Earlier this week, IReL, the Irish e-resources licensing consortium, announced a generous pledge to three of the SCOSS-endorsed infrastructures:
- Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) (Pilot cycle)
- Sherpa Romeo (Pilot cycle)
- Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) & OAPEN (2nd cycle)
IReL and its member libraries recognise that these infrastructures have been of long-standing benefit to libraries and their users. They are also crucial to open research globally. They therefore agree that it is in their interests to help sustain them.
IReL has committed to supporting these initiatives for three years, from 2022 to 2024 with a total sum of 140,106 euros. The pledge pushes Sherpa Romeo to 50% of its funding target.
Representatives of the Irish Higher Education consortium commented on the pledge:
“These initiatives are essential to our work in managing and preserving OA content as well as enabling discoverability and access. It’s great to see IReL’s support for securing such important OA resources, tools and services into the future.”
Ellen Breen, Associated Director, Research & Teaching, DCU Library
“The addition of these services will help our researchers to make informed choices on open access publishing”.
Liam Cleere, Senior Manager, Research Analytics and Impact, UCD Research
“In keeping with Maynooth University’s long-standing support of open access, we are delighted to see IRel’s commitment to supporting these important initiatives and ensuring that they remain accessible to our research communities going forward.”
Fiona Morley, Head of Digital Programmes and Information Systems, Maynooth University Library
Thank you so much, Ireland!