The Open Access Tracking Project offers a real-time alert system for open access news and information. With its founder contemplating retirement, now is the time to strengthen its infrastructure, improve its user experience, and secure its long-term future.
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In 2009, Peter Suber (Berkman Klein Center, 2025d & “Peter Suber,” 2025), widely recognized as a pioneer of the open access (OA) movement, launched the Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) (Berkman Klein Center, 2025a) to meet the growing need for timely and organized updates on developments in OA and open science. What began as an experimental solution quickly evolved into a community-driven initiative. In 2011, OATP became a formal project of the Harvard Open Access Project (HOAP), where it continues to be hosted. Built on the open-source TagTeam (TT) software (TagTeam, 2025i), OATP offers a structured, real-time alert system for news, policies, and research in the OA space.
By using a decentralized tagging model and standardized hashtags, OATP helps users easily follow specific topics and trends. It has become a go-to resource for librarians, researchers, and policymakers. This review considers both the OATP and its underlying TT platform as an integrated system, focusing on their current capabilities, impact on scholarly communication, potential as a sustainable and community-curated knowledge hub, and significance as a living archive of the OA movement.
OATP runs on TagTeam (TT) (TagTeam, 2025i), an open-source tagging and feed aggregator platform also developed under HOAP. TT serves as the technical foundation of OATP, enabling contributors to collaboratively tag, organize, and curate OA-related content from across the web. In this context, tagging means applying structured and topic-specific labels, which are similar to hashtags but drawn from a controlled vocabulary (TagTeam, 2025b), to categorize and track OA content.
OATP’s core mission is to provide real-time alerts and comprehensive tagging of OA developments. It features one primary feed containing all new entries and hundreds of secondary feeds based on specific tags (e.g., #oa.data, #oa.books, #oa.policies). This structure makes it easy for users to track and share information on particular OA topics.
As of April 2025, OATP has curated more than 107,000 tagged items and over 15,000 unique hashtags, with a daily average of 50 new entries (TagTeam, 2025a & 2025b). It remains one of the most active projects on the TT platform, reflecting strong global engagement from the OA community. Over 90,000 (84 percent) of these entries are from first-hand sources tagged by users (TagTeam, 2025c), a testament to the platform’s value as a frontline aggregator.
Previously funded by Arcadia (2011–2016) and the Arnold Foundation (2016–2018), OATP and TT are currently operating without dedicated funding, though Suber has described them as “eminently fundable” due to their critical contributions to the OA infrastructure (Suber, 2025). As Suber anticipates his eventual retirement, he is seeking to transfer both OATP and TT into a nonprofit or coalition-led model, with the aim of securing their long-term sustainability.
All OATP content is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) license (Berkman Klein Centre, 2025a), while the TT platform is released under the Affero General Public License (AGPL) (Free Software Foundation, 2007 & TagTeam, 2025j). The metadata generated from tagging activity (e.g., timestamps) is released into the public domain through CC0 by both TT and users (Berkman Klein Center, 2025e), reinforcing their alignment with open knowledge principles.
Features and Functionality
A key strength of the system is its editable and dynamic content model. Items are not static once they are added; contributors can retroactively apply additional tags, enriching the metadata and discoverability of existing records. Figures 1 through 3 show how a news item (from the primary source feed) and an older related piece (from a secondary source feed) were discovered and tagged at different times. In August 2019, a news story titled “The Ptolemy Project: A Scalable Model for Delivering Health Information in Africa” was tagged from its original source, which published it in October 2003. Later, in January 2020, an even older related article titled “Meeting the Information Needs of Health Workers in Developing Countries,” originally published in January 1997, was tagged from a secondary source. This example highlights OATP’s value as a living and continuously growing historical archive of open access developments.
One of OATP’s standout features is its remixable tagging architecture, which allows all newly tagged items to appear chronologically in the main feed while each tag generates its own customizable secondary feed. Users can subscribe to these feeds via RSS, Atom, or JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) to create personalized current-awareness systems tailored to specific interests. A notable example is the “oa.new” feed, which is populated with items directly chosen by contributors. Its stable URL ensures reliable access over time, even as contributors remove spam (tagged as “oa.spam”) or irrelevant content, maintaining its value as a reference and tracking tool. While English is the primary language for its core tagging vocabulary and tag record descriptions, OATP allows user-defined tags not in English (Berkman Klein Center, 2025b).
