RECENT PROJECTS
THE PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE PROJECT
Sustainability Strategy
PKP had successfully developed the open source publishing software Open Journal Systems and built a substantial worldwide community who depended on the software. Yet its leaders wanted a clearer understanding of the rapidly evolving landscape and were eager to explore new ways to expand their impact and strengthen the revenue sources that support their work.
BlueSky to BluePrint worked with PKP’s directors to conducted a landscape review and community consultation, and a detailed examination of project costs and revenues, aligning income sources with the work they are intended to support.
Our work resulted in a client report and a public statement outlining future directions, available HERE.
THE ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
Meeting Facilitation
ESA received funding from the National Science Foundation to develop and run a Workshop on Creating and Implementing Sustainability Plans for Data Repositories, bringing together 22 leaders to discuss best practices for long-term support for their work.
BlueSky to BluePrint worked with ESA leaders to define meeting goals and create the workshop agenda and wrote three case studies to support the discussion that took place at the meeting. The session resulted in a community-designed process guide to help repository leaders create their own sustainability plans.
Final report, process guide and case studies are available HERE.
LIBRARY PUBLISHING COALITION
Meeting Facilitation
Curriculum Development
BlueSky to BluePrint partnered with Educopia’s Library Publishing Coalition to create course curriculum to prepare librarians and LIS students for jobs in scholarly communications.
We helped define the scope, select authors and teams, design and facilitated creative in-person workshops for the writing teams to meet and begin work, and served as curriculum consultant on all modules, helping to guide the author teams in terms of scope and layout.
Finished course modules and other materials are HERE.
TOME PROGRAM ASSESSMENT
Program Evaluation
The TOME (Towards an Open Monograph Environment) pilot project tested a new model for funding publication of scholarly monographs, by having universities pay the publication costs of their faculty authors.
As the 5-year pilot ended, TOME leaders wanted a means to clearly consider next steps. BlueSky to BluePrint supported their work by undertaking a program evaluation, including qualitative and quantitative methods, to evaluate financial impact on publishers, satisfaction of partners, and identify issues that could have an impact on shaping future offerings.
SPARC
Customized Research
The SPARC COVID Impact Survey examined the impact of the pandemic on academic libraries’ attitudes towards content, collections, and open initiatives.
BlueSky to BluePrint was hired to help SPARC design and deploy the survey to its membership and draft the final report. Among trends noted were questioning Big Deal agreements, renegotiating prices with major publishers, and continuing support for open initiatives.
The survey is available HERE.
SCIENCE GATEWAYS COMMUNITY INSTITUTE
Training & Workshops
BlueSky to BluePrint is a key partner in the NSF-funded Science Gateways Community Institute, working with leaders of “science gateways” – repositories, web portals, educational sites and more – to help expand access to essential resources and services.
BlueSky to BluePrint supports SGCI by providing business consulting services and as a key partner in creating and leading workshops to train project leaders in methods of sustainability strategy.
Information about SGCI and SGX3 is available HERE.
THE PUBLIC
PHILOSOPHY
JOURNAL
Sustainability Strategy
The Public Philosophy Journal began as a grant-funded online start-up with a path-breaking approach to community-sourced writing and peer review. BlueSky to BluePrint was hired early on to identify key drivers for audience engagement.
As work continued, BlueSky to BluePrint’s recommendations resulted in some significant shifts, including migration of the journal to a long-term hosting platform and forging a strategic partnership with a larger scholarly platform to build community.
Current information about PPJ is available HERE.
THE COST
TO PUBLISH
TOME MONOGRAPHS
Program Evaluation
As an initial component of the program assessment for The TOME (Towards an Open Monograph Environment) pilot, the Association of University Presses contracted with BlueSky to BluePrint to study the costs incurred - and revenues earned - by university presses publishing TOME-supported Open Access monographs.
The study will inform the larger program evaluation and is available HERE.