Why Open Access publishing is important
Open Access (OA) to scientific publications by the NWO institutes is important for several reasons. First, because it benefits the scientific career of researchers if their work is freely accessible. Research has shown that OA publications are read more often, cited more often and have more impact. OA publications therefore contribute to the scientific reputation of both the researchers and the institutes that employ them.
It is also important that the results of publicly funded research are available as publicly as possible.
Introduction
Full and immediate access to scientific publications and their availability for use and reuse are essential preconditions for a properly functioning science system. Open Access improves the (online) dissemination and findability of scientific results, thus increasing the potential impact on science and society. As a signatory to the Berlin Declaration on Open Access NWO has been committed since 2005 to ensuring that the results of NWO-funded research are available Open Access. NWO is thus fulfilling the ambitions of the Dutch government (OCW 2013, OCW 2016) and the European Council of Ministers (EC 2016). It is important in this regard that the research in question is publicly funded. NWO works with national and international partners to promote the transition to Open Access via measures such as the National Plan Open Science (OCW 2017). OCW documents are only available in Dutch.In September 2018, NWO also joined cOAlition S, a group of national research funders using Plan S to accelerate the transition to full and immediate Open Access.
On 24 June 2020, the NWO Executive Board adopted the Open Access policy framework (for NWO grants), thereby implementing Plan S in the granting section of NWO. Plan S is also to be implemented at NWO-I, aligning as closely as possible with the policy framework for NWO grants. This policy framework is NWO-I’s elaboration of the implementation guidance in Plan S as published by cOAlition S on 31 May 2019.
There are three routes to publishing compliant with Plan S:
- Gold: publishing in full gold Open Access journals;
- Hybrid: publishing in a journal covered by a transformative deal (such as the UKB/VSNU Open Access deals);
- Green: publishing in a closed or hybrid subscription journal and immediate (without embargo) deposition of the peer-reviewed version (AAM or VoR) in a repository.
This policy framework aims to embed the green route within NWO-I. The other routes may also be used, but these do not currently require a policy framework.
Aim of this policy framework
The policy framework outlines the NWO-I policy on the green route to Open Access publishing. This means the immediate (without embargo) deposition of a copy of the final published version of the article (“Version of Record”) or at least the accepted manuscript (“Author Accepted Manuscript”) in an Open Access repository registered in the Directory of Open Access Repositories and complying with the technical guidance and requirements specified by cOAlition S.
Application and scope
This policy framework applies to all peer-reviewed publications resulting from NWO core-funded research at the NWO institutes and submitted after 1 January 2021. The NWO institutes are AMOLF, ARCNL, ASTRON, CWI, DIFFER, Nikhef, NIOZ, NSCR, SRON and HFML-FELIX, that joined NWO-I on 1 January 2025.
Legal basis
The legal basis for the two principles outlined below is contained in Article 1.8.2.1 of the CAO-OI (Collective Labour Agreement for the Research Institutes). Article 1.8.2.1 reads as follows: Pursuant to Article 7 of the Copyright Act, the employer is deemed to be the maker and owner of those works that employees have created in the performance of their work. This includes peer-reviewed publications.
Principles
- Employees are expected to deposit all of their (peer-reviewed) publications (at least the AAM and where possible the VoR) in a repository immediately upon publication (no later than the date of publication in the paper version of the journal). This includes publications of which they are corresponding authors and publications of which they are co-authors. If two or more authors are employed at an NWO institute, it is sufficient for one author to deposit the publication in the repository. If a publication is already available OA through another DOAR-registered repository, it is sufficient to include a link to the publication in the designated proprietary repository.
- The employer grants a non-exclusive licence to all of the employee’s peer-reviewed publications to promote their optimal dissemination. This licence is intended to ensure that employees are authorised to deposit post peer-review versions of their publications (without embargo) in a repository.
Repository
Each NWO institute makes its own decision regarding which repository it will designate to deposit its publications. The only condition is that repositories must meet the technical and other requirements of Plan S.
Monitoring en evaluation
For the first few years, monitoring will focus on assessing whether these new rules lead to an increase in the number of OA articles. The responsibility for monitoring will lie with the institute itself. The institutes are best placed to keep track of the depositing of articles in the repository by researchers, and also to assist and remind the researchers as required. Each institute will be asked to report annually on its percentage of OA articles.
Furthermore, in the first few years, any bottlenecks will be identified to ensure that appropriate action can be taken.
The goal is to move towards 100% Open Access to peer-reviewed publications as quickly as possible. The OA figures of each institute and progress towards this goal will therefore be discussed annually in regular consultation between the institute directors and NWO-I management.
This policy will be reviewed in 2023. By then, it should be clear whether the policy is sufficient to achieve the goal of 100% OA, or whether more stringent measures should be considered.n.
Definitions
- Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM): the version of an article that has been accepted by the publisher for publication; it contains changes made during peer review but has not yet been type-set for the journal.
- cOAalition S: a coalition of national and private research funders aiming to accelerate the transition to Open Access scientific publications. To this end, it launched Plan S on 4 September 2018. Plan S aims to ensure that, with effect from 2021, all publications funded by coalition members are made immediately available (without embargo) in Open Access.
- Open access journal or platform: a journal publishing scientific articles that are made available via the internet immediately after publication (without embargo); articles are freely and openly available for reading and in many cases for reuse.
- Open access repository:a database or digital archive set up to collect and archive scientific publications (and sometimes other scientific products) and to make them freely accessible via the internet. A distinction is drawn between institutional repositories which collect and provide access to scientific output from researchers at a university or research institute and disciplinary repositories which provide access to publications by an international research community in a particular field.
- Peer review: the evaluation of a researcher’s work by colleagues in the same field. Used by many scientific journals to determine the quality of a scientific article.
- Publications: peer-reviewed scientific articles based on scientific research funded wholly or partly by NWO-I.
- Transformative agreement: an agreement concluded between research institutions (usually consortia of libraries) and publishers with the aim of changing the revenue model of the scientific communication system via scientific journals from a situation where publishers are paid for licences or subscriptions to closed journals to a model where publishers are paid for Open Access publication of scientific articles.
- UKB: the Dutch consortium of university libraries and the Royal Library; together with the VSNU, the UKB is responsible in the Netherlands for negotiations with publishers concerning access to scientific journals.
- Version of Record: the final version of the article as published by the journal after acceptance and peer review.