Co-Creating Innovative Approaches to Open Access in the Social Sciences: Insights from Emerald’s Open Lab

Abstract

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Emerald strives to meet the needs of consumers and authors of academic content whilst ensuring the underpinning models are sustainable for our business. This is particularly challenging operating within differing global incentives, and in the social sciences disciplines, where funding opportunities are limited compared to the wider sciences.

Emerald has had varying success with its open initiatives; our zero embargo Green OA policy on the author accepted manuscript continues to be valued, our current Diamond programme is going from strength to strength, however the market was not ready for the innovative Emerald Open Research.

In 2024 we launched the Open Lab, our dedicated incubator unit. Our objective is to address what we see are the problems in the OA market. We aim to find solutions tailored to the needs of social sciences, bringing in multiple views and perspectives in order to bring in a sustainable model that truly fulfils the aims of open access.

We are committed to finding open solutions that work for those who create, consume and apply research. We are committed to communicating and testing our ideas with our stakeholders. We are committed to listening to their needs and their problems.

The Open Lab have been developing a number of ideas for new potential services, products, and models. These concepts have been created out of the problems identified in the market, and built upon through design sprints. We have been testing, each idea, and its underlying problems and solutions with various stakeholders, from consortia, librarians, research services, science communicators, third sector leaders, and those in industry. By engaging in dialogue in parallel with running design sprints, the Open Lab is constantly validating its solutions.

We believe that constant conversation and collaboration will help us to co-create a sustainable solution. Only by working together can we address the complexities of an open world.