Integral to this move is the existence of its well-established open access repository infrastructure: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP) which has played a crucial role not only in increasing the visibility of Portuguese higher education and research institutions on the internet, but also in the rapid development and spread of Open Access repositories within several academic institutions.

 

The FCT Policies on Open Access are a direct outcome of a public consultation held in 2013. They encompass guidelines for free, online access to peer-reviewed publications and data arising from FCT funding. The policies came into force on 5 May 2014.

 

 

The core of the policy on open access to publications arising from FCT-funded research is that all publications of research outputs, subject to peer-review or another form of scientific review, should be deposited in one of the open access repositories hosted within RCAAP as soon as possible, preferably immediately on acceptance for publication. An embargo period is allowed, after which the full content of the publications should be made freely available, at no cost. The policy applies to papers in scientific journals, conference proceedings, posters, books and book chapters, monographs, Masters and PhD theses. FCT funding encompasses project grants, studentships and fellowships, career development contracts (FCT Investigator).

 

The policy on management and sharing of data and other results arising from FCT-funded research encourages researchers to share primary data and other data with the scientific community, by placing the data in open access databases (such as Genbank, for example), within the shortest time possible. In this case, too, FCT funding encompasses project grants, studentships and fellowships, career development contracts (FCT Investigator).

Open Access to publications of results of FCT-funded research (only in Portuguese)

Management and sharing of data and results of FCT-funded research (only in Portuguese)