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Open Access

Studentai dirba kompiuteriais bibliotekoje

Open Access is free and unrestricted online access to research results (scientific publications, studies, and other high-quality research materials), and the possibility for each user to read, copy, analyse, share, and reuse them in accordance with applied copyright and licencing regulations.

The implementation of open access opens up new opportunities for research, education, innovation, storage, and worldwide dissemination of scientific knowledge, increases the efficiency and productivity of science, the transparency and credibility of research, and promotes interdisciplinary collaboration. Digital resources provide new opportunities to share and disseminate research results through innovative means and methods.

The purpose of open access is to provide universal access to scientific publications, research data, and other published and unpublished high-quality peer-reviewed research materials, maintaining maximum transparency and respecting already established international publishing standards and copyright requirements.

  • Benefits of Open Access

    Open access to research results (publications, data sets, and other materials) benefits all participants in the research process: researchers, research and funding organisations, publishers, and the general public, because:

    • dissemination of research results becomes faster and more efficient;
    • the visibility of scientific publications is increased by expanding the audience of readers;
    • increased visibility, in turn, increases the number of downloads and citations of published results;
    • the copyright of published content is retained by the author;
    • with increased transparency and the ability to ensure the quality of research results, science becomes more reliable;
    • increased research efficiency by reducing duplication of studies;
    • access to the most recent global scientific knowledge enables better education, faster scientific development, and implementation of innovations;
    • more efficient allocation of funds invested in the research;
    • the latest scientific discoveries become available to the public, which in turn promotes scientific literacy and civil education.

  • Models of Open Access Implementation

    GOLD OPEN ACCESS

     

    The Golden Open Access is a publishing model in which all Article Processing Charges (APCs) are paid by the author, sponsor, or institution, but full-text access is free for all readers.
    Articles published using this model are generally licenced under the Creative Commons (CC-BY) licence, allowing free reading, transmission, copying, and/or use of published works in accordance with the publishers’ regulations (if there are such). The copyright in the publication remains with the author himself (is not transferred to the publisher), so it is necessary to indicate authorship when using open-access information in your own work.

     

    DIAMOND/PLATINUM OPEN ACCESS

     

    Diamond / Platinum Open Access is a publishing model in which both publishing and reading are free: the authors do not have to pay any publishing fee, and the readers do not have to pay to get access to the published content. This model is most commonly used by academic publishers, since article preparation and publication costs can be covered from universities’ budgets.

    VILNIUS TECH also supports the Diamond / Platinum open-access model as it covers publishing costs for seven journals published by the University:
    Aviation
    Geodesy and Cartography
    Journal of Architecture and Urbanism
    Mathematical Modelling and Analysis
    New Trends in Computer Sciences
    Engineering Structures and Technologies
    Science – Future of Lithuania

    Therefore, researchers can publish their research in these journals free of charge (APC), and their publications will be freely accessible to all society.

    GREEN OPEN ACCESS 

     

    Green Open Access can be described as the hosting of articles or their copies in institutional, thematic, or other open repositories. This way of ensuring access to research results is also called self-archiving.
    Articles may be deposited as soon as they get published or at the end of the embargo period, which may be specified in the Copyright Agreement with the publisher. Therefore, before depositing the article into a repository, it is highly recommended to review the Copyright Agreement signed with the publisher, since it may include a statement indicating that the copyrights of the article were transferred to the publisher. In this case, the publication may be placed in the repository only if permitted by the publisher’s regulations. If these agreements do not include information on article usage rights, publisher policies toward self-archiving can be checked here:

    • In the Jisc’s open policy finder database of publisher Open Access policies.
    • On the Share Your Paper website or in the Open Access Button tool, where the access status of the publication can be checked.
    • In the RoarMap registry of open repository regulations, regulations on open access of universities, research institutions, and funding institutions from all over the world can be found.

     

    BRONZE OPEN ACCESS

     

    Bronze Open Access means that articles are free to read only on the publisher’s website. This model is risky since the publisher may at any time suspend free access to all or part of the publication, and interested readers may have to pay a fee to gain access to the article. Therefore, this model is based on the goodwill of the publisher and publications are not licenced under a Creative Commons licence that indicates open access to the content and the terms of its use. For this reason, many proponents of open-access and research funders do not attribute this model to an open-access one.

