Secondary publication right in Slovenian legislation

Open science is strongly anchored in Slovenian legislation and in open science policies of some Slovenian institutions, including the rights retention.

The Slovenian Rectors' Conference was of the opinion that the Secondary Publication Right (SPR) is also needed in Slovenian legislation.

All mechanisms combined, i.e., the APC vouchers from Read & Publish agreements, paying for the APCs, rights retention and SPR, will enable researchers to fully comply with the legal provisions on immediate open access to peer-reviewed publications.

Therefore, the Slovenian Rectors' Conference has recommended to the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation in 2023 to include the SPR in Slovenian legislation.

After the preparation of the draft SPR as part of the draft amending act, public consultation, review by ministries and approval by the Government, the final draft of the amending act was submitted to the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia.

The Act Amending the Scientific Research and Innovation Activities Act, which was published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia on 4 June 2025 and entered into force on 19 June 2025, contains the SPR which refers to all research results and immediate open access without embargo.

The Scientific Research and Innovation Activities Act was amended as follows (unofficial translation from Slovenian):

"Article 41 (Open access to scientific publications and research data)

EXISTING PARAGRAPH: (1) For research co-financed in the amount of at least 50% public funding, the funding provider shall request and the researcher shall provide open access to all peer-reviewed scientific publications and research data and other research results. A provider of scientific research activities or researchers shall also comply with this obligation in the individual management of intellectual property rights, by reserving the appropriate level of rights necessary to comply with the obligations set out in this paragraph.

…..

NEW PARAGRAPH FOR SPR: (6) In cases where the rights are not managed individually by the provider of scientific research activities or researchers in accordance with the first paragraph of this Article, the researcher or provider of the scientific research activity shall be deemed to be entitled to publish or make available to the public the results of the research in a public open access repository as soon as the result of the research has been accepted for publication, with due acknowledgement of the researcher and the source of the first publication.

NEW PARAGRAPH FOR SPR: (7) Contractual provisions contrary to the preceding paragraph of this Article shall be null and void."

The SPR included in Slovenian legislation enables open access to research results, i.e., to publications and underlying research data as well as to other types of research results, via repositories in cases where open access is not possible at the publisher.