Open Science in Poland is originally a bottom-up movement. However, in recent years awareness of Open Access issues has been rising steadily. In 2008, members of the European University Association – among them 43 Polish higher education institutions and the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland – issued their Recommendations from the EUA Working Group on Open Access, postulating the establishment of institutional repositories networked on the national and European level. In July 2013, the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland have jointly published a statement in support of the Green Road to Open Access, calling for institutional repositories to be established in all scientific units in the country. Finally, in October 2015, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MNiSW) issued a document entitled „Kierunki rozwoju otwartego dostępu do treści naukowych w Polsce” (in Polish only; for a discussion of this document in English see the blog post "Poland: Initial open access policy") which sets specific OA recommendations for all major stakeholders in Poland.
In March 2018, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MNiSW) published a report on the implementation of open access policy („Raport nt. realizacji polityki otwartego dostępu do publikacji naukowych w latach 2015-2017”, in Polish only). The document summarized the efforts that had been undertaken in years 2015-2017, identified barriers to open access and provided recommendations for further work. In 2018, the Polish parliament passed the Law on Higher Education and Science, the so-called Law 2.0. It provided the framework for the reform of the higher education system.
The Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MNiSW) is responsible for the development and implementation of research policy. The Ministry provides core funding for the statutory activities of various types of research institutions and for large infrastructure investments, and it also supervises the two major governmental funding agencies – the National Science Centre (Narodowe Centrum Nauki, NCN) and the National Centre for Research and Development (Narodowe Centrum Badań i Rozwoju, NCBR).
The Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools (CRASP) in Poland is the representative body of academic schools, which have the right to award the doctor's degree (or equivalent) in at least one scientific discipline. On July 5, 2013 CRASP and Polish Academy of Sciences (Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) issued a joint statement on open access to scientific publications and educational resources. In 2018 CRASP published a statement on the implementation of open science model. CRASP is a member of European University Association, which supports universities in the implementation of Open Science principles.
The Polish Academy of Sciences (Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a national research institution founded in 1952. It conducts advanced research at its scientific units, integrates research community in Poland, supports and promotes various forms of research and educates young scholars.
State research institutes (see: Main Council of the Research Institutes) are government-run institutions that conduct R&D work in line with the needs of the national economy and social life.
Two major governmental agencies are responsible for the bulk of research funding in Poland.
The National Science Centre (NCN) was launched in 2011 as the main governmental agency supporting basic research in Poland. This is achieved through the funding of research projects in all fields of sciences and humanities as well as doctoral fellowships and post-doctoral internships. NCN belongs to the cOAlition S from its beginning (September, 2018). In April, 2019 NCN announced plans to introduce open science policy, as well as the requirement for data management plan (DMP) and published guidelines for applicants to complete the DMP form in the proposal. In February 2020 members of the Council expressed their approval for a new open access policy to publications created as a result of research projects funded entirely or in part from NCN resources. The obligation to ensure open access to published research findings will apply to all projects recommended for funding under calls announced on 16 June 2020 and later (see: Introducing a policy of open access to research project publications).
The National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR) was established in July 2007. It is a governmental agency responsible for the funding of applied scientific research programmes and activities. Its main task is the managing and implementation of strategic scientific research that should lead directly to the development of innovations. NCBR also supports the commercialization of scientific research results.
The Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA) was established in 2017. It is responsible for coordinating state activities driving the process of internationalization of Polish academic and research institutions. Members of the Board and the Director of the Polish National Agency of Academic Exchange (NAWA) declared support for Plan S.
More information on the research landscape in Poland can be found on the EURAXESS website.
The Library of Science - the largest Polish journal database that provides easy, stable and free access to full-text articles and metadata indexed in disciplinary databases. The service was launched in 2014. Since then almost 400 000 articles from 1139 scientific journals have been gathered.
CeON Repository - an open-access repository for research output of Polish scholars.
RepOD Repository for Open Data - online platform designed for open sharing of research data. Its purpose is to serve all researchers in Poland who would like to share their data.
CeON Agregator - a single access point to Polish open access repositories. Currently it enables access to over 150 000 documents in 21 repositories.
Open the Book - open books platform with over 500 publications.
