12. Open Advocacy

What is it?

Advocacy in all its forms seeks to ensure that people, particularly those who are most vulnerable in society, are able to:

Have their voice heard on issues that are important to them. Advocacy means giving voice to a group.
Defend and safeguard their rights.
Have their views and wishes genuinely considered when decisions are being made about their lives.

Advocacy include actions of defending, influencing, changing, decision-making, persuading, lobbying, attracting attention.

Open Advocacy focuses on the movement to promote Open Science at various levels of stakeholders, highlighting and stressing the societal, professional and personal advantages that it entails.

Rationale

Trainings (workshops, seminars, presentations) can be used as advocacy tools. The structured approach to advocacy practices helps to address the main issues the trainer has to keep in mind if the training is connected to an Open Science advocacy program. how to use advocacy strategies as tools for effecting specific changes, and on building the basic skills necessary for employing advocacy tools (e.g., ad campaigns, meetings with policymakers). Training here is considered as a tool for effecting specific changes, and for building an Open Science advocate community.

Learning objectives

Understand the context and goals of the advocacy program
Be able to communicate effectively with audiences and draw community’s attention to an important issue and directing decision makers toward a resolution.

Key components

Knowledge

Objectives to achieve

SMART is a way of reminding you that your objectives should be:

Specific — by this we mean that you need to set a specific objective for your programmes.

Measurable — your objective should be measurable.

Achievable — the objective should be attainable or practicable.

Realistic — which also means credible.

Time-bound — and should be accomplished and achieved within a certain amount of time.

Objectives can be long term or short term. Long-term objectives usually focus on changing the policy or practice of institutions, whereas shorter-term objectives can focus on attitude changes, raising awareness, getting an issue on the agenda, building a constituency of support or movement for change. It may be necessary to achieve some of the short-term objectives before you can achieve the longer-term ones.

Main goals of advocacy program:

To increase awareness among influential groups and the public
To reduce stigma and fear
To engage and mobilize key stakeholders within the community who will champion the development
To expand advocacy groups, including community volunteers
To mobilize resources to support the implementation of key priority (core) interventions
To maintain the involvement of decision-makers and the public l by disseminating information on achievements to date and future challenges.

Steps to good advocacy

Define your goals
1. What needs changing?
2. What do we want to ask for? Changing legislation, policy, regulation, programs, funding
Understand your audience: different strategies for each target
Build a profile of open access stakeholders and their attitudes
Craft your message: create compelling messages that appeal to stakeholders’ interests
1. Be clear on what we are asking for
2. Keep it simple and focussed
3. Use positive language
4. Use evidence - facts carry more weight than anecdotal evidence
5. Economic arguments are important
Plan and develop your communication and advocacy campaign
Identify delivery methods:
1. Advocacy is relationship building,
2. Tactics change by target audience
Identify Resources and Gaps:
1. Do a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis
2. Build on existing resources and opportunities
Plan next steps, identify achievable goals that set stage for larger work: advocacy strategy/plan
Evaluate effectiveness regularly

Aspects of advocacy

Advocating for your own rights as an author
The basic steps for achieving local culture change (Kotter n.y.)
Advocating to your peers: Writing letters and articles advocating for Open
Talking to journal editors - having the OA conversation with your field
Talking to policymakers

Tools and methods

Indirect: stimulate participants to take action on their own behalf

Direct: lobbying before decision makers by representatives on behalf of others

Campaigning: generating a response from the wider public and using a variety of techniques such as:

Chain e-mail or letter
Opinion pieces and letters to the editor in newspapers
Newsletters
Celebrity endorsements
Media partnerships with newspapers, journalists and film-makers
Web-based bulletins and online discussions
Public events
Large-scale advertising campaigns
Use of social media (Twitter, Facebook)

Skills

Write a letter for a newsletter or forum for your scholarly society about Open Access.
Make your own email template reply about only reviewing for OA journals, etc. Reuse/base it on ones out there already.
Outline concrete solutions and benefits Open Science can deliver for current headaches university administrators may struggle with.
Find your local advocacy group and volunteer for them!

Questions, obstacles, and common misconceptions

Lack of interest from audiences. Lack of understanding the value.

The institution and/or senior management is concerned about the impact of the advocacy efforts.

Learning outcomes

The trainer will be able to consider the training event in the context of a program.

Initiatives and projects

FOSTER Plus Project (2017-2019). Fostering the practical implementation of Open Science in Horizon 2020 and beyond. fosteropenscience.eu
PATH. Strengthen Advocacy. sites.path.org
PASTEUR4OA. Advocacy Resources. pasteur4oa.eu
Retraction Watch. retractionwatch.com

Open Advocacy