Number of people working for a platform

In most cases, platforms are run by fairly small teams: ten platforms have two to five people, five have only one staff member, two five to ten and one has 20 people. Only one platform has more than 30 people, while two have no staff.

How a platform’s personnel work

The majority (15) of the respondents have a dedicated unit responsible for the platform with the employed personnel (fully or partially employed to work for the portal). Six platforms do not have a dedicated unit, but the personnel are employed by the institution and are sharing their time between the platform and other tasks. One respondent mentioned using some volunteer work.

Incentives for personnel

In most cases (20) there are no incentives for staff working on the platforms. Only one platform provides some incentives and this is small monetary support for journal editors (~ 23 USD per month for editors to manage the journal activity by the Ministry of Education; and a quarterly bonus). 

Funding

Though funding varies, it is noteworthy that the majority (seven out of eight) of those relying on fixed and permanent subsidies from the host institution are institutional platforms. Those relying on periodically negotiated subsidies from the host institution include three institutional and two national platforms. 

Table 20. Funding sources

Other responses include: 

• All journals pay an annual journal hosting fee; journals budget forms part of the Open Science budget, with Department of Science and Innovation funding; 
• Article processing charges (when the portal hosts fee-based journals together with Diamond OA journals); 
• It's part of University's operations budget; 
• The institution has allocated funds for the annual subscription; 
• The portal supports one of the functions of the library (library as publisher). Tasks performed are included in general duties.

Stability of funding sources based on the last three years

Although the stability of these funding sources also varies, the majority of the respondents see their funding sources as either stable or very stable. 

Table 21. The stability of funding sources

Annual approved budget

The majority of platforms (13) do not have an annual approved budget. However, two institutional platforms who do not have a budget have also said that the maintenance of the platform is included in the institutional budget and they consider their funding stable. 

In-kind support provided by platform’s host organizations

Platforms’ host organizations provide facilities and premises, salaries, general and service-specific IT services. Most platforms rely on multiple types of support.

Table 22. In-kind support provided by host organizations

Sustainability planning

Less than half (ten) respondents have a platform sustainability plan. 

Challenges

Financial and human resources are the main challenges faced.

Table 23. Challenges faced by journal platforms

One respondent mentioned that “AJOL is considered by DOAJ as a permanent archival service. Similar service is Redalyc”.

Collaborations

Platforms are open to different types of collaborations. Training, production services and communication services are most frequently mentioned as areas of potential collaboration.

Table 24. Potential areas of collaboration

One respondent wrote that they “already collaborate in order to reduce and absorb costs of DOIs. We are looking into XML.”