DOI: https://doi.org/10.70950/phru7413
We’re pleased to announce the publication of International Metadata Recommendations and Platform-Specific Requirements for Open Access Books and Chapters, a substantial report from Thoth Open Metadata that addresses a longstanding challenge in open access book publishing: how to create, manage, and disseminate metadata that actually works across today’s fragmented scholarly ecosystem.
Bringing together multiple perspectives of not-for-profit Diamond OA book publishers, librarians, and open infrastructures, the report takes a closer look at research, policy analysis, and community insight to support publishers, libraries, and aggregators working to improve the discoverability, accessibility, and sustainability of open access books and chapters – with a particular focus on the needs of small-to-medium-sized, scholar-led and institutional publishing.
The authors understand metadata as foundational infrastructure. Metadata determines whether books can be discovered, accessed, preserved, and re-used by readers with different needs, and meaningfully integrated into library systems and research workflows. Yet for long-form publishing, existing metadata practices remain fragmented and opaque, under-resourced, and shaped by a patchwork of different standards, proprietary platforms, and platform-specific requirements.
The report situates these issues within a rapidly changing environment. Evolving policy frameworks, and newly-emerging legal mandates increasingly depend on the availability of high-quality, machine-readable metadata to e.g. provide information on licensing, funding, persistent identifiers, accessibility, and product safety. High-quality metadata has particular relevance for open access, as it underpins almost everything we care about in open access book publishing: discovery, accessibility, assessment, preservation – and active reuse. Yet long-form publishing continues to be inadequately served by the existing fragmentation and silo-ification prevailing within that supply chain. Publishers are routinely expected to deliver metadata in multiple formats (ONIX, MARC, KBART, and more), meet platform-specific requirements, comply with emerging legal and accessibility obligations, and support policy reporting, all while dealing with limited time, staff, and technical capacity. Meanwhile, many of the existing workflows too often lead to mangled metadata that is locked into proprietary systems thanks to restrictive metadata licensing terms that actively suppress downstream re-use and improvement, leading to unnecessary duplication of metadata enhancement work on a global scale.
This report takes that reality seriously. Rather than assuming ideal conditions, it asks what practical, open, and interoperable metadata for books can look like today – and how we can collectively do better.
At the heart of the report is our collective proposition of a two-tier metadata framework for books and chapters, designed to be both achievable and forward-looking.
The proposed framework is intentionally format-agnostic. It is not about enforcing a single standard or workflow, but about supporting interoperability across different systems and enabling publishers to disseminate metadata to platforms such as OAPEN, DOAB, JSTOR, Project MUSE, Google Books, and many more, without losing information along the way.
For publishers, and with a particular view on independent scholar-led presses and institutional publishers such as university- or library-based presses, the report offers a clear and well-defined way to prioritise metadata work and retain full control over their data and operations without being overwhelmed by overlapping or even competing requirements, while also steering clear of the danger of being locked into proprietary solutions.
For libraries, it provides a clearer basis for understanding what good metadata for OA books looks like, why openness matters, and how the majority of existing supply chain stakeholders fall short of meeting that premise – particularly when it comes to enabling reuse, accessibility, and preservation.
For policymakers and funders, the report highlights why book publishing needs community-led approaches that are distinct from journals, and why metadata quality and openness are prerequisites for meaningful policy implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.
The report’s outlook is clear: metadata for books works best when it is treated as shared, open infrastructure. That means reducing duplication, preventing loss of information as metadata moves between systems, and supporting publishers as the authoritative source of high-quality open metadata.
This publication is part of Thoth Open Metadata’s wider work within the Copim Open Book Futures project, funded by Arcadia and Research England/UKRI, and our ongoing commitment to community-owned, non-profit infrastructure for open access books and chapters. In this context, it seems noteworthy that the full metadata model has been implemented within Thoth's open-source platform and exports, all of which are freely available for any publisher to use on a self-service basis. Support and additional services such as automated dissemination on behalf of a publisher, catalogue & website hosting, and the provision of usage statistics are also available via Thoth Open Metadata.
We hope the report and other resources created by Thoth Open Metadata will prove useful to publishers, libraries, policymakers, and anyone working to make open access books more visible, accessible, and sustainable – and we welcome constructive feedback, discussion, and collaboration as this community-led work continues.
Header photo by Alim on Unsplash.