Acquainted and informed: Strategies for communicating and implementing transformational agreements in the university community

Abstract

Transformational agreements were formally launched at the University of Pretoria (UP) at the beginning of 2022. Although, by that time, the movement to open access was well aligned with institutional values of openness, collaboration, and social responsibility, the concept of transformational agreements was still new and unfamiliar to the university community. With well-established open access practices already in place, the main objective of the library was therefore not only to introduce transformational agreements to researchers, but also to enable seamless processes for the implementation of it in current research workflows. This paper will report on the strategies and initiatives developed by the library to ensure prompt, productive, and efficient uptake and commitment by researchers and academics. It will further provide practical recommendations for universities seeking to effectively communicate transformational agreements with their communities, and share best practices to ensure effective alignment with scholarly communication workflows.