The Coalition for Open Education is an alliance of organizations that work actively towards Open Science and Open Education. Along with EBIB Association it coordinates Open Access Week in Poland.
A national open access strategy is under preparation. In 2015 Poland has accepted an initial document that lays a foundation for a future national open access policy. The document, entitled "Directions of the development of open access to research publications and research results in Poland", recommends a move towards open access to all relevant stakeholders. In March 2018, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MNiSW) published a report on the implementation of open access policy („Raport nt. realizacji polityki otwartego dostępu do publikacji naukowych w latach 2015-2017”, in Polish only). The document summarized the efforts that had been undertaken in years 2015-2017, identified barriers to open access and provided recommendations for further work.
EOSC
The national participation in EOSC related projects are listed on EOSC Synergy website.
Institutions involved in EOSC-related projects:
Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center (affiliated to the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences), PCSS,
In February, 2020 members of the Council of the National Science Centre expressed their approval for a new open access policy to publications created as a result of research projects funded entirely or in part from NCN resources. The obligation to ensure open access to published research findings will apply to all projects recommended for funding under calls announced on 16 June 2020. See: https://www.ncn.gov.pl/aktualnosci/2020-02-27-plany-ncn-otwarty-dostep?language=en
In result, Open Access Policy was adopted by Order No 40/2020 of the Director of the National Science Centre of 31 May 2020. As announced on the funder's website: "The Open Access Policy was modelled on the postulates of Plan S and will also be adopted, in a similar form, by other members of cOAlition S. The document enters into force on the day of signing and shall apply to calls announced on 15 June this year and projects based on implementation agreements signed after 1 January 2021". The document provides information on the publication routes compliant with Plan S, as well as cost eligibility, licensing and copyright protection, and additional provisions. See: https://www.ncn.gov.pl/aktualnosci/2020-06-03-wprowadzenie-polityki-otwartego-dostepu?language=en
In October, 2019 the Coalition for Open Education prepared a report on institutional open access policies in Poland (released on the Coalition website under CC BY licence). The report was prepared by Iwona Sójkowska (EBIB Association) and Natalia Gruenpeter (ICM, also NOAD in Poland). Presented below is a condensed version of the report, as well as updates from October 2019 to March 2020.
Recommendations of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education
In Poland, developing and adopting open access policy is recommended by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education: "The first step towards defining the principles of open access should be the adoption of open access policy by each scientific unit and university." → https://www.gov.pl/web/nauka/otwarty-dostep-do-publikacji-naukowych
Recommendations in "Directions of the development of open access to research publications and research results in Poland” (2015) include providing open access to research results (with a preference for libre open access): “To achieve this it is necessary to develop and adopt institutional open access policies at the level of scientific units or universities. These policies may in particular require that authors of scientific publications from publicly funded research deposit them in a specific repository (make the full text or reference-link to the text published in gold open access available in the repository)” (p. 12). → https://www.gov.pl/web/nauka/dokumenty-na-temat-otwartego-dostepu
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, 8.01.2021 | PL
Seven medical universities and one scientific institute adopted a joint open access policy of the Polish Medical Platform (Polska Platforma Medyczna, a project financed under the Digital Poland Operational Programme; Action 2.3 Sub-activity 2.3.1, type II: digital availability of science resources):
Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine first adopted its own institutional open access policy (28.12.2016), and later adopted joint policy of the Polish Medical Platform (26.09 2018).
Research institutes:
Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences | 2.10.2017 | PLENG
Institute of Law Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences | PL
Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences | PLENG
Central Mining Institute in Katowice, 16.07.2018 | PL
Institute for Chemical Processing of Coal in Zabrze, 12.09.2018 | PLENG
International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw, 14.11.2019 | PLENG
Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 1.02.2021| PL
Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling (ICM), University of Warsaw introduced open access policy before 2015 (7.10.2014) | PLENG
Institutions developing open access policies
The following institutions are planning to adopt open access policies (information on websites or received via email):
Until the beginning of 2020, there were only 2 data repositories in Poland: the general data repository for open datasets RepOD, and the disciplinary repository of linguistics datasets CLARIN-PL.
