Achieving Open Access by 2020: tracking universities’ progress and guidelines for the future

In furthering its work in the area of open science, EUA releases today a series of aims and recommendations on open access, with the purpose of further assisting European universities and National Rectors’ Conferences (NRCs) in the transition towards a more open scholarly communication system.

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With the document Towards Full Open Access in 2020: aims and recommendations for university leaders and National Rectors’ Conferences, EUA calls for an open scholarly communication system grounded in the quality of the peer-review process, the preservation of authors and institutions’ ownership rights over research outcomes and open licences for the re-use of information, and an equitable cost-benefit ratio for both public institutions and publishers. A series of recommendations in different areas relevant to open access are outlined, including open access to research publications and research data management, institutional development of open access, the mobilisation of researchers, assessment systems, and negotiations of ‘big deals’ with publishers.

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The publication of these recommendations occurs in tandem with the release of the report Open Access in European universities: results from the 2015/2016 EUA institutional survey, which tracks the progress of institutions in the implementation of policies and practices in the area of open access. The survey conducted in 2015/2016 focused on open access to research publications and, for the first time, on open access to research data. It gathered responses from 169 institutions across 33 European countries, showing a relatively more consolidated progress on open access to research publications, but also an increasing awareness on open access to research data.