The OPuS foundation also contributed to the QOAM and Authorship in Transition projects. The Quality Open Access Market (QOAM) is an online market in which open access journals and related websites are evaluated by library staff and academics on the basis of information about the journal, publication services and costs. This market can be used by academic researchers to choose which journal allows for the best open access publication, making “predatory journals” easier to avoid. The objective of QOAM is to create and sustain an online market where information on the quality of open access journals is provided and updated. In QOAM, journal quality is assessed by the academic community on the basis of Journal Score Cards (JSCs). In addition, information is also provided on the publication fees of the journals. In this way a market is created that can be consulted online by authors searching for a high-quality open access journal to publish their articles. Substantive information on the basis of a journals website will be evaluated by library staff (Editorial Information, Peer Review, Governance and Process), after which academic researchers can evaluate their experiences of publishing in that journal.
An essential aspect of the open access policy in science is the definition of authorship. The important questions to answer here are: Who is defined as author? What rights does an author have and what are his/her responsibilities? The rise of open science frameworks will also influence the way in which academic authorship will develop further. For this reason, Authorship in Transition is an important new line of research at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS, Leiden University).