Information Expertise Center Den Dolech 2, 5612 AZ Eindhoven P.O. Box 90159, 5600 RM Eindhoven The Netherlands Internal address: www.tue.nl Subject Dear deans and vice-deans, Open access obligation with research funders Date 21 October 2014 Contact Merle Rodenburg MSc, T +8856 Ir. Joost de Vletter, T +2764 [email protected] Our reference 1531313 Requirements concerning open-access publishing are changing. Last week, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) announced an important change in their policy. Therefore, I am sending you this letter on the present state of affairs. On 15 October 2014 prof. dr. Jos Engelen, chairman of NWO, announced that NWO will revise the rules for the publication of research results for the strategic period 2015-2018. In the future, publications resulting from NWO research must be made available online to the general public, immediately and free of charge. NWO is not the only research funder that is adjusting its open access policy or has recently done so. As conditions set by funders directly influence work done by TU/e research staff, I am giving you this brief overview. 1 NWO, Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research NWO has announced 1 that during the strategic period 2015-2018 researchers are required to:  publish in open-access journals (golden road) or  to self-archive their articles in a repository immediately after publication, like for example the Repository TU/e (green road) If a researcher opts to self-archiving an article in a repository (green road), he or she may use the post-print version. This is the latest authors’ version: the final manuscript of a peer-reviewed paper accepted for journal publication, including all modifications from the peer review process, but not yet formatted by the publisher. This however is not always permitted by the publisher (point 4 in this letter) NWO provides special funding for additional costs of open-access publishing. This however is granted only for fully open-access journals. Contrary to current NWO regulations, this funding will no longer apply for publications in hybrid journals (i.e. journals for which also subscriptions fees must be paid). Date 21 October 2014 Our reference 1531313 Page 2 of 3 2 European Commission, Horizon 2020 Within the scope of Horizon 2020 2, running from 2014-2020, researchers are always required to place their articles in a repository:  In the case of gold open access, direct on publication  In the case of green open access, within six months of publication (twelve months for publications in the social sciences and humanities) Similar to the NWO requirements, the researcher may use the post-print version for self-archiving an article in a repository. Funding for additional costs for open-access publishing must be requested beforehand as an integral part of the project budget. Refunding of costs after publication is not provided. 3 Junior minister Sander Dekker, Ministry of Education, Culture and Science On 15 November 2013 junior minister Sander Dekker sent a letter 3 to the Dutch Parlement. In this letter, he takes the position that in ten years’ time, all Dutch scientific articles from publicly funded research should be open access available. To achieve this goal, he aims 60% open access articles in 5 years’ time. So-called ‘Big Deal’ negotiations are now underway between VSNU (the Association of Universities in the Netherlands) and large publishers of scientific journals. Future agreements on open access will be part of this process. Results of these negotiations are expected in early 2015, and by then the consequences for TU/e will become clear. 4 Publishers’ conditions concerning open access Many researchers believe that as authors, they are free to make the post-print version, the final author’s version, of their article available in a repository, on their own website, or for example via ResearchGate. Many publishers however do not permit this. Finnish research4, conducted in 2013, shows that no more than 47.4% of the top 100 publishers permit self-archiving of an author’s version in an institutional repository immediately after publication. The others, more than half of the publishers, either impose embargo periods which may take as long as 48 months, or even give no permission at all. This means that when a researcher publishes in a traditional, non-open access journal, he or she will in roughly half of the cases not meet the future conditions for funding set by NWO as well as the already applying European regulations within the scope of Horizon 2020. Date 21 October 2014 Our reference 1531313 Page 3 of 3 5 Open access and TU/e In cases in which publishers do permit placing post-print versions in repositories, this is not yet done often at the TU/e. The number of open-access articles in the Repository TU/e therefore remains unsatisfactory. We therefore recommend researchers to upload post-print versions of their publications via personal Metis, beside the accompanying metadata. In some cases, open access requirements set by research funders may then be met in a cost-effective way. It is quite important that the scientific staff is informed about recent developments concerning open access. We therefore would like to ask you to spread this message among your staff. As open access conditions varies for each funder or publisher, the Information Expertise Center is ready to answer all your specific questions on open access. Please contact either Merle Rodenburg MSc or Ir. Joost de Vletter, via e-mail address [email protected]. To find out more about open access and TU/e go to www.tue.nl/openaccess. Yours sincerely, Drs. Jeanne Figdor, Managing Director Information Expertise Center 1. http://www.nwo.nl/en/news-and-events/news/2014/nwo-takes-next-step-inopen-access-policy.html 2. http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020 3. www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten-enpublicaties/kamerstukken/2013/11/15/kamerbrief-over-open-access-vanpublicaties.html (Dutch) 4. Laakso, Mikael. 2013. “Green Open Access Policies of Scholarly Journal Publishers: A Study of What, When, and Where Self-Archiving Is Allowed.” Scientometrics 99(2):475–94. Retrieved July 17, 2014 (http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-013-1205-3).