An organizational approach to OA

A North American not-for-profit publisher reached out to Maverick for support in planning for a wholesale transition to open-access publishing. They had a clear idea of where they wanted to get to with an ambitious timeline to deliver change. To meet their objectives, they knew they needed to develop a clear strategy with actionable goals for all areas of the company; review their organizational structure to ensure it was set up for the new work they wanted to undertake; and review their workflow processes and some of the key systems.

Goals

The company had two key goals to deliver its overall mission to become a fully open publisher within five years. The first was a publishing process that was clearly focused on the needs of the author and, therefore, faster, and more streamlined.  The second was to do it in a sustainable way, which meant investing in different areas to maximize service without increasing costs.

Process

Maverick engaged with the company in three key areas. The first was a root and branch strategic review comprised of workshops with all key stakeholder groups. The strategic goals were compiled into a comprehensive document, which was then reviewed with each department to identify key actions and timelines for delivery. In parallel, a dedicated team worked on a review of the internal team to ensure that the organization had the right people with the right skills to deliver the action plan. Once the new structure was developed and agreed upon, Maverick worked with the company on a change process to implement it, which involved recruitment and management training. The final phase of the project covered a review of the process workflow that takes in articles and moves them through peer review to final production and hosting. This process involved reviewing a number of key systems and developing key requirements for any future vendor selection.

Results

The overall engagement positioned the company to work towards becoming a leading open-access publisher in the region. The new team was able to drive change and show major development across the numerous journals published. New processes were able to speed up the publishing process and give the company an opportunity to develop new journals and attract a wider pool of authors.

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