  • Copyright, Publishing Agreements, and Creative Commons Licenses

    Copyright provides legal intellectual protection for the works of an author or creator.
    Authors of original works usually acquire copyright as soon as their work is recorded in any material form. Unlike in the case of patenting works, there is no need to apply for copyright legalization, and no registration forms are required.Publishing is the production of copies of a work that become available to the public. The public is any private person who does not belong to the circle of private persons.When publishing articles in the traditional way, the author usually signs a Copyright Transfer Agreement with the publisher. In this way, the publisher has exclusive rights to the work. The publisher may reproduce, distribute, publicise, and use the work in other ways.

    • The publisher may require the transfer of copyright as a mandatory condition for the publication of the article. Authors must be informed of the consequences of copyright transfer and alternative options. Authors do not have to transfer all rights to the publisher in order to publish the article; they may choose to publish the article under certain licences, which specify the rights that are transferred and that are retained.
    • If you do not wish to transfer all exclusive rights to the publisher, you may add an SPARC Author’s Addendum to your agreement with the publisher. It is a legal instrument that modifies the contract with the publisher and allows the fundamental rights to his work to be preserved. For this addendum to take legal effect, it must be approved by the publisher. The author’s addendum is a free document created by SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition).
    • The SURF Foundation has created a website entitled “Copyright in Higher Education” where publishing licences that can be used in submitting an article for publication are provided. These licences permit the publication of the article in both digital and paper form, but the author reserves the right to use his article for educational and research purposes and to place it in institutional and thematic repositories.

    In any case, the author always retains his personal and non-property rights to his work (every author can legally object to the change of the title of the work, incorrect attribution of authorship, to disagree with the fact that the work is being distorted, inaccurately translated, etc.).

    A licence is an official agreement that sets out the conditions under which users are allowed to use the licence work.

    • Open-access articles are usually published under a Creative Commons licence, which defines the conditions under which they may be used. According to the Berlin Declaration of Open Access, by publishing works with open-access, the author states that: ‘the author(s) and the right holder(s) of such contributions grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, right of access to, and licence to copy, use, distribute, transmit, and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works, in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship […], as well as the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal use “.

    If an article or an academic paper is available online for free, that does not mean that it can be used without restrictions. All works should be used in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Copyright and Related Rights of the Republic of Lithuania.

    • If you want to use someone’s work, you need to ask permission from the author. In this digital age, when the majority of works are published online, it is often difficult to determine who owns the copyright of a work or it is unclear how to contact the author. The Creative Commons licence helps solve these problems. With the help of these licences, the author indicates how and under what conditions others can use his work. The author reserves the copyright to himself but shares his work with others under certain conditions. Creative Commons offers several types of licenses which could be applied to the work.

  • Search of Open Access Sources and Publications

    OPEN ACCESS SOURCES REGISTRIES AND DATABASES

    DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) is the registry of open-access scientific journals established in 2003.  This directory includes journals that meet the quality requirements for scientific journals and use the open-access publishing model. The publications in the directory can be read, stored, copied and distributed free of charge according to the applied journals’ licences.
    DOAB – Directory of Open Access Books.
    OASPA – Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association, bringing together trusted publishers of open access journals and books.

    Open access scientific information can also be searched with global search systems:

    • BASE – a global information search system providing access to more than 240 million documents from over 8,000 content providers. More than 60% of documents are open access.
    • Core – the world’s largest non-profit, open source search system for full-text documents and metadata from a variety of disciplines.

     

    OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHERS

    BioMed Central  – pioneer of open-access publishing, publishing high-quality peer-reviewed journals in the fields of biomedicine, physics, mathematics, and engineering.
    Frontiers – a leading open access publisher and an open science platform with peer-reviewed journals spanning more than 900 academic disciplines. It is one of the largest and most cited publishers in the world.
    Hindawi – one of the world’s largest publishers of open access journals, publishing high-quality scientific journals in the fields of biology, medicine, physics, social sciences, education, mathematics, engineering, and computer science.
    MDPI – this publisher has more than 25 years of experience in publishing gold open access scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals covering a wide range of disciplines. All articles in the journal are published under the Creative Commons license (CC-BY). Therefore, articles published in MDPI journals become immediately available worldwide with free unlimited access to the full texts of publications.
    PLoS – a non-profit open access publisher whose journals meet all the requirements for peer review and open access and open data.
    Springer Open – an open access platform for journals and books covering all fields of science.  All published content is freely available immediately after publication. All journal articles are published under the Creative Commons (CC-BY) license, allowing them to be freely downloaded, reused, and distributed without restrictions, properly acknowledging the original work. Books are also published under the Creative Commons (CC-BY-NC) license and may be reused and redistributed for non-commercial purposes, indicating the authorship of the work.
    VILNIUS TECH also publishes 16 open access peer-reviewed scientific journals. 8 of them are focused on physical and technological sciences, 5 – on social sciences, and 3 are multidisciplinary. Articles are published under the CC-BY 4.0 license, which allows unlimited use of published content, with reference to the original author and source.

