We’re a mission-driven non-profit project governed by our community

Our Advisory Committee has powers to shape OA.Works and has members from our partners and the library community.

Every aspect of how we’re run is open, not just our code

We’re committed to being transparent, ethical business models, and the Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure.

Governance

Overview

OA.Works is a US-based non-profit project governed by our community. Our Advisory Committee leads our governance, and is composed of our partners and leaders from our community. We’re housed at Code for Science & Society, as a fiscally sponsored project, which allows us to focus on our mission while non-profit experts manage our administration. We’re transparent about how we’re run and we’re committed to the Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure. We believe good governance is critical to stewarding our products, being a good partner, and being a trusted community member.

Advisory Committee

Our Advisory Committee represents our community’s interests. Its membership is drawn from libraries, partners, and open advocates to broaden our perspective and align our strategies with our community's values. Its job is not just to advise, it has the power to oversee our strategy, uphold our values, and support our team, all in service of our mission and vision.

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None of our Advisory Committee members are paid. However, we are able to provide compensation of up to 49% of the Advisory Committee costs should it enable people from historically excluded groups to participate.

Articles of Governance

Articles of Governance set the rules for how organizations like ours are run. They’re similar to “bylaws”, but we don’t use that term to avoid confusion with Code for Science & Society’s bylaws. Each “Article” details some aspect of our governance, for instance, our organizational structure or how our Advisory Committee works. Our Articles of Governance focus on defining the Advisory Committee’s powers, voting as its mechanism for using those powers, and creating inclusive rules for how the committee itself is composed and run.

Code for Science & Society

Code for Science & Society (CS&S) is a 501(c)(3) US public charity focused on the social and organizational infrastructure required for data to improve lives. They fiscally sponsor projects to empower communities to work together and build innovative technology for the public good. CS&S has been sponsoring an incredible set of projects since 2017, specialising in supporting small open source projects in scholarly communications.

The board of CS&S takes on the legal and fiduciary obligations of a nonprofit board of directors for their fiscally sponsored projects. However, OA.Works remains responsible for its strategic decisions, with CS&S offering guidance when requested. Our Advisory Committee can choose to set up an independent non-profit or move to another fiscal sponsor as appropriate.

Our relationship with Code for Science & Society is governed by the CS&S Fiscal Sponsorship Agreement and Policies. This is signed by our Advisory Committee.

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About fiscal sponsorship

Fiscal sponsorship is a common practice where non-profits (like Code for Science & Society) advance their mission by supporting mission-aligned projects with financial and operational services. It allows our team to focus on advancing our mission while partnering with experts to manage payroll, fiduciary oversight, financial management, and the other administrative services required to operate as a non-profit. These services are supported by a fee. Fiscal sponsorship is a common setup for small nonprofit projects like ours, especially in the US.

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Our commitment to the Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure

As we mature, we’re building increasing alignment with the Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure (POSI).

Transparency

Alongside making all the products of our work open, we want to be transparent about our operations.

Financials

OA.Works' financial statements are available below and disclose more information than is required by a stand-alone 501c3 legal entity.

Our financials are also included in the 990’s of our fiscal sponsors, and are audited annually by independent accounting firms.

Note: Grant revenue is recognized when a grant is given, even for multi-year grants. This can make it appear that we have a large surplus when this isn’t the case.

Executive compensation

Joseph McArthur’s (Director) compensation was 145,936.19 USD for 2022, 142,835.97 USD for 2021, and 96,895.70 USD for 2020.

Grants

Funding Organization	Amount (USD)	Start Date	Term (months)
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation	200,000	11/2023	24
Founders Pledge	300,000	06/2023	12
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation	100,000	06/2022	12
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation	3,151,864	05/2021	58
Arcadia	1,870,000	06/2020	66
Arcadia	422,000	05/2018	24
JISC	156,731	02/2016	18
Center for Open Science	25,000	09/2015	4
Open Society Foundations	18,588	04/2015	4

We have not provided any grants to other organizations or individuals.

In 2014, we received in-kind support from Mozilla Science, Cottage Labs, and PLOS.

Contracts

We commit not to use NDAs in our agreements with customers (unless requested by the customer).

The contracts we use for our paid services (when needed) use Code for Science & Society’s standard language.

Pricing

We provide transparent suggested pricing for all our production services (where paid plans are offered) on our websites, with different pricing levels for institutions with different means.

About our spin out

In 2022, we spun out with all our assets (e.g., funding and IP), and with the approval and support of the SPARC Steering Committee.

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Previously, we were incubated as an independently managed and funded sub-project of Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC). SPARC operates as a fiscally sponsored project of the New Venture Fund (NVF), a 501(c)(3) public charity.

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