Aligning European OA policies with the Horizon 2020 OA policy

Mafalda Picarra ,Marina Angelaki ,Güleda Doğan ,Marieke Guy ,Claudio Artusio

doi:10.1629/uksg.252

Abstract

This article considers that the Horizon 2020 (H2020) Open Access (OA) policy can be adopted as a policy model in European Research Area (ERA) countries for the development and increasing alignment of OA policies. Accordingly, the OA policy landscape in five ERA countries – Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey and the UK – is assessed and the extent of alignment or divergence of those policies with the H2020 OA policy is examined. The article concludes by considering some of the impacts that aligning OA policies may have and looking at mechanisms that may contribute towards enhancing policy alignment. Note: the supporting data from this assessment may be found in the following data repository: https://zenodo.org/record/31155 .

Highlights

Open access (OA) policies, in parallel with advocacy-based strategies and infrastructure development, are considered to be important means by which to promote the objectives of OA and to make scientific information freely available online
The data collected from the case studies show that, at the crossnational level, OA policies are largely aligned with the Horizon 2020 (H2020) OA policy requirements to deposit peer-reviewed articles and to ensure open access to them
OA policies play a significant role in advancing open access to scientific information and act as mechanisms that facilitate an increasing awareness

Summary

Introduction

Open access (OA) policies, in parallel with advocacy-based strategies and infrastructure development, are considered to be important means by which to promote the objectives of OA and to make scientific information freely available online. They define a set of rules or principles that seek to guide a specific behaviour: that academics and researchers make their scientific publications openly available. In Europe, the European Commission (EC) has been playing a leading role in advancing open access to scientific information and research data. It has funded projects on OA infrastructures, publishing, research data and preservation, such as PASTEUR4OA, OpenAIRE, FOSTER and RECODE

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Discussion

Conclusion