Non-Fungible Token (NFT) in the academia and open access publishing environment: considerations towards science-friendly scenarios

Abstract

The article describes the use and possible value creation of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) in the academia and open access publishing environment. It defines NFTs, describes disadvantages and possible solutions, especially in the intended scientific environment. An overview of existing NFT service providers from the publishing environment illustrates that there is not yet a suitable one for researchers. Accordingly, three possible scenarios are shown where NFT services could be located in a science-friendly way. One would be with library- or scholarly-led university presses, repositories, and other publication infrastructures (such as OJS or OMP). Another would be to use centralizing and channelling article submission platforms with which universities have contracts, such as ChronosHub. The third and broadest approach would be through Digital Object Identifier (DOI) registration agencies such as ChronosHub and DataCite, although complexities come into play here due to the triangular relationship with publishers registering DOIs (some of them having exclusive usage rights transferred to themselves). This complexity could be reduced by registering NFTs only for open access publications with a Creative Common Attribution license. A summary and outlook provides an overview of open questions and initial starting points to get started.