OpenCitations is an independent, non-profit, community-based Open Scholarly Infrastructure dedicated to publishing open bibliographic and citation data using Semantic Web and Linked Data technologies (Peroni & Shotton, 2020). It started in 2010 as a one-year project funded by JISC, led by David Shotton (University of Oxford), with Silvio Peroni (University of Bologna) joining as co-director in 2015. The initial goal was to make citation data openly available and interoperable, treating citation links as navigable Web resources. During its first decade, OpenCitations was supported by grants from the JISC, the Sloan Foundation, and the Wellcome Trust, which enabled the development of citation indexes based on openly available bibliographic data. In 2015, OpenCitations became institutionally hosted by the University of Bologna, with a new instantiation of the OpenCitations Corpus developed within the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. It is currently administratively managed by the Research Centre for Open Scholarly Metadata (ReCOSM) within the Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies.

In 2019, OpenCitations was selected by the Global Sustainability Coalition for Open Science Services (SCOSS) for its second funding round. SCOSS recognized OpenCitations’ strong alignment with Open Science principles and its potential to contribute to the transformation of research evaluation by providing open citation data as an alternative to proprietary infrastructures. From 2020 onwards, SCOSS coordinated a global crowdfunding initiative involving research organizations, university libraries, academic institutions, and consortia, encouraging contributions proportional to their capacity through a three-tier membership program and, alternatively, donations. This model contributed to strengthening financial

sustainability and enabled significant growth in both technical infrastructure and human resources. It also represented an initial step toward a more structured governance framework, with members participating in the OpenCitations Council and electing the International Advisory Board, responsible for strategic guidance and, in 2022, contributing to the definition of OpenCitations’ mission and objectives in a public statement (Peroni & Shotton, 2022).

At the same time, OpenCitations began assessing its practices against the Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure (POSI). The first assessment in 2021 highlighted several limitations, including insufficient stakeholder involvement in governance and concerns regarding the long-term sustainability of a model primarily based on community crowdfunding (Di Giambattista, 2021). In response to these shortcomings, over the last two years, OpenCitations has undertaken a structured process of governance revision. Through the combined efforts of a dedicated internal working group and the legal guidance of the University of Bologna, a new governance framework was formally introduced in early 2026 (Di Giambattista, 2026). This updated model strengthens several key dimensions. First, it reinforces institutional stability through the formal recognition of the University of Bologna as a hosting member providing in-kind support in terms of infrastructure, services, and administrative and legal assistance. Second, it consolidates the community-governed nature of the initiative through the establishment of a Trustee Network, composed of institutions responsible for overseeing compliance with OpenCitations’ mission and values. Third, it improves financial predictability by introducing a simplified and more structured membership model, based on two clearly defined tiers and the removal of unrestricted donations. Finally, it enhances long-term resilience by reducing dependence on individual roles and introducing governance mechanisms that support continuity and potential transfer of the infrastructure.

In this context, the concept of a “living will” has been further developed. Initial work on this aspect was carried out at the technical level, through the design of a fully replicable infrastructure intended to enable the transfer of data and services if required (Petrella, 2025). This is now complemented by governance provisions that facilitate such transitions, particularly through the role of the Trustee Network in supporting the identification and appointment of alternative hosting institutions. These developments are being considered within the ongoing POSI reassessment based on version 2 of POSI (POSI Adopters, 2025), which OpenCitations is conducting in 2026. Although the assessment is still in progress at the time of writing, preliminary results indicate measurable improvements compared to the 2021 evaluation.

Taken together, these developments position OpenCitations as a representative case of a community-based open infrastructure that has evolved in close interaction with its base of funders, partners and users. From its early stages, OpenCitations has been developed for the community and sustained through community engagement, particularly through collaborative funding and participatory governance mechanisms. The limitations identified in the initial POSI assessment have been explicitly addressed through a process of governance revision aimed at strengthening and formalizing community participation. Rather than replacing its community-driven nature, the new governance framework consolidates it by integrating

community actors into more stable structures, such as the Trustee Network and the revised membership model. At the same time, it introduces greater clarity in financial commitments and institutional responsibilities, contributing to improved long-term viability.

The proposed talk will therefore focus on gathering these insights, taking OpenCitations as a case study to illustrate how community-based infrastructures can evolve from an initial phase of organic growth to a more mature configuration, in which community engagement is not only preserved but also structurally embedded in governance, supporting both financial sustainability and operational continuity over time.