Open Access
Open Access (OA), a model of scientific communication, the basic principle of which is unrestricted online access to the results of publicly funded science and research for anyone who expresses an interest.
Features of Open Access:
- Immediate - results should be available at the latest when they are published
- free - available for free to the end user
- permanent - to be ensured in the long term - results must be archived
- freelance- the results should be published so that they can be re-used
Advantages of Open Access:
- increasing the visibility and accessibility of scientific work
- increasing the citation and prestige of the scientist
- rapid exchange of information between colleagues
- more efficient use of results and finances (deletion of duplication)
- better, better and more transparent research
- increasing the quality of study and education for students through access to more information resources
- increasing the readability and citation rate of published articles and the directly related increase in the impact factor of journals of individual publishers
Open Access History:
The main goal of the idea of open access is free and permanent access to published scientific information. The basis of the Open Access movement became three important documents, which we collectively refer to as BBB-initiatives.
- In 2002, the concept of Open Access was first mentioned at the Budapest Open Access Initiative.
- 2003, the Bethesda statement is published on Open Access Publishing, where the publishing model is defined in the OA environment.
- In 2003, the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities was created, which summarizes the issue of OA and enables public participation in the ideas of Open Access.
In 2016, the LERU (League of European Research Universities) Association of 21 Universities formed a statement calling on the EU, universities and other scientific institutions to work on sensible open access solutions that are truly in line with open science interests.
Open Access models
There are these basic Open Access models:
- Green Open Acess- saving the full text of a scientific article (preprint, postprint, publishing version) in an open repository
- Gold Open Access- publishing an article in an open magazine, the purest form is the so-called platinum access - publishing articles where no fees are required from authors or end users. Expenditure costs are covered through subsidies, grants, sponsors, etc.
What can each access give me?
Green Open Access
- better searchability / higher visibility of work → readability, citation rate
- at no cost to the author
- open access is provided by the author
- long-term preservation of publishing activities is ensured
- possibility of immediate publication of the preprint → acceleration of communication
- possibility of versioning + publication of associated data and other materials
- possibility to monitor alternative metrics and statistics
Gold Open Access
- greater searchability / higher visibility of work → readability, citation
- users have access to the final peer-reviewed version of the publication
- access is provided by the publisher, not the author
- the authors (usually) remain copyrighted
The Platinum Open Access extends the benefits of the Gold Open Access by:
- long-term preservation of publishing activities
- is free of charge for readers and authors
Projects
EU-supported projects and other grant agencies promote an open access policy aimed at making the results of EU-funded research available to the widest possible public. To meet the conditions, it is usually possible to use both the gold and green acesses - that is, to make the publication results accessible by publishing in Open Access journals, or by saving the published article in the Open Access repository.
Even when applying for a grant, it is necessary to think about possible higher financial demands and include them in the project. Also later when publishing a professional article or other documents, the author should not forget about the conditions given by the project and adapt the signed license agreement with the publisher to them, so as to allow later storage of publication output in the Open Access repository.
The obligation of open output to scientific publications was introduced in the 7th Research Framework Program of the European Commission. Horizon 2020 (2014-2020) introduced a full obligation of open access. For some projects within Horizon 2020, one can also find a requirement for open access to research data.
Horizon Europe (2021-2027) provides for mandatory open access to publications. Beneficiaries shall ensure that they or the authors retain sufficient intellectual property rights to meet the open access requirements. It also calls for open access to research data, in line with FAIR principles and the principle of… "as open as possible, closed as needed"