Category Archives: oa.europe

Ministers’ call for free open science publishing backed

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“Publicly funded research outputs should be immediately and openly available to all without barriers such as subscription fees or paywalls, say European scientific community leaders who welcomed a recent 20-point plan agreed by the Council of the European Union to encourage open science.

The Council, as it is informally known, represents government ministers from the 27 EU member states and is one of the key European Union decision-making bodies, along with the European Parliament and the European Commission.

After years of deliberations, which continued throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Council’s Competitiveness Council (Research) agreed the text for 20 conclusions to encourage high-quality, transparent, open, trustworthy and equitable scholarly publishing, including cracking down on unsustainable author fees that currently prop up open science publishing….”

EU research ministers make fresh call for a full transition to free open access publishing | Science|Business

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“EU ministers made a fresh call for open access to become the default mode for scientific publishing in a new set of Council conclusions today, prompting opposing reactions from the science community and journal publishers.

The Council conclusions call for a crack down on the unsustainable author fees that are currently propping up open science publishing, and undermining the ambition of making research results free to access. “We need to make sure that researchers can make their findings available and re-usable and that high-quality scientific articles are openly accessible to anyone that needs to read them,” said Mats Persson, Swedish minister for research, who currently holds the rotating council presidency chair.

The push for open access isn’t new and the EU has made a lot of headway with various initiatives and political statements. A big breakthrough came in 2018 in Plan S, under which a group of major research funding and performing organisations signed up to paywall-free science….”

OPERAS welcomes EU Council Conclusions ‘supporting diversity and ensuring equity in scholarly publishing’

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EU Council May 23

The Council of the European Union adopted on May 23 conclusions on the ‘high quality, transparent, open, trustworthy and equitable scholarly publishing’, in which it calls for immediate and unrestricted Open Access in publishing research involving public funds (Council conclusion).

OPERAS welcomes this official positioning of the council on diversity and equity in publishing academic results and the emphasis on:

that immediate and unrestricted open access should be the norm in publishing research involving public funds, with transparent pricing commensurate with the publication services and where costs are not covered by individual authors or readers

(Council conclusion p. 5)

The OPERAS Research Infrastructure aims to make Open Science a reality for research in the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) and achieve a scholarly communication system where knowledge produced in the SSH benefits researchers, academics, students and more generally the whole society across Europe and worldwide, without barriers.

To express our compliance with and pleasure about the conclusions we participate in a joint statement:

Open Science: stakeholders welcome European efforts towards publicly owned and not-for-profit scholarly communication

For European public research and innovation actors, scholarly knowledge is a public good. Publicly funded research and its results should be immediately and openly available to all without barriers such as subscription fees or paywalls. This is essential in driving knowledge forward, promoting innovation and tackling social issues.

Key representative organisations of the public research and innovation sector have welcomed today’s adoption of the ‘Council conclusions on high-quality, transparent, open, trustworthy, and equitable scholarly publishing’.

In a joint response, the signatories urge EU member states and institutions to continue their efforts towards a high-quality, transparent, open, trustworthy and equitable scholarly communication ecosystem, through stakeholder engagement, constructive dialogue with the public research and innovation sector, and with evidence-based reforms underpinned by the principles of open science.

Signatories include the European University Association (EUA), Science Europe, the Association of European Research Libraries (LIBER), the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA), the Association of ERC Grantees (AERG), the Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA), the European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers (Eurodoc), cOAlition S, OPERAS, and the French National Research Agency (ANR).

The public research and innovation sector is actively pursuing a not-for-profit scholarly communication ecosystem. Notable examples, among other initiatives, include: backing for not-for-profit open access publishing models (e.g. the Action Plan for Diamond Open Access); demand for more dependable and comparable data on the state of scholarly communication (e.g. the Journal Comparison Service); and emphasis on infrastructure development (e.g. OPERAS).

As such, the statement welcomes the Council of the EU’s encouragement of initiatives that align with the objective of developing a not-for-profit scholarly communication ecosystem and reiterates the signatories’ commitment to launch activities that will further engage their members in shaping the future of scholarly communication.

