Operation of the OLH Boards

Academic Advisory Board

The academic advisory board includes a wide range of subject and interdisciplinary specialists from across the arts and humanities. Appointment is for a one-year term with optional but automatic renewal at the trustees’ discretion. Members are proposed by the CEOs to the trustees for ratification. As the persons responsible for ensuring that the charity’s mission is carried out in accordance with UK charity law, the trustees are the sole, final arbiters of admission to the board and of renewal of membership. It is expected that members of the academic advisory board will support the objects of the charity to provide free access to research material through the OLH’s library partnership subsidy model.

The role of the academic advisory board is to advise the CEOs when requested on any matter pertaining to academic rigour. The board is also asked to report internally to the CEOs on any matters of concern that they think should be noted.

Members

  • David Armitage (Harvard)
  • Marguerite Avery (Trinity University Press)
  • Robert Eaglestone (Royal Holloway)
  • Michael Eisen (PLOS)
  • Steven Engler (Mount Royal University, Calgary)
  • Kathleen Fitzpatrick (MLA)
  • David Gauntlett (Westminster)
  • Catherine Grant (Birkbeck)
  • Eve Gray (University of Cape Town)
  • Cable Green (Creative Commons)
  • Gary Hall (Coventry; Open Humanities Press)
  • Robert Judd (American Musicological Society)
  • Robert Kiley (Wellcome Library)
  • Vicky Lebeau (Sussex)
  • Martin McQuillian (Kingston)
  • Nora McGregor (The British Library)
  • Bethany Nowviskie (University of Virginia)
  • David Palumbo-Liu (Stanford)
  • Oya Y. Rieger (Cornell; arXiv)
  • Ben Showers (Jisc)
  • Peter Suber (Harvard OA Project)
  • Melissa Terras (UCL Centre for Digital Humanities)
  • Sanford G. Thatcher (ex-Penn State UP)
  • Patricia Waugh (Durham)
  • Peter Webster (the British Library)
  • John Willinsky (Stanford)
  • James Willsdon (Sheffield)
  • Jane Winters (SAS)

Library Board

Institutions and individuals who are members of the OLH Library Partnership Subsidy (LPS) scheme are entitled to membership of the OLH Library Board.

The OLH Library Board (LB), in conjunction with the Academic Advisory Board and the OLH Directors (CEOs), determine the right of admission for journals to the OLH platform. This, in turn, means that these three entities collectively determine any year-on-year budget increases. The boards, except in exceptional circumstances, discuss these matters and vote through online channels.

Proposals for new journal admission and/or budget increases to scale megajournal operation will be brought before the boards by the Directors on a quarterly basis. The Directors, along with any other member of the LB, may give their opinions on the suitability of admission. These remain merely opinions. Voting periods will last for a minimum of 14 days in each case. Every member of the LB will have one vote (in the case of institutions, this is one vote per membership subscription paid). Proposals will be carried if 60% of votes are in favour of the proposal under discussion. There is no level of required quorum.

Membership rates for Library members may not be increased by more than 10% per year, except through a vote brought before the boards.

Journals who fail a general proposal vote for collective subsidy may opt to self-sponsor, in which case they will be asked to provide an annual contribution to cover the OLH's labour and technological costs to publish the journal. Self-sponsoring journals may re-apply for collective subsidy through a vote once per year.