    If you have any doubts about the quality and reliability of an open access publisher or journal, it is recommended to check if the journal / publisher does not meet the criteria specific to predatory publishers and / or check the Think Check. Submit.

     

    OPEN ACCESS REPOSITORIES

     

    Thematic repository – accumulates, stores, and provides open access to content (articles, data, etc.) in a specific field of science or discipline.

    The most popular thematic repositories:
    arXiv – a thematic repository for biology, economics, physics, computer science, mathematics, engineering and technology sciences
    Citeseer – computer science repository
    RePEc – a repository for economics and related sciences
    SSRN – a repository for applied health, life sciences, physics, social sciences, and humanities

    Multidisciplinary repositories – collect published and unpublished research results, data, and other information from various disciplines.
    The most widely used is the ZENODO repository. The repository is funded by the European Commission.

    Institutional repositories –repositories that host and preserve the scientific output of individual (or multiple) institutions. They usually contain theses, dissertations, working papers, conference proceedings, and published scientific articles. With respect to size and organisational methods, these repositories can be distinguished as decentralised (of one university or several institutions) and centralised (national). According to the types of hosted content, the repositories can be divided into homogeneous (in which only certain types of publications are collected, for instance, only unpublished works; only scientific publications; only dissertations and theses, etc.), heterogeneous (various and not necessarily only scientific production types, e.g. heritage material) and holistic (aiming at maximal inclusion of all kinds of production).

    • VILNIUS TECH repository. The main purpose of the repository is to accumulate and preserve the scientific output of the University. In terms of organisation and scope, it is a decentralised institutional repository, heterogeneous in terms of the types of included output but evolving in a holistic direction. The repository hosts scientific articles, conference proceedings, doctoral dissertations, textbooks, and other objects created by VILNIUS TECH authors.
    • eLABa  (Lithuanian Electronic Academic Library) – a national (centralised) interinstitutional repository that accumulates the scientific output of all Lithuanian research and academic institutions (scientific publications, study literature, graduation works, etc.).

    Comprehensive lists of open access repositories from all over the world can be found at:

    • The Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR)
    • Registry of Open Access Repositories (ROAR)
    • Registry of Research Data Repositories (Re3data.org)
    • Using a search system for scientific data repository – Repository Finder.

  • APC Discounts

    When publishing using an open-access model, authors usually have to pay an Article Processing Charge (APC).

    EIFL  – Electronic Information for Libraries, a non-profit organization working with libraries to provide access to knowledge in developing and transition economies in Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe and Latin America.
    Currently, the EIFL organization has coordinated APC discount offers with several publishers that allow community researchers in partner organizations to publish their research in open access and / or hybrid journals of these publishers at reduced article publication (Article Procesing Charge, APC) fees.

    Lithuanian Research Library Consorcium, of which VILNIUS TECH Library is a member, cooperates with EIFL (Electronic Information for Libraries), therefore members of VILNIUS TECH community can also take advantage of discounts on APC fees agreed with EIFL publishers.
    The full list of publishers offering APC discounts for Lithuanian authors can be found here >>>. A general list of all journals included in publishers’ offers can be viewed in Excel format (the list of journals is updated twice a year).

    Some publishers apply additional requirements for eligibility to use APC discounts, hence, VILNIUS TECH community members may not be able to take advantage of all publisher offers (Cambridge University Press publisher, and journal European Respiratory Journal free open access publishing offers are not valid for VILNIUS TECH members).

    Important! All offers are valid only when publications are submitted by the corresponding authors.

