The governance of the OBC has been designed to empower a unique collaborative community of open access book publishers, publishing service providers, libraries, and other knowledge institutions, and OA experts who have deep knowledge in the histories and theories of scholarly communications, all of whom have vested interests in growing the landscape of non-proprietary open access initiatives. The governance of the OBC reflects an interdependent and mutually reliant community of persons and organisations, all devoted to bibliodiversity and the long-term sustainability of high-quality OA academic books and long-form scholarship.

The governance of the OBC has been designed to empower a unique collaborative community of open access book publishers, publishing service providers, libraries, and other knowledge institutions, and OA experts who have deep knowledge in the histories and theories of scholarly communications, all of whom have vested interests in growing the landscape of non-proprietary open access initiatives. The governance of the OBC reflects an interdependent and mutually reliant community of persons and organisations, all devoted to bibliodiversity and the long-term sustainability of high-quality OA academic books and long-form scholarship.

The OBC is a UK-registered charity (charity number 1206287) and is incorporated as a not-for-profit company. In addition to its Articles of Association, the OBC’s governance model is supported by a DEIA statement, a Conflict of Interest Policy, and a Code of Conduct. More details on the OBC’s organisational model and governance are set out in the supporting paper ‘Open Book Collective: Our Organisational Model.’

Our Governance: Community-led and Centred

Governance Bodies

The governance of the OBC consists of three primary governance bodies, the General Assembly of Custodians (GAC), the Board of Stewards (BoS), and the Membership Committee (MC). Other committees can be formed by the BoS as they deem necessary. The Board of Stewards and any committees created by the BoS are supported by the OBC Secretariat, selected from the OBC Management Team.

• General Assembly of Custodians (GAC)
• Board of Stewards (BoS) (current members) 
• Membership Committee (MC) (current members)  

Co-design and Co-development

The OBC’s governance has been designed in consultation with a wide variety of stakeholders, and was one of the main outcomes of the COPIM project, which ran from 2019 to 2023. It was developed in consultation with open access publishers, university librarians and library membership organisations, open source infrastructure builders, OA researchers, and members of COPIM’s governance working group. In addition, it was informed by research into community-focused open knowledge organisations within the landscape of scholarly communications, and better practices for the community governance of open infrastructures. Together, the consultations and research informed every step of the way in the co-design and co-development of a governance model that has been uniquely tailored to the mission of the OBC. A key concern throughout was that the governance of the OBC be membership-shaped, community-led, democratically representative, equitable, and transparent. It is essential that the OBC is and always will be directed and managed in accordance with its key values.