Today, Dryad announces a new partner program and fee structure. The updates represent a fresh approach to funding that promises to ensure our long-term health as an organization and to prepare us to meet the demands for data sharing now and in the future.
We appreciate that those of us in the U.S. research community are experiencing troubling and uncertain times, and that changes to fees may be especially challenging at this moment. We hope that the flexibility we have built into our new approach will help soften the transition, and we stand ready to support you with stakeholder engagement.
Our updated fee structure has been developed over the course of the last three years, and is the outcome of close collaboration between Dryad and our stakeholder institutions, publishing organizations, and academic societies. The new model distributes Dryad’s operational and data-handling costs across our user community and partner organizations in a way that is felt to be fair, flexible, and as sensible as possible for everyone involved.
A new funding model for an evolving landscape
Prevailing attitudes toward data have changed dramatically over the 18 years of Dryad’s existence. While not yet standard practice, data accessibility has reached a tipping point — Data Availability Statements are widespread, data management plans are a more common component of grant applications, and data-sharing mandates are emerging from more funders and publishers.
The cost of data curation, publication and preservation increases with volume — something our previous fee model didn’t adequately account for. Dryad’s new fees are designed to solve the problem of scalability, positioning us to meet growing demand over the long term. Under our new fee structure, all authors pay a Data Publication Charge that scales with use to reflect the true costs of this work. Authors can pay the DPC directly, or organizations – institutions, publishers, funders and other research organizations – can partner with Dryad to sponsor DPCs on behalf of their researchers at a reduced rate. For partners, we’re also introducing a tiered Annual Service Fee, which helps to cover the fixed costs of running the Dryad organization responsibly, keeping the operation robust, and offering the skilled support to researchers and other stakeholders that distinguish our service. Read more about our partner program.
Both the Data Publication Change and Annual Service Fee are set on a cost basis, meaning that pricing reflects the real cost of delivering services (and a modest overhead), rather than on a value basis, and what the market might be convinced to pay (independent of the actual costs). That’s important to us as a non-profit organization operating in the community interest. This approach allows us to limit author fees, treat all stakeholders equitably, and uphold our values, while also helping Dryad to thrive.
Developing a collaborative funding model
Dryad’s new partner program and fee structure are the result of extensive community consultation. Our work began in 2022 with informal advice-gathering and continued in 2023 with a series of open discussions and formal consultation. In early 2024, we began working intensively with a dedicated taskforce of stakeholders from across our user community. The resulting fee structure reflects our partner’s needs and willingness to pay as well as the profound value the community places on research data availability – and Dryad as the service they trust to support researchers and help them accomplish their goals. The model is also an expression of our organizational values: responsibility, inclusion, openness, and trustworthiness.
We recognize and thank the members of the taskforce, who have provided their insight and expertise over the past year. They include: Ali Andalibi (Charles R Drew University); Karl Benedict (University of New Mexico (retired)); Jeanine Finn (Claremont Colleges); Vicky Johnson (Wiley); Angela R. Maranville (Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA)); Joe Lucia (Temple University); Johan Nilsson (Oikos Editorial Office); Rob O’Donnell (Rockefeller University Press); Shawn Ross (Macquarie University); and Cynthia Hudson Vitale (Association of Research Libraries); Matt Wascavage (Alliance of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Science Societies). Dryad team members Jen Gibson, Sarah Lippincott, and Maria Guerreiro, and consultants Mark Kurtz and Jon Treadway were also instrumental in this work. We also thank Ian Bruno (Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre) and Michael Markie (Incentivizing Collaborative and Open Research (ICOR)/eLife) for their expert review of our proposals in development.
Partnering for growth in the long term
Dryad’s partner program continues the relationship that has always existed between Dryad and our community — we are, always have been, and will remain a community-based organization. We occupy a special place in scholarly communications, where a variety of perspectives intersect in a collaborative spirit to operate in the community interest.
Our new funding structure is calibrated to maintain and improve our services over time, while ensuring Dryad remains accessible and affordable for researchers and partner organizations of all resource levels. With it, we’re poised for success: able to continue responsible and effective governance, keep abreast of essential technological developments, and ensure that we can pay our team and support a positive work environment. With it, we’re ready to take on as much data as the community can generate.