TT was designed specifically to support collaborative and subject-specific tagging at scale. It enables Suber’s “folksonomy in, ontology out” approach, allowing contributors to use informal, user-generated tags that are then structured into a coherent and browsable vocabulary. Tags can include definitions, synonyms, and hierarchies that refine the system over time. This flexibility supports the discovery and preservation of the nuanced relationships between topics. One powerful feature built on TT’s tagging architecture is the remix hub, a customizable collection of feeds that aggregates content based on selected tags, sources, or contributors. Remix hubs allow users to created tailored views of the data, such as monitoring specific topics within a region. These features are deeply integrated into the platform’s architecture and could be lost if OATP were migrated to a less customizable platform.
Unlike general bookmarking tools, TT is specifically built for scholarly work. It keeps information well organized and easy to track over time, with stable archiving, open data output, and community engagement, key features that make OTAP transparent, reliable, and useful.
TT supports two display modes: a chronological list view and a grid view. However, the grid view only displays a default TagTeam logo, without preview images, which may not meet today’s user expectations for visual content display.
Navigation has its limits. The platform lacks advanced filtering tools for older entries, which can make it harder for users to browse or conduct exploratory research purely within the OATP environment. However, hub owners can apply “hub-wide tag filters” to refine their collections at both the input source and feed levels. This feature is particularly useful for researchers who want to build and maintain a personalized collection of OA-related news.
Data/Content
The OATP content is published through primary and secondary feeds. The primary feed aggregates the latest developments across the full spectrum of open access, typically covering content from the past six months, while secondary feeds focus on narrower topics, such as a specific discipline, geographic area, or types of OA content (e.g., #oa.policies, #oa.journals, or #oa.repositories) (Berkman Klein Center, 2025c).
Primary feeds are accessible in up to eight different file formats, making them adaptable for various systems and user preferences. Among all outputs, OATP’s most widely followed channel is its X (formerly Twitter) account (@oatp) which acts as a broadcast stream for high-level updates and tagged items. Each tag also has its own corresponding feed. Users can build custom feeds using Boolean logic, combining tags and keywords to create tailored streams of information. Feed URLs are clean and logically structured, which helps with both discovery and integration.
On the technical side, TT is developer friendly. Developers can review the app’s structure using built-in documentation tools, either through the conceptual documentation or by running the “rake doc:app” command within the $RAILS_ROOT directory. The platform supports nearly every kind of OA-related content, from peer-reviewed journal articles and preprints to books, datasets, job advertisement, conference workshops, and podcasts.
This breadth and flexibility make OATP not only a rich discovery tool but also a valuable archive of the evolving open access landscape.
The “petersuber” Bookmark Collection
One of the most active and influential contributors to OATP is Suber himself. His personal TT library, known as the “petersuber” bookmark collection, features over 28,000 tagged items. These entries are added manually, either through a browser-based bookmarklet or by uploading files. The feed is regularly updated with fresh and relevant content. Recent examples include news about PLOS partnerships in China (PLOS, 2025), showcasing how the collection remains both timely and globally informed.
The tagging scheme follows a simple and consistent “oa.[tag]” pattern. While many commonly used tags already exist, users can freely create their own, contributing to the evolution of the OATP taxonomy. This open, user-driven system reflects the project’s broader values—collaboration, transparency, and adaptability. The tagging interface is straightforward, allowing users to add metadata such as titles and URLs (which are often auto filled from the source webpage), which makes the process efficient and accessible.
The depth, consistency, and quality of OATP’s curation demonstrate the power of a simple, well-executed tagging strategy. An individual’s sustained contributions can have a big impact, making it easier for the broader OA community to follow developments and stay connected to the ongoing progress of open access and open science worldwide.
Future Developments
Although Suber continues to maintain both OATP and TT, active development of the TT platform has slowed considerably. The most recent updates on its GitHub repository date back five or more years (GitHub, 2025), and the user interface and main functionality have remained largely unchanged since their early development. Some behind-the-scenes improvements have been made to enhance data coverage, but no major upgrades have been rolled out publicly.