Joint statement

And OPERAS is especially delighted about the mentioning of Open Access books in the conclusions, a topic OPERAS has advocated for since its beginning:

ACKNOWLEDGES that publishing practices vary across disciplines, and EMPHASISES that some publication formats, such as monographs, books and long-text formats, especially in the social sciences and humanities, should continue to be supported, while promoting open access publishing and allowing for a diverse range of formats to co-exist, and for publishing in a range of languages

(Council conclusion p. 5)

The OPERAS Research Infrastructure develops services to directly support researchers, publishers, scholarly communication service providers and more on this path to publicly owned and not-for-profit scholarly communication. 

Besides the services catalogue OPERAS supports three EU-funded projects supporting community-driven pathways to equitable open scholarly publishing. OPERAS participates in CRAFT-OA and coordinates Diamas and PALOMERA. Despite their separate focus areas, together their efforts work towards a broad and common vision for a more open and equitable scholarly publishing ecosystem.

Join us on 20th June at 1 PM CEST to learn how three EU-funded projects – CRAFT-OA, DIAMAS, and PALOMERA – are working for an equitable future for scholarly communication, with academic communities at the centre.

In the webinar, you will be introduced to each project and their individual aims. Following this, the discussion will focus on how, despite their separate focus areas, their efforts work towards a broad and common vision for a more open and equitable scholarly publishing ecosystem.

CRAFT-OA empowers regional journal platforms and publishing service providers to upscale, professionalise, and reach stronger interoperability with other scientific information systems, by providing services and tools.

The DIAMAS project is developing common standards, guidelines and practices to build capacity for the Diamond publishing sector. Formulating recommendations of this kind aims to create a more sustainable future for Open Access Diamond Publishing in Europe.

PALOMERA has set out to provide actionable recommendations and concrete resources to support and coordinate aligned funder and institutional policies for Open Access books. Doing so involves assessing challenges and bottlenecks that currently slow the widespread implementation of Open Access book policy.

Birkbeck plays leading role in project set to increase access of valuable research to the general public — Birkbeck, University of London

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“Open Book Futures (OBF) is a new project working to increase access to valuable research through developing and supporting organisations, tools and practices that will enable both academics and the wider public to make more and better use of books published on an Open Access basis. In particular, the project aims to achieve a step change in how community-owned Open Access book publishing is delivered. 

Funded by Arcadia and the Research England Development (RED) Fund, the project marks a shift in the ambition, scope and impact of community-owned Open Access book publishing. It will significantly increase and improve the quantity, discoverability, preservation and accessibility of academic content freely and easily available to all.  

This will be done by building the infrastructures, business models, networks and resources that are needed to deliver a future for Open Access books, led not by large commercial operations but by communities of scholars, small-to-medium-sized publishers, not-for-profit infrastructure providers, and scholarly libraries.  

This includes expanding the work of the recently launched Open Book Collective, which makes it easier for academic libraries to provide direct financial support to Open Access publishing initiatives, as well as the Thoth metadata management platform; the Opening the Future revenue model, piloted with Central European University Press and Liverpool University Press; and the forthcoming Experimental Publishing Compendium….”

EU-Mitgliedstaaten betonen die Rolle von wissenschaftsgeleiteten Open-Access-Modellen jenseits von APCs | wisspub.net [Translation: “EU member states emphasize the role of science-driven Open Access models beyond APCs | wisspub.net”]

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Translation: “EU member states emphasize the role of science-driven Open Access models beyond APCs | wisspub.net”

Advancing a publicly owned and not-for-profit scholarly communication ecosystem based on the principles of open science

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“Joint response by the European University Association (EUA), Science Europe, Association of European Research Libraries (LIBER), European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA), Association of ERC Grantees (AERG), Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA), European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers (Eurodoc), cOAlition S, OPERAS, and French National Research Agency (ANR). We welcome the adoption by the Council of the European Union (EU) of the conclusions on highquality, transparent, open, trustworthy, and equitable scholarly publishing. As key public research and innovation actors in Europe, we are committed to supporting the development of a publicly owned, not-for-profit scholarly communication ecosystem in collaboration with policymakers in Europe and beyond….”

