As the variety of open-access business models grows, so does the need to map contracts in a structured, cross-system manner. This requires persistent, machine-readable identifiers for contracts and business models. The openCost Registry is being established to map the range of business and contract models in scholarly publishing, including memberships, subscribe-to-open models, and support for scholarly infrastructures. In addition, individual contract components, such as bundles or collections, can be recorded and uniquely referenced. The registry complements existing initiatives such as the ESAC Registry and enables the structured recording of additional contract models and contract components. At the same time, it provides the infrastructure for assigning the opencostid.
The opencostid is a unique, machine-readable identifier for contracts and business models in the field of scholarly publishing. It enables agreements to be uniquely identified and furthermore, linked to participating institutions as well as the resources they contain, such as journals. In this way, the opencostid creates greater transparency and facilitates analysis, monitoring, and data exchange between systems. The goal is to provide as comprehensive and practical a representation of the current contractual landscape as possible.
Expansion of the EZB to Include Information on Open-Access Agreements
Going forward, the openCost Registry will enable the integration of information on open-access agreements into the Electronic Journals Library (EZB). This will provide EZB users with institution-specific information on open-access agreements and the journals covered by each agreement. At the same time, the openCost Registry is independent of participation in the EZB and is available free of charge worldwide.
Requesting an opencostid
You can enter contracts that have not yet been assigned an opencostid into the openCost Registry: To do so, create a user account under Create account. If you already have an account, log in under Login. After logging in, you will receive further information on submitting missing opencostids and can manage your deposits.
Once you have submitted an agreement for review, our editorial team will check the entries and automatically assign new opencostids.
We are also planning an online information session on the openCost Registry and will keep you updated via our website and mailing list.