Both OATP and TT are actively seeking a new institutional home. Suber has proposed transitioning leadership to a nonprofit organization with a strong commitment to OA, open science, and open-source software (Suber, 2025 & Research Data Alliance, 2025).
In his transition proposal, Suber offers an overview of the associated risks, opportunities, and responsibilities, along with a detailed roadmap for the future. His technical recommendations include:
A to-do list outlining future priorities is still available on GitHub. The last enhancements to TT were made several years ago, and there is no clear indication that future development priorities are being actively pursued. Proposed areas for improvement include user experience design, remixing capabilities, and increased integration options for developers (GitHub, 2025).
Ultimately, the future of OATP will depend on finding the right organizational home—one with the vision, technical capacity, and community backing to sustain and grow this valuable resource. With the right support, OATP could continue to evolve as a powerful, open, and participatory platform for tracking developments not only in OA but in other domains of scholarly communication.
Like other TT hubs, OATP is publicly accessible. Its tagging model is simple but effective. The contributors need only ensure that the content is relevant to OA and available via a public URL.
Getting Started: A Simple Process
Becoming a tagger for the OATP is generally a straightforward process, though some access limitations have recently been introduced. The Harvard-hosted instance of TT now limits new accounts to individuals affiliated with academic or research projects. To apply, prospective users must provide a description of their proposed project and its scholarly or research-based intent to be considered for approval. Once approved, users can either request permission to tag for OATP or create a hub for their own project.
Tagging Flexibility and Feed Customization
To begin tagging for OATP, users follow four simple steps, including tagging conventions and best practice. The conventions are central to OATP’s identity (Berkman Klein Center, 2025b).
OATP supports user-defined subtopic tags following a consistent syntax (e.g., oa.india, oa.policies, oa.repositories, oa.plan_s, oa.paywalls). Users can apply Boolean logic to combine tags and generate highly tailored feeds such as oa.india AND oa.policies, (oa.india OR oa.south) AND oa.plan_s.
These customized feeds are available in multiple formats (RSS, Atom, JSON) and accessible through clean and self-explanatory URLs. This functionality allows users to monitor developments aligned with their specific interests, enhancing the platform’s value as a personalized current-awareness and curation tool.
Participation and Governance
OATP tagging is a community-driven process, with tagging permissions granted to approved contributors who agree to follow OATP’s established syntax and conventions. Each new participating individual strengthens both the OATP and the broader OA ecosystem by enriching its coverage, accuracy, and depth. In doing so, contributors also make a visible and practical commitment to the principles of OA.
In line with ongoing efforts to enhance governance, certain collaborative resources such as the public tag wiki (Berkman Klein Center, 2025c) were closed to public edits in July 2024. This shift supports the team’s exploration of structured community oversight and technical improvements for managing deprecated and approved tags more effectively.
Self-Hosting Option
While OATP currently operates from the Harvard-hosted instance, TT is open source and can be self-hosted. This option promotes decentralization, sustainability, and greater control for users, and is particularly valuable for organizations with specific content or governance needs. Users can access the source code on GitHub (GitHub, 2025) and adapt the terms of service (TagTeam, 2025h) to suit their requirements. Hosting independently could also help address occasional server response delays observed on the Harvard instance.
Documentation and Usability
The project has comprehensive documentation, which caters to both technical users and content contributors. The resources available include an architectural overview, detailed tagging guidance and syntax rules (e.g., OATP Tags), a TagTeam FAQ, and instructions for installing the tagging bookmarklet. This thorough documentation ensures that users can easily navigate the platform and make the most of its features.
Community and Support
Support for both OATP and TT is primarily provided by Suber, who continues to oversee the platform’s maintenance. While there is no dedicated technical support team, users have relied on the community-driven nature of the project and the availability of extensive documentation to address most needs. The GitHub issue tracker has been inactive for several years, and there is no indication that the general contact email ([email protected]) at Harvard University is still monitored. At present, Suber remains the only confirmed active point of contact for the project.
