Open access publishing reaching tipping point

A European Commission-funded study estimates that half of all scientific papers published in 2011 are available for free through open access as the EU announced that it will be mandatory for all scientific publications funded through its Horizon 2020 initiative to be open access. The study was conducted by ScienceMetrix — one of several papers the Montreal-based company has produced concerning open access issues. It found much higher levels of open access publications due to a growing trend globally as well as a refined methodology and a wider definition of open access.

The study — conducted for the EU Directorate-General for Research and Innovation — covered the 28 EU member states as well as Brazil, Canada, Japan, Israel, the US and others, and looked at the availability of scholarly publications in 22 fields of knowledge. It found open access most prevalent in general S&T, biomedical research, biology, mathematics and statistics. Open access is most limited in applied sciences and engineering and social sciences and humanities. In several countries, open access penetration exceeds 50%.

The EU has taken a strong stand in support of open access, arguing that taxpayers should not have to pay twice for publicly funded research. It views open access as a key instrument for improving knowledge circulation and innovation in the EU — a stand that led to the decision to make it mandatory for Horizon 2020, the EU's research and innovation funding program for 2014-2020. Upfront publication costs are eligible for reimbursement.

other studies

The paper's release coincided with two other ScienceMetrix studies. One examines the two types of open access: gold or hybrid open access (publications) and green open access (self-archiving). It also found that 75% of respondents considered embargo periods of six to 12 months acceptable.

A third study found that there are fewer policies in place for open access to scientific data collected during publicly funded research. The EU would like this to change and will launch a pilot project to examine "legitimate concerns related to the grantee's commercial interests, privacy and security".

The open access studies can be found at www.science-metrix.com.

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