Guiding values.
These are the OLH’s guiding values. They are the principles we use to guide our decision making and ensure professional integrity in all that we do.
The team voted on our guiding values in 2021. We reflected on what the five words mean to us in practice.
We are attentive to how these values intersect and can create competing priorities. When they do, we meet, discuss and collectively agree a direction, using these guiding values as a set of principles that keep us accountable to our community.
Lead with openness.
Accessibility and transparency run through our work, from our openly accessible articles to our open-source publishing platform Janeway, our equitable business model, and our international advocacy work in open access. Openness is our leading value – the frame through which we understand our other values.
Redefine excellence.
We are a multi-award-winning organisation and ensure that our journals meet the highest standards of academic rigour and research assessment compliance. But we also keep in sight the ordinary language connotations of being ‘an excellent publisher’: innovation and outstanding service run through all we do, and we believe excellence is strengthened by compassion.
Work inclusively for structural change.
The knowledge that we produce is for the benefit of all, regardless of geographical location or financial means. Our tiered funding model redistributes institutional wealth to tackle entrenched research inequalities and share the benefits of knowledge equitably across the globe.
Think long-term.
Our work is underpinned by sustainable working practices for our team and fair rates for our supporters, envisioning a sustainable model of open access that is – and stays – truly open.
Decide collectively.
We challenge academic hierarchies and are guided by models of co-authorship. We use technology to work together in the spirit of play and collaboration. Inspired by collective action, we use our position to advocate for change in dialogue with our authors, editors, our library partners, and the wider open-access movement.
Equity and diversity.
The OLH is committed to promoting equity and diversity in all aspects of its activities, from the removal of price and permission barriers to access and publish research, to the adherence of the College’s equality and diversity action plan that the OLH proudly supports.