In Poland, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education finances the purchase of country-level or consortial licenses for access to paywalled content from many major academic publishers. The task of negotiating terms of access and preparing deals is assigned to the Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling (ICM), University of Warsaw. In December 2018, the Ministry noted that the purchase conditions should refer to the introduction of the Plan S and be based on international solutions and directions. ICM UW has conducted negotiations with Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley, Science and Clarivate. A transformative agreement with Springer has been reached („read&publish” agreement for years 2019-2021) and a similar agreement is planned with Wiley in 2020. With Elsevier there is a deal for Scopus database, SciVal tool and a completely new national license for 19 journals from Cell Press collection. Despite few rounds of negotiations Elsevier has not presented a satisfactory offer for the journals from Freedom Collection along with Lancet journals. ICM UW expressed willingness to continue negotiations that will take into account open access publishing model compliant with Plan S. For more information visit website: Wirtualna Biblioteka Nauki (in Polish only).
31.05.2019, update
A new deal with Elsevier has been reached in Poland on May 31, 2019. A three-year national license agreement enables access to 1819 journals, including 1638 current (with volumes from 1995) and 181 archival journals. The licence also covers selected book packages bought in 2015 and 2016: 1712 monographs from 2013 and 2014 and 803 volumes of book series or guide series (handbooks) from 2011-2015. The Elsevier 2019-2021 national license also includes a pilot program that gives authors affiliated with institutions submitted for a license the right to publish in open access in hybrid and gold open access Elsevier journals. The program allows the publication in three subsequent years, respectively, 500, 1000 and 1500 articles from Poland, the cost of which will be financed from the national license fee. The program will be launched in June 2019, when the detailed instructions for the authors will be published. For more information visit:https://wbn.icm.edu.pl/licencje/#elsevier (in Polish only).
12.01.2021, update
Wirtualna Biblioteka Nauki has set up a separate webpage with information on the open publishing programmes launched within the national licences: https://wbn.icm.edu.pl/publikowanie-otwarte/ (in Polish only).
There are currently two specialized platforms where academic books in Polish can be accessed: Otwórz Książkę and Biblioteka Otwartej Nauki. Additionally, some open access books can be found on the websites of individual academic publishers (especially university presses).
*guest post by Maciej Maryl, Klaudia Grabowska, Barbara Jędraszko, Michał Starczewski Open Business Model of Indirect Institutional Benefits Enhancing Accessibility and Sustainability of “Teksty Drugie” Design and Implementation of a Sustainable Open-Access Business Model for Polish Journals in the Humanities This blog post presents conclusions drawn from the process of converting ...
In October 2015, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MNiSW) in Poland issued a document that reflects the Polish response to the European Commission's recommendation of July 17, 2012, on access to and preservation of scientific information. The published document, entitled „Directions of the development of open access to research publications and research results in P...
Blogpost by Michał Starczewski and Lidia Stępińska-Ustasiak Report by Wojciech Fenrich, Tomasz Lewandowski, Krzysztof Siewicz, Michał Starczewski, Lidia Stępińska-Ustasiak, and Jakub Szprot (editor). The Open Science Platform (ICM, University of Warsaw) has recently published a report “Open Access and research institutions”. The focus of the report is on the basic issues related to op...
Transition to Open Access in Poland has been happening for some time. Over 20 scientific institutions have repositories, some of them implemented OA policies, near 950 journals are available freely on the internet. But the transition results solely from bottom-up initiatives. The report “Open Science in Poland 2014. A Diagnosis” analyses the strengths and limitations of such a model.The aim of the...
On June 22, 2015, a oneday training session in Research Data Management (RDM) was organized in Warsaw by the Open Science Platform (ICM, University of Warsaw), the Polish OpenAIRE2020 NOAD. The session was run by Kevin Ashley, director of the Digital Curation Centre (UK). Thirty participants from different parts of Poland attended the workshop. The majority of them w...
Over 100 participants from 10 countries attended the international conference “Open Research Data: Implications for Science and Society” which took place in Warsaw on May 28-29, 2015. The conference was organized by the Open Science Platform – part of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling at the University of Warsaw (ICM UW) – which also functions as the Polish ...
