General
Open Access is the immediate, online, free availability of research outputs without restrictions on use commonly imposed by publisher copyright agreements. Open Access includes the outputs that scholars normally give away for free for publication; it includes peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers and datasets of various kinds.
Access to knowledge, information, and data is essential in higher education and research; and more generally, for sustained progress in society. Improved access is the basis for the transfer of knowledge (teaching), knowledge generation (research), and knowledge valorization (civil society).
Providing Open Access to research, both research papers and (the underlying) datasets, is not only beneficial for the public, but also for the researchers: several studies indicate that openness increases citations. Openness also improves reproducibility of your research results – and it might introduce new and perhaps unexpected audiences to your work.
More information:
Horizon 2020
In Horizon 2020 Open Access to Scientific Peer Reviewed Publications has been anchored as an ‘underlying principle’, which means that it has become obligatory for all projects.
- Open access to scientific peer reviewed publications in Horizon 2020
- The EC Guidelines on Open Access to Scientific Publications and Research Data in Horizon 2020 Version 3.1, 25 August 2016
- Open Access Guidelines for research results funded by the ERC (revised December 2014)
- More information can be found in the ‘Regulation and the Rules of Participation’ as well as through the relevant provisions in the grant agreement (see Article 29 “Dissemination of results – Open Access – Visibility of EU funding”of the Multi-beneficiary General Model Grant Agreement, July 20, 2016, pp. 66-69) as well as exceptions for confidentiality (Article 36), security (Article 37), personal data (Article 39).
- A short summary : Factsheet on Open Access
FP7
In FP7, there was an Open Access Pilot for publications, applicable for approximately 20 % of the budget and in 7 dedicated research areas. During the run of FP7, the European Commission had two policies on open access in practice, the EC Open Access Pilot and the ERC guidelines for Open Access. These initiatives require that the researcher provides open access to articles resulting from EC funded research, within a specified time period.
There are two main, non-exclusive ways of making publications and data Open : through self-archiving in repositories or through publishing in Open Access journals .
Publishing in an Open Access Journal : you can find a list of reliable Open Access journals in the DOAJ. If the publisher asks for an author fee (also: ‘article processing charge’ or APC), you can declare this an eligible cost in your project budget. Some Open Access Journals offer you the option of archiving the underlying data of an article you submit as well, and there are even journals who only publish datasets and their metadata.
By self-archiving their work in digital archives or repositories (‘depositing’), researchers can make their publication or data Open Access, even if the final published version of their work is not. This is possible even if you have assigned the copyright to your publisher (although the assignment of your rights is often negotiable when you ask your publisher about it). Some repositories only accept publications, but in other repositories you can also deposit datasets, whether they’re connected with a publication or not.
Open Access is compatible with copyright, peer review, preservation, prestige, quality, career-advancement, indexing, and other features and supportive services associated with conventional scholarly literature.
In its Open Access policy for Horizon 2020, the European Commission explicitly asks to deposit the work in a repository and make it Open Access (after an embargo if necessary) – regardless of whether it has been published in an Open Access Journal or not.
A novelty in Horizon 2020 is the Open Research Data Pilot which aims to improve and maximize access to and re-use of research data generated by projects. It will be monitored with a view to developing the European Commission policy on open research data in future Framework Programmes.
An Open Access repository is a database or a virtual archive established to collect, disseminate and preserve scientific output like scientific articles and datasets and make them freely available. The action of depositing material in a repository is (self)archiving. Depending on personal preferences or publisher’s policies, the author can make his work available in Open Access or (temporarily) restrict the access to it.
Repositories can be either linked to an institution or department or linked to a research field or subject, i.e. Institutional or Subject Repositories.
When using the OpenAIRE deposit service you will be guided through the steps of deposition and also if possible guided to a relevant repository (check out the list of compatible repositories). OpenAIRE uses data from the Directory of Open Access Repositories, OpenDOAR, and from the Registry of Research Data Repositories, Re3data.
- Subject based repositories are repositories oriented for research output from one or more well defined research domains. Classic examples are ArXivand Europe PubMed Central. All researchers working in certain subject areas can make use of subject repositories – regardless of their affiliation or geographic location.
- Institutional Repositories are repositories that are maintained and curated by institutions – very often the library. Repositories collect, curate and make the research output of an institutions available on the Internet. As a rule, depositing is only possible for researchers affiliated with the institution.
- A data repository is a digital archive collecting and displaying datasets and their metadata. A lot of data repositories also accept publications, and allow linking these publications to the underlying data. Some examples are Zenodo, DRYAD, Figshare.
Overview of repositories can be found on ROAR, OpenDOAR, Re3data.
Please visit the OpenAIRE helpdesk if you are having trouble finding the best suited repository for you. If you do not have a repository to deposit your article in then you can use the Zenodo repository, hosted by CERN.
Open Access is not an infringement on copyright and making your work Open Access is perfectly legal.
Authors own the original copyright to papers they write, and publishers need their permission to publish the paper. In author-publisher contracts, publishers often ask for transfer of the copyright, sometimes even when the paper is first submitted to the journal. However, authors can always choose to retain their copyright and provide the publisher with a license to publish.
Even when the author has signed away author’s rights, it is still possible to provide open access through self-archiving the work in a repository. The Sherpa/RoMEO site offers an overview of official publishers’ policies about self-archiving.
