One of the main topics announced for this year's Open Access Days in Cologne was the discussion of open infrastructures for fair and sustainable Open Access. We were therefore highly motivated to take part, as our KOMET activities aim to contribute to the design of such infrastructures in order to establish a sustainable Open Access culture grounded in open research information.
As one of nine projects, we presented our plugins as a live demo as part of the tool marketplace, a spot for all curious minds to try out novel tools with their own hands. The Open Access community tested our plugins, gave feedback, and we answered questions and learned a lot about our current state of work. In some cases we explored opportunities for collaboration, e.g., as partner journals. As part of a workshop on journal hosting in OJS, we discussed how novel approaches, such as our plugins, can be integrated into OJS in a sustainable way to serve the authors needs in the long term. In addition, there were many fruitful discussions at the other OAT24 events about improving publication metadata and open research information, some of them even over a delicious Kölsch (the local beer).
Our visit was a success and we are optimistic that, as a direct result of our discussions at the Open Access Days, our plugins will be used in journals. If you are hosting an OJS journal and are interested in evaluating and integrating one of our plugins, please do not hesitate to contact us.