Open Science: stakeholders welcome European efforts towards publicly owned and not-for-profit scholarly communication | Plan S

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For European public research and innovation actors, scholarly knowledge is a public good. Publicly funded research and its results should be immediately and openly available to all without barriers such as subscription fees or paywalls. This is essential in driving knowledge forward, promoting innovation and tackling social issues.

Key representative organisations of the public research and innovation sector have welcomed today’s adoption of the ‘Council conclusions on high-quality, transparent, open, trustworthy, and equitable scholarly publishing’.

Council calls for transparent, equitable, and open access to scholarly publications – Consilium

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“In its conclusions, the Council calls on the Commission and the member states to support policies towards a scholarly publishing model that is not-for-profit, open access and multi-format, with no costs for authors or readers. Some Member States have introduced secondary publication rights into their national copyright legislation, enabling open access to scholarly publications which involve public funds. The Council encourages national open access policies and guidelines to make scholarly publications immediately openly accessible under open licences. The conclusions acknowledge positive developments in terms of monitoring progress, like within the framework of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), and suggest including open science monitoring in the European Research Area monitoring mechanism. The Council conclusions also encourage Member States to support the pilot programme Open Research Europe (to create a large-scale open access research publishing service), the use of open-source software and standards, to recognise and reward peer review activities in the assessment of researchers as well as to support the training of researchers on peer-review skills and on intellectual property rights.”

Knowledge Bites #15 : How to integrate an Open Science service or data-source into the EOSC portal? – EELISA

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“European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) offers researchers, innovators, companies and the general public a federated and open multi-disciplinary environment. Using the e-infrastructure of this environment, users can publish, search and reuse data-sets, various tools and services for research, innovation and education. Data and related services in EOSC are established on FAIR principles.

In this presentation, we will give a short introduction to EOSC and show the process by which the providers – organizations like universities – of services can register themselves and then onboard their respective services. Some of the examples of such services will be shown. We will also present the benefits that the users of the EOSC gain by using the tools and e-infrastructure of the EOSC….”

Encore+ Project

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“The project will:

Engage business actors including SMEs, in the OER ecosystem by demonstrating the innovation potential of open content for Human Resources development in companies.

Nurture the uptake of OER in Europe by stimulating the integration of organisational strategies for OER in business and academia, encouraging both sectors to co-learn from successful implementation practice.

Contribute to the development of a sustained and well-mapped European OER innovation area by connecting and fostering knowledge exchange across HE and business.

Organise and open cultures and communities to facilitate stakeholder collaboration and catalyse the spread of innovative practices built on OER across the European area.

Realise a new vision for technological infrastructure which develops collaboration and connection among OER repositories into a European OER Ecosystem.

Establish open, distributed and highly trusted community-based quality review strategies for the future European OER Ecosystem and involve businesses and higher education institutions in dialogues on quality and innovation through OER.”

Ouvrir la Science – G7 Science and Technology Ministers commit to open science

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“The G7 supports open science and identifies three priorities: open science infrastructures, research evaluation reform, and research on research to develop open science policies based on research results.

The G7 Science and Technology Ministers met from 12 to 14 May 2023 in Sendai, Japan. Their joint declaration gives Open Science a prominent place, alongside issues of academic freedom and inclusiveness, protection of research activity and scientific integrity, and international cooperation….”

EU governments to rein in unfair academic publishers and unsustainable fees | Science|Business

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“Member states have almost settled on a call to make immediate open access the default, with no author fees. But some say the Council needs to do more to prevent AI-generated papers threatening the integrity of the scientific record.

Research ministers are nearing the finish line in drafting their position on changes needed in academic publishing, with the latest leak draft revealing the near-final text.

The upcoming paper, to be adopted by ministers in late May, will call on policymakers and publishers to make immediate and unrestricted open access, “the default mode in publishing, with no fees for authors.”

While there is a warm reception for this, there is concern that the Council is missing the opportunity to crack down on AI-generated scientific articles, given rising evidence that the AI chatbots like ChatGPT could undermine the integrity of academic publishing….”