If you want to know more about copyright in relation to open access:
- The OpenAIRE legal study
- JISC/SURF Copyright toolbox
- Creative Commons
- The ECprovides information and help, e.g. via the European IPR Helpdesk.
- Many countries have a dedicated national open access site that usually contains copyright information as well. Your local NOAD can also be of help. Contact them through the helpdesk.
If you have other questions related to Intellectual Property Rights
The European IPR Helpdesk is the official IP service initiative of the European Commission providing free-of-charge, first-line advice and information on Intellectual Property (IP) and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).The service is targeted at researchers and European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) participating in EU-funded collaborative research projects. In addition it addresses SMEs involved in international technology transfer processes.
If you need assistance on a specific IPR issue, or would like to be informed about the latest developments in the world of IP and R&D in Europe, or if you are interested in training on IPR – the European IPR Helpdesk is the right partner to contact.
Research data can be extremely diverse: from spreadsheets, audio-visual materials, databases, to 3D-models and result lists from large experiments. Sizes may vary from a couple of small files related to a specific publication (‘long tail of research data’) to vast collections of experimental results (‘big data’), that can only be processed using specialized programmes.
The need for adequate documentation and description is obvious, as reproducibility is the key factor when it comes to scientific research. Specialized repositories, such as Zenodo, have been established to collect and preserve datasets of all kinds, and possibly linking them to publications and projects related to the creation of the set. Collecting, describing, licensing and preserving data proves to be a big challenge, and experience with Research Data Management quickly becoming a sought-after asset for researchers and supporting staff.
Open Knowledge Foundation has defined Open Data in ‘The Open Definition’, as “machine-readable, available in bulk, and provided in an open format (i.e., a format with a freely available published specification which places no restrictions, monetary or otherwise, upon its use) or, at the very least, can be processed with at least one free/libre/open-source software tool.”
See also: OpenAIRE Open Research Data Pilot Factsheet.
You can deposit your data in dedicated data repositories. Some repositories, such as Zenodo, accept both publications and datasets. Data repositories allow you to provide persistent links to your datasets, so that they can be cited, linked and tracked. This also allows for version control. Just like publications, you can license your data to make clear what level of reuse you will allow for your dataset. OpenAIRE recommends to use the Creative Commons CC0 Waiver or CC-BY licence for open access to data.
Overviews of data repositories can be found on re3data.org. It is recommended to select a certified so-called Trustworthy Data Repository, when this is available in your discipline.
More information about Research Data Management (RDM) and making your data open:
- Webinar recording joint EUDAT-OpenAIRE webinar “Research Data Management: An Introductory Webinar”(May 2016)
- Webinar recording OpenAIRE webinar “Open research data and data management for Horizon 2020 projects”(June 2016)
- Webinar recording joint EUDAT-OpenAIRE webinar “How to write a data management plan?”(July 2016)
- 5th OpenAIRE workshop “Sharing research data and open access to publications in Horizon 2020”(November 2015)
- An introduction to Open Data by the Open Knowledge Foundation
- Digital Curation Centre DCC
- OpenAIRE support, including links to factsheets
More information on licences:
- Creative Commons licenses
- DCC on licences
- Open Licenses Services
- EUDAT tool select a proper usage license for your data
Training Materials about RDM:
Research Data MANTRA [online course] by EDINA and Data Library, University of Edinburgh
The central idea behind Open Access is that the results of publicly financed research should be available to the public – citizens, SMEs, researchers at other institutions, medicine staff, journalists, teachers, …
Access to knowledge, information, and data is essential in higher education and research; and more generally, for sustained progress in society. Improved access is the basis for the transfer of knowledge (teaching), knowledge generation (research), and knowledge valorization (civil society).
Providing Open Access to research, both research papers and (the underlying) datasets, is not only beneficial for the public, but also for the researchers: several studies indicate that openness increases citations. Openness also improves reproducibility of your research results – and it might introduce new and perhaps unexpected audiences to your work.
For more information on Open Access, visit our dedicated page.
Useful information: The Open Access Citation Advantage
If you have no access to an OpenAIRE compliant repository, an institutional repository or a subject repository, Zenodo, hosted by CERN, will enable you to deposit your article and/or research data. Zenodo exposes its data to OpenAIRE, helping researchers to comply with the Open Access demands from the EC and the ERCs.
AF4EU KC (and Zenodo also) have a simple model of data units. A registered user can upload a set of one or more files that become a data ‘deposition’. The file is tagged with some simple metadata and is then published to KC (and Zenodo) which assigns it a permanent DOI.
Each user has control over each of their ‘depositions’ during the upload process. Each deposition also has a public ‘record’ page showing the metadata. The access to the files themselves is controlled by the owner’s choice of one of four access rights options:
Access model | Description |
‘open’ | All files are immediately downloadable from the public record for the upload. |
’embargoed’ | All files are downloadable from the public record after an embargo date set by the owner. |
‘restricted’ | Other users may request access to the files from the original owner through Zenodo. |
‘closed’ | Other users can only see the metadata for the record. |
The combination of these options means that users can easily control access to their data at the level of individual depositions. Unlike Dropbox (or other cloud file service), there is also no problem with the archive getting full.
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