Peter Suber to direct Harvard’s Office for Scholarly Communication

The Harvard Library and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University are pleased to announce the appointment of Peter Suber as director of the Office for Scholarly Communication (OSC), starting July 1, 2013. Suber will continue his current activities as director of the Harvard Open Access Project, based at the Berkman Center, as well as his affiliations as a Berkman faculty fellow, senior researcher at the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), and research professor of philosophy at Earlham College.

Suber’s new role with the OSC closely aligns with his work leading the Harvard Open Access Project. Both are driven by a common vision for opening access to cutting-edge research for everyone who can make use of it. Integrating the two roles into one position will allow the projects to better share strategies, staff, resources, and knowledge, and accelerate the progress of open access both within and beyond Harvard.
Suber is taking over executive leadership of the OSC from Stuart Shieber, Welch Professor of Computer Science in Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and founding faculty director of the OSC. Shieber will continue as faculty director, though with a reduced role, co-chairing the Faculty Advisory Committee to the OSC with Suber, serving in an advisory capacity to the office, and working on individual projects with the OSC. Sue Kriegsman, OSC program manager, will continue to oversee the office’s operations and staff, as the activities of the office continue to expand and mature.