- COAPI was formed after two conference calls between 21 North American universities with open access policies, in the summer of 2011. The first call was in July 2011 and the second in late August when the decision to form the coalition was made.
- COAPI is comprised of representatives (librarians, faculty, library deans, directors, staff) from 42 institutions: institutions with formal OA policies in early and middle stages of implementation and those institutions with strongly supported OA resolutions and/or those close to the adoption of formal OA policies.
- COAPI’s first face-to-face meeting happened at a ½ day meeting held prior to the Berlin 9 conference in Washington DC, November 2011.
- Two main objectives:
- exchange best and good-enough practices in implementing OA policies: information exchange and support of implementation strategies, challenges, staffing, methodologies, IR development and planning, campus politics, etc.
- leverage the strength and experience of members to advocate on behalf of policies and practices that assist in the ongoing transformation of the scholarly communication system.
- First major action completed as a coalition: the submission of a lengthy response to the White House’s RFI, January 12, 2012
- Other projects underway:
- defining and clarifying COAPI organizational issues, (managing growth, membership, functions, administration);
- developing a working wiki for members-only;
- work group developing strategies to work more effectively with publishers;
- planning the next face to face meeting prior to SPARC’s OA Kansas City meeting in March.
