DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOASPA collaborates closely with DOAJ on the OA Journals Toolkit, developed jointly to provide practical guidance to open access publishers. DOAJ is also a key partner in defining principles of transparency and best practice in scholarly publishing. DOAJ membership is a requirement for OASPA membership for journal publishers with multiple journals.
• COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOASPA collaborates with COPE to define principles of transparency and best practice in scholarly publishing. These principles feed into the criteria on which all applications for OASPA membership are evaluated.
• World Association of Medical Editors (WAME)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOASPA collaborates with WAME alongside COPE and DOAJ to define principles of transparency and best practice in scholarly publishing.
• SPARC EuropefoundingStrategic or Co-development PartnerSPARC Europe is recognized as a founding member of OASPA, having participated in the initial discussions that led to the creation of the association in 2007-2008.
• CrossrefcoreTechnology or IntegrationCrossref provides DOI (Digital Object Identifier) services to OASPA members. OASPA offers a sponsored Crossref membership agreement for Scholar Publisher members, covering the cost of up to 50 DOIs per annum. Publishers depositing citation data with Crossref must make that data openly available per I4OC guidelines.
• The Charlesworth GroupminorOthersThe Charlesworth Group is listed as an Infrastructure & Services (Commercial) member of OASPA, providing language editing and publishing services to OA publishers.
• Knowledge UnlatchedminorOthersKnowledge Unlatched is listed as an Infrastructure & Services (Commercial) member of OASPA, providing OA book funding and collection development services.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals): Non-profit directory and certification service for open access journals, co-developer with OASPA of the OA Journals Toolkit and Principles of Transparency. Functionally a sibling/partner organization — both serve the OA publishing ecosystem with quality-vetting and standard-setting, though DOAJ focuses on journal-level vetting while OASPA focuses on publisher-level membership.
• ALPSP (Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers): UK-based international membership association for learned and professional society publishers, providing training, events, and advocacy. Highly comparable to OASPA in model (dues-funded non-profit serving scholarly publishers) but with broader society-publisher focus and without OASPA's specific open access standards-setting role.
• COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics): Non-profit membership organization providing ethics guidance, education, and case consultation for scholarly publishers and editors. Directly comparable in publisher-focused membership model and standards-setting role; co-developer with OASPA of the Principles of Transparency.
• Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP): North American membership organization for scholarly publishing professionals, hosting the Annual Meeting and offering educational resources. Directly comparable in membership/community-led model and event-driven engagement, though more focused on the journal production community than on open access standards specifically.
• STM (International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers): Global trade association for STM publishers running industry standards, advocacy, and annual events (including the STM Frankfurt Conference). Comparable to OASPA as a membership body for scholarly publishers, though STM represents the broader commercial STM publishing industry while OASPA focuses specifically on open access.

Broad incumbents

• SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition): International advocacy coalition of academic and research libraries promoting open access and open scholarship. Operates in the same OA advocacy space as OASPA but represents library/institutional interests rather than publishers, and SPARC Europe is a founding member of OASPA.

Emerging players

• WAME (World Association of Medical Editors): International voluntary association of editors of medical journals focused on editorial standards and best practice. Smaller and more discipline-specific than OASPA, but co-developer of the Principles of Transparency and addressing overlapping editorial quality concerns.
• COAR (Confederation of Open Access Repositories): International association of repository initiatives, service providers, and other organizations working to enhance open access repository infrastructure. Adjacent to OASPA — focuses on the green/repositories side of OA rather than gold/publisher-led OA — and shares the convening/standards-setting role for its slice of the ecosystem.

Others

• PKP (Public Knowledge Project): Simon Fraser University-hosted initiative developing open source publishing software (Open Journal Systems, Open Monograph Press) widely used by OASPA member publishers. Sits in the OASPA ecosystem as a critical infrastructure provider rather than a competing membership body.

Regional players

• EASE (European Association of Science Editors): European-based international membership association for science editors offering training, resources, and community. Comparable in professional membership model and educational resource focus, but more editor-centric and primarily European while OASPA is publisher-centric and global.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/oaspa

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association