Open Access Policies in the European Union

There are significant economic, social and educational benefits to making research outputs available without financial, legal and technical barriers to access. Open Access incorporates national research into an interoperable network of global knowledge, increases national research impact, provides new research partnerships, and removes professional isolation. Society as a whole benefits because research is more efficient and more effective, delivering better and faster outcomes for all. Open Access strengthens economies through developing a strong and independent national science base. There is growing evidence that countries also benefit because Open Access increases the impact of the research in which they invest public money and therefore there is a better return on investment [1].

Chapter 2.5.2. of the Digital Agenda for Europe – Driving ICT innovation by exploiting the single market – refers to effectively managed knowledge transfer activities and states that publicly funded research should be widely disseminated through Open Access publication of scientific data and papers. Europe 2020 Flagship Initiative Innovation Union has a similar Open Access clause: the Commission will promote Open Access to the results of publicly funded research; and it will aim to make Open Access to publications the general principle for projects funded by the EU research Framework Programmes.

The European Commission is conducting a pilot initiative on Open Access to peer reviewed research articles in its Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7) to ensure that the results of the research it funds are disseminated as widely and effectively as possible to guarantee maximum exploitation and impact in the world of researchers and beyond. Open Access to research articles helps to increase the impact of the European Union’s investment in research and development and to avoid wasting time and valuable resources on duplicative research. With access to a wider selection of literature, researchers can build upon this knowledge to further their own work. Small and medium sized businesses and entrepreneurs can also benefit from improved access to the latest research developments to speed up commercialisation and innovation.

A survey of existing Open Access regulations, initiated among the European Heads of Research Councils (EUROHORCs) member organizations (MOs) in December 2007, demonstrated the great variety of Open Access policies among the EUROHORCs MOs and two thirds of them have introduced Open Access policies. In April 2008, the General Assembly of EUROHORCs agreed to recommend a minimal standard regarding Open Access to its Member Organisations [2].

Governments have begun to take an interest in Open Access out of a desire to ensure that the research which they fund reaches the largest possible audience, as well as out of a recognition of the waste of public resources which results from the old system in which taxpayers pay once for research and a second time for access to its results. For example, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), the largest funder of medical research in the U.S, implemented a policy requiring that its grant recipients make articles resulting from NIH funding publicly available within twelve months of publication in a peer-reviewed journal. This policy, passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by the President, went into effect in April 2008. The Open Access mandate at the NIH was made permanent by a bill passed by both houses of Congress signed by President Obama.

One of the most prominent examples of a funder’s mandate is the Open Access policy of the Wellcome Trust, a UK-based global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in health. Its Open Access policy has been in place since October 2006 and was the first of its kind worldwide.

MELIBEA – a directory of institutional Open Access policies lists 64 funders’ mandates requiring researchers to make their work Open Access in Open Access repositories; SHERPA JULIET lists 56 research funders’ Open Access policies and ROARMAP: Registry of Open Access Repository Material Archiving Policies lists 47 funder mandates (in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States).

If you are interested in introducing an Open Access policy in your funding agency see some of recommendations in Peter Suber’s Open Access policy options  for funding agencies and universities.

References

[1] John Houghton, Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University, Melbourne (2009): Open Access – What are the economic benefits? A comparison of the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Denmark: http://www.knowledge-exchange.info/Default.aspx?ID=316

[2] EUROHORCs’ Recommendations on Open Access:
http://www.eurohorcs.org/SiteCollectionDocuments/EUROHORCs_Recommendations_OpenAccess_200805.pdf