Open Access Programme Manager John Doove

John Doove is Open Access Programme Manager at SURF. 'I work in a complex environment that involves many competing interests: commercial, political, national and international.'

A clear goal in mind

'The programme I am setting up and implementing aims to realise the transition towards an open-access publication model. Open access makes publications and research data accessible online, without any restrictions. In my work, I collaborate closely with many higher education institutions, Dutch organisations and umbrella organisations and international bodies such as Knowledge Exchange and the European Commission. All of these parties have a role in open access. So I do a lot of coordinating, but always with a clear goal in mind: to promote open-access publishing. That puts a very concrete spin on everything I do.' 

Common challenge

'SURF is all about openness: we strive for fully open access to scientific material and research results. I support the education and research institutions, to make open-access publishing as easy and efficient for them as possible. For example, together we look at how we can best help researchers and institutions make the switch to open access. We look at what types of information institutions need to create policy, what information we as SURF can provide to support their researchers, and so forth.'

Complex landscape

'Collaboration with a wide variety of parties and with people at a range of administrative tiers is a crucial component of what I do. In my job, it is important that you enjoy working a lot with other people. Every day is different, there is lots of variety and that makes me, personally, very happy. I work in a complex environment that involves many competing interests: commercial, political, national and international. I find generating optimum collaboration in such a sensitive landscape to be an enormous challenge, which is what makes my work so interesting.'

Open, informal and customer-oriented

'I started working at SURF in 2009. SURF is a very customer-focused organisation. Everything really does revolve around students and institutions, which very much suits my working style. The atmosphere at SURF is open and informal. Flexworking has been a part of SURF for a while now, it is nothing new. People are very free to organise their own working days. A nice thing about our building is that there are plenty of colleagues from other SURF departments nearby, so you can always hold a quick powwow with colleagues who have relevant knowledge and expertise in many different areas. It is definitely an inspiring working environment!'