Since its founding in 2009, DataCite’s work has been guided by a singular and shared commitment to building and sustaining an international open scholarly infrastructure, creating a community where all research organizations can belong and where all research outputs, resources, and activities can be shared, discovered, and connected.
The next step in its journey is an updated membership fee structure to re-align with its guiding values and vision for the future. The new structure represents a deliberate shift from the previous transactional model based on DOI registration quantities to a collective funding model focused on supporting shared the open infrastructure. This means that DataCite’s standard fee structure will no longer include per-DOI fees or fees based on DOI quantities. It will simplify how fees are applied and adjusting costs based on country-level economic indicators to achieve a more balanced distribution across member organizations.
These updates to the membership fee structure continue to broaden pathways of participation and advance DataCite’s vision of shared ownership, where all organizations can engage in a way that works for them, whether that means accessing services directly, participating in a consortium to share costs and engage in communities of practice, or investing funds in DataCite’s mission. Despite the fee structure change, DataCite’s services, governance model, and commitment to open infrastructure remain constant.
For a complete explanation of and rationale for the changes, read the blog post from Matt Buys, DataCite's Executive Director, or at https://doi.org/10.5438/gc07-ah64