How-to-advocacy: OPERAS practical guide on advocating for open scholarly communication in the social sciences and humanities

This guide is intended for all stakeholders actively involved in open scholarly communication activities in the social sciences and humanities, particularly for members of the OPERAS (Open scholarly communication in the European Research Area for social sciences and humanities) Research Infrastructure and stakeholders interested in Open Access and Open Science topics for these disciplines. This includes, among others, publishers, publication platforms, libraries, and infrastructure providers.

This practical guide starts by defining Open Science and Open Access, as well as advocacy, and presenting the main target groups and stakeholders. It then presents some recommendations for addressing researchers’ needs related to Open Access publishing. The document then outlines some suggestions for national audiences, presenting the case study of the German national node (OPERAS-GER) for OPERAS. Finally, it describes the topic of advocacy for the social sciences and humanities, drawing on the conclusions of a panel discussion at the 2020 OPERAS conference.