"Finanzielle Gestaltung der Open-Access (OA)-Transformation an Hochschulen und Wissenschaftseinrichtungen" [Financial Organisation of the Open Access Transformation at Universities and Scientific Institutions] is the title of a series of workshops in the framework of open-access.network, a project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The six-part workshop series is organised and implemented by Bielefeld University Library and Helmholtz Open Science Office. It focuses on the information budget at universities and scientific institutions. The kick-off event on 13 September 2023 provided the around 130 participants with information on the current state of the discussion on and the objective of information budgets, as well as on initial implementation scenarios.

The first workshop in the series was entitled "Finanzierungsströme für die Open-Access-Transformation – Überblick und Stand der Diskussion" [Financing Flows for the Open Access Transformation – Overview and State of Discussion]. It began with three keynotes. First, Jochen Schirrwagen (RWTH Aachen) provided an overview of and an introduction to the topic of information budgets. Prof. Gerard Meijer (Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society) addressed in his contribution the "Recommendations on the Transformation of Academic Publishing: Towards Open Access", which he co-authored as spokesperson of a German Science and Humanities Council working group. And finally, Dr Bernhard Mittermaier (Central Library of Forschungszentrum Jülich) spoke about first experiences in implementing an information budget at Forschungszentrum Jülich. The speakers have published the slides of their presentations in open access on Zenodo; links to the publications are provided on the event web page.

Based on these keynotes, the around 130 participants discussed in the group work phase the advantages, approaches and challenges when implementing a transparent information budget at their own institutions.
The current status of information budgets at German universities and scientific institutions is very heterogeneous, and libraries are often the ones that move the topic forward. While some institutions reported that they had already implemented workflows for institution-wide cost recording, the topic is still on the to-do list at other institutions.

Many participants were looking for concrete starting points in order to transition from the theoretical debate to practical action. Exchange with other colleagues is very important in this regard. To avoid a situation where every higher education institution or science institution must find individual solutions, there is a desire to benefit from the experiences, ideas, models and approaches of others. Nevertheless, the differences between the institutional types and their internal organisation limits joint solutions. Many participants considered the decentralised accounting system to be a particular problem.

The transparent and complete recording of costs and expenditures in the context of scholarly publishing must take place at all levels. Organisationally, this includes institutes, libraries and infrastructure facilities and relates to the budgets of libraries, university chairs, and third-party-funded projects, as well as other special funds.

The participants saw difficulties and (practical) obstacles in the collaboration between the finance department, controlling, library, and management. They noted that different data sources make it more difficult to obtain an overview of actual expenditures, and the different dynamics in the publication output of the various disciplines make medium- and long-term financial planning difficult. In addition, the lack of standardisation of project identifiers, for example in DFG projects in the context of the funding programme "Open Access Publication Funding", makes it difficult to assign publications to third-party-funded projects. Furthermore, in the case of transformative agreements, the costs for individual articles are sometimes not visible.

Following on from Bernhard Mittermaier's keynote on the implementation of an information budget using Forschungszentrum Jülich as an example, the participants developed their own ideas and approaches regarding the way they wanted to establish an information budget at their own institutions. Essentially, the acquisition budget provides a good basis that can be gradually expanded to include elements of an information budget. Close collaboration between the library and the finance department is important for the practical implementation. To achieve this, the introduction of a corresponding policy for the institution as a whole may be useful.

Furthermore, a standardised ordering procedure with the involvement of the library enables expenditure for publications to be centrally recorded. Participants also recommended using the research information systems instead of Excel lists to document costs. Another possibility is to record costs in the institutional repository or to establish a special posting account for open access publications. Staff who post publication charges decentrally should be trained accordingly. Moreover, to support them in correctly assigning the costs, a list of terms that indicate open access publications could be made available to them. However, some of the participants also reported that there were still no signs of an information budget at their institutions. Up to now, efforts had failed because of a lack of interest at management level.

Overall, the response to the workshop was very positive. However, most participants would have liked more time for exchange and discussion. We will therefore allow more time for that at the next workshops. Participants' wishes regarding the topics and structure of the coming workshops, which were collected during the group work phase, will be taken into account in the planning stage. The next workshop, entitled "Erste Schritte zum Informationsbudget: Publikationskosten erfassen und sichtbar machen" [First Steps Towards an Information Budget: Recording Publication Costs and Making Them Visible], will take place on 7 February 2024.

open-access.network (2024). Auftakt der Workshopreihe "Finanzielle Gestaltung der Open-Access-Transformation". open-access.network. doi.org/10.64395/p67zt-qa991.