The OATP and TT are entirely free to use and the source codes are publicly available on GitHub. As mentioned earlier, OATP operates on the Harvard-hosted instance of TT. While Harvard has generously supported the project, including during periods without grant funding, this hosting arrangement may not be sustainable long term.
The TT Terms of Service, effective since May 2014, govern the use of the site and its functionalities, including aspects related to privacy, data use, content ownership, copyright, and liability. If users do not agree to the terms, they are advised not to use the service.
TT uses a password-based authentication system to manage user access. Most of the TT interface is optimized for caching, allowing unauthenticated users or users without administrative privileges to access content. The default cache duration is set to fifteen minutes, which is managed through “cron” command to perform scheduled jobs automatically. Users with the necessary permissions can clear the cache through the command line using the “rake tmp:clear” command or by modifying the backend configuration. This authentication model is lightweight and works well for typical use cases. Institutions with more advanced hosting needs can customize the system for better scalability and enhanced control.
While commercial social tagging platforms exist, OATP stands out due to its distinct mission and functionality. It is designed to capture and curate real-time information about OA, with a collaborative tagging model driven by a global community of OA experts. No commercial or open-source products replicate OATP’s unique focus on OA discovery and tracking, particularly with the same depth and breadth of content.
The Harvard-hosted instance of OATP is currently limited to academic and research users. However, the team is open to supporting additional instances of TT that can accommodate non-academic users or serve broader communities. This positioning makes OATP not just a research tool, but also a vital infrastructure component in the global OA movement.
The OATP, built on the TT platform, has played an essential role in chronicling OA developments through a unique and community-driven model. Its strength lies in the collaborative tagging of news, policies, and resources across the OA landscape. In an era of digital fragmentation and misinformation, OATP stands out as a decentralized and transparent tool for staying informed.
Much of OATP’s persistence and credibility can be attributed to the leadership and long-standing commitment of Suber, whose influence in the OA movement has earned the project widespread recognition. This moment presents an important opportunity for a mission-aligned organization to step in and ensure OATP’s long-term sustainability and impact.
Several community-driven initiatives in scholarly communication, particularly those focused on open infrastructure, metadata curation, and research analytics, demonstrate what shared governance and sustained support can achieve. Projects like Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI) and OpenCitations reflect values that align with OATP’s transparency, interoperability, and collaborative knowledge-sharing. These efforts offer a glimpse into the kind of ecosystem where OATP could continue to evolve and serve the global research community. Institutions like the University of California Curation Center (UC3) also show how digital projects can be well cared for over time.
OATP’s global participatory model has proven effective, but with the need to transition to new stewardship, the project now faces uncertainty. Questions around funding, governance, and continuity require urgent attention.
The user experience should also be improved. The search and filtering options are limited, and the platform lacks multilingual support. For casual users or those unfamiliar with tagging, the learning curve may be steep. Enhancements like better feed search, AI-driven discovery, or integration with other platforms could help expand OATP’s reach.
Though TT is open source and can be self-hosted, its documentation is moderately outdated, and its performance occasionally lags. Hosting through Harvard has been stable, but there is no formal long-term commitment. Any new host will need to invest in upgrading the infrastructure and introducing better support systems such as a help desk or ticketing service.
Despite these challenges, OATP remains a valuable resource. With renewed support through funding, governance, and technical development, it can continue to evolve and serve a broader audience. Strengthening its infrastructure and expanding its reach will help ensure that this collaborative platform remains a living archive of the OA movement, capturing its past, tracking its present, and shaping its future.
OATP offers more than just news. It serves as both a discovery platform and a living archive of the OA movement. Its curated feeds, tagging infrastructure, and searchable database support collection development, advocacy, and strategic decision-making.
To meet future needs, any new steward should prioritize usability improvements such as enhanced search, modern navigation, and better feed integration. They should also invest in updating the underlying TT infrastructure. Libraries and “open” mission-driven organizations are well-positioned to provide leadership, contribute to tagging, and help secure sustainable funding.
Preserving OATP means preserving the collective memory of OA. It also marks a commitment to the values—openness, collaboration, and knowledge sharing—that should be central to the future of scholarly communication.
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10.1146/katina-05132025-1
