HERA website: www.heranet.info Deliverable number HERA D7.1.4 Title HERA Open Access Report Work Package WP7 Actual submission December 4 2009 – final version date (contractual date) Organisation Danish Agency for Science Technology and Innovation name(s) of lead contractor for this deliverable Author(s) Inger Schow With the help of all HERA partners Nature Report Status Final version Dissemination level Public Abstract The report contains a short inventory of studies on open access already carried out in certain countries or by the European Commission Contract no: ERAC-CT-2005-016179 HERA Report on Open Access final version, December 2009 Danish Agency for Science Technology and Innovation work package 7 task 7.1.4 HERA Report on Open Access At the HERA meeting in April 2008 it was decided that DASTI should carry out a survey about Open Access under work package 7. An outline proposal for the project was presented and approved at the HERA meeting in Strasbourg October 2008. One of the reasons for including such a survey in the HERA activities was the fact that the HERA Board decided to include demands for Open Access in the HERA JRP Call for Proposals. This decision was also enforced by the European Commission in the Grant Agreement for the ERANET Plus top-up for the HERA JRP common pot, which states: Beneficiaries shall deposit an electronic copy of the published version or the final manuscript accepted for publication of a scientific publication relating to foreground published before or after the final report in an institutional or subject-based repository at the moment of publication. Beneficiaries are required to make their best efforts to ensure that this electronic copy becomes freely and electronically available to anyone through this repository: - immediately if the scientific publication is published "open access", i.e. if an electronic version is also available free of charge via the publisher, or - within 12 months of publication. The grant agreements for the HERA JRP collaborative projects will contain a similar clause. In the past months DASTI has been active in compiling further information about Open Access studies and practices both at national and European level. For several years Open Access has been a topic of interest especially for libraries. The libraries have been challenged by a marked rise in the price of acquiring scientific journals. At the European level the discussion was highlighted by the Council’s Conclusions on Scientific information in the Digital Age from November 2007. In these Conclusions the member states of the European Union commit themselves to several initiatives in regard to Open Access. In the Conclusions the Commission also commits itself to the now implemented pilot project on Open Access in the 7th framework programme (FP7). The pilot project incorporates 20 % of the total budget for FP7 including social sciences and humanities. Several European stakeholders have, furthermore, made recommendations in regard to Open Access; the European Research Advisory Board (EURAB) and the European University Association (EUA). In the spring of 2009 the Commission carried out a survey on the implementations of the Council’s Conclusions on scientific information in the digital age. In June a summary of responses to a previous questionnaire was sent to all member states. The most important conclusions are summarized in the attached document. As for the Humanities it can be concluded that some European initiatives in regard to publishing humanities monographs in Open Access are underway. OAPEN is a project on Open Access publishing for humanities and social sciences monographs. OAPEN is made up of a consortium of University-based academic publishers and is co-funded by the European Commission. More information about OAPEN can be found on http://www.oapen.org/ . Furthermore, we would like to inform you about an interesting study on the costs and benefits of Open Access for the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Denmark which was carried out in 2009. Included in the meeting file for your information are the following documents: √ Council conclusions on scientific information in the digital age as adopted by the Competitiveness Council meeting on 23 November 2007. √ Survey on the implementation of the Council's conclusion on scientific information in the digital age which was carried out in spring 2009. √ Study on Open Access – What are the economic benefits? A comparison of the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Denmark. This document can also be downloaded from: http://www.knowledge-exchange.info/Default.aspx?ID=316 HERA Report on Open Access – December 2009 - p. 3/3 COUNCIL OF Brussels, 23 November 2007 THE EUROPEAN UNION 15362/07 RECH 378 ATO 155 COMPET 388 REGIO 52 TELECOM 147 NOTE from: General Secretariat No. prev. doc. : 14690/1/07 RECH 325 ATO 145 COMPET 348 REGIO 43 Subject: Outcome of proceedings of the Council (Competitiveness) on 23 November 2007 - Council conclusions on scientific information in the digital age Delegations will find attached the Council conclusions on scientific information in the digital age as adopted by the Competitiveness Council meeting on 23 November 2007. ____________________ 15362/07 TB/cb 1 DG C II EN COUNCIL CONCLUSIONS ON SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION IN THE DIGITAL AGE: ACCESS, DISSEMINATION AND PRESERVATION THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION RECALLING: - the 24 August 2006 Commission Recommendation on "the digitisation and online accessibility of cultural material and digital preservation" (OJ 2006/L 236/28) and the related Council Conclusions of 13 November 2006 (OJ 2006/C 297/01); - the 14 February 2007 Commission Communication on "scientific information in the digital age: access, dissemination and preservation" COM(2007)56; - the 4 April 2007 Commission Green paper on "the European Research Area: New Perspectives" COM(2007)161; - The OECD’s Principles and Guidelines for Access to Research Data from Public Funding, agreed by all OECD Countries in 2007. CONSIDERING that: - access to and dissemination of scientific information – publications and data – are crucial for the development of the European Research Area, and can help accelerate innovation; - the Internet has created unprecedented possibilities to disseminate, share and build on the outcome of research efforts; 15362/07 TB/cb 2 DG C II EN - Information and Communication Technologies revolutionise the way scientists communicate, perform research and produce knowledge; - in an era of high speed connectivity and high performance computing, data emerges as key for modern science; - the systems by which scientific information is published are pivotal for its dissemination and quality control, in particular through peer review, and thus have a major impact on research funding policies and on the excellence of European research; - universities, libraries, research performing and research funding organisations, scientific publishers and other stakeholders have in recent years made considerable investments in information technologies for online accessibility; - effective and long-lasting digital preservation of scientific information is fundamental for the current and future development of European research; 1) WELCOMES - the Communication COM(2007)56 on "scientific information in the digital age: access, dissemination and preservation" as a basis for further work at the European level on the accessibility and preservation of scientific information. 2) RECOGNISES - the major contribution of universities, international research organisations, research bodies, libraries and other public organisations, as well as of scientific publishers, to the scientific dissemination process; 15362/07 TB/cb 3 DG C II EN - that new, Internet-based dissemination models have triggered a major debate involving all concerned stakeholders on access to and dissemination of scientific information and in particular on access to peer-reviewed scientific articles; - that over the past years scientific libraries' capacity to provide researchers with access to a wide range of publications has been affected by rising overall prices of scientific journals (including electronic distribution of publications); - the strategic importance for Europe’s scientific development of current initiatives to develop sustainable models for open access to scientific information. 3) UNDERLINES - the need to ensure rapid and wide access to publicly funded research results; - that Member States have a strong interest in an efficient scientific information system that maximises the socio-economic impact of public investments in research and technological development; - the importance of scientific output resulting from publicly funded research being available on the Internet at no cost to the reader under economically viable circumstances, including delayed open access; - the cross-border nature of many research endeavours, of their funding sources, and of their dissemination channels; - the importance of better access to unprocessed data and repository resources for data and material that allows fresh analysis and utilisation beyond what the originator of the data had envisaged; 15362/07 TB/cb 4 DG C II EN - that new forms of electronic communication have the potential to enable open access to data and scientific publications, and provide a unique opportunity for the open development of specific data mining, analysis and integration tools, possibly enhanced by common format standards; - that policies and practices in the Member States on access to and preservation