    APC discount procedures and terms may vary by publisher, therefore, before submitting manuscripts for publication, we recommend consulting each publisher’s suggestions in detail:

    SAGE Publishing Proposals
    For publication in Sage Premier Journals
    Discount: For Lithuanian authors – 20% discount for publishing in fully open access (Gold) journals and free-of-charge in some hybrid journals
    Validity of the offer: until 2028.12.31
    Includes disciplines: social sciences; business management; communication and media research; politics and international relations; sociology; education; psychology; research methods and evaluation; medicine; health sciences; natural and technological sciences; engineering and technology sciences; humanitarian studies.
    Types of journals eligible for APC discounts: fully open access only
    List of journals fully open access (Gold) eligible for APC discounts >>>
    Authors can publish their articles in some SAGE Choice program journals (hybrid) at no APC cost >>>

    APC discount procedure: the discount is applied once the author has selected their affiliated institution during the peer review process. After the article has been accepted for publication, an email will be sent to the author with a link to the SAGE platform where they will need to complete the open access process (instructions for this process can be found here >>>).

    More information about the offer >>>

     

    Taylor & Francis Proposal
    Discount: For Lithuanian authors – 50%
    Validity of the offer: until 2028.12.31Includes disciplines: arts and humanities; behavioral sciences and social care; economics and sociology; education; information sciences; sports and heritage; politics; international relations and regional research; geography; natural, life and environmental sciences; medicine and health sciences; physical sciences and engineering.
    Types of journals eligible for APC discounts: full open access only, including Cogent journals
    List of journals eligible for APC discounts >>> APC discount procedure: author submits the article through the selected journal’s submission system, following the relevant instructions. During submission process, author needs to check the option “I have another waiver to request or a discount code” and enter the code “EIFL”.More information about the offer >>>

    World Scientific Publishing Proposal
    Discount: For Lithuanian authors – 50%
    Validity of the offer: until 2026.12.31
    Includes disciplines: Medical and Life Sciences; Environmental Sciences; Chemistry; Physics; Engineering; Material Sciences; Computer Sciences; Economics; Finances and Management; Mathematics.
    Types of journals eligible for APC discounts: selected  hybrid and a fully open access journal
    List of journals eligible for APC discounts >>>
    APC discount procedure: upon receiving letter of confirmation that the manuscript has been accepted for publishing, the author has to reply to it and confirm that he is eligible for APC discount.
    More information about the offer >>>

    BRILL Proposal
    Discount: For Lithuanian authors – 60%
    Validity of the offer: until 2026.12.31
    Includes disciplines: Literature, Media and Cultural Studies; Language and Linguistics, Art History; Book History and Cartography; Religious and Ethnical Group Studies; Classical Studies; Education; History; Philosophy; Theology and World Christianity; Human Rights and Humanitarian Law; International Law; International Relations; Social Sciences; Biology.
    Types of journals eligible for APC discounts: fully open access and hybrid
    List of journals eligible for APC discounts >>>
    APC discount procedure: When authors select Open Access during the submission process, their eligibility for the discount will be recognized automatically (by their country and affiliation data). The discount is applied after the article has been accepted, once the author is requested to pay the invoice.
    More information about the offer >>>

  • Free-of-Charge Open Access Publishing Possibilities

    The Lithuanian Research Library Consortium (LMBA) has directly or through membership in EIFL (Electronic Information for Libraries) organization signed agreements with international publishers, which not only provide full access to the publishers’ subscribed content, but also allow the authors of the participating institutions to publish articles in the publishers’ journals in an Open Access manner without paying Article Processing Charges (APCs).

    In this way, authors avoid the bureaucratic and financial  burdens of paying APC, and their published results receive greater visibility, and consequently, citation opportunities. It also ensures that the funders’ requirement to publish research results openly is met while allowing the authors to retain copyright.

    Article submission systems automatically check whether, according to the institution indicated by the author, he may be eligible for free open-access publishing or discounts on the APC fee, and transmit the relevant information to the authors and administrators of the represented institution or consortium.

    Important! Only corresponding authors affiliated with an institution that has signed a transformative agreement with a publisher can publish open access for free. The authors must use institutional email.

    The terms of the agreements and the course of application may differ depending on the publisher, so authors are recommended to examine the valid contracts signed with the publishers before submitting their manuscripts for publication.The list of all journals in which Lithuanian authors can publish in open access free-of-charge or with discounted APCs, can be downloaded here >>>
    The list includes and can be sorted by the journal represented subject fields, proposal types, their application conditions, journals‘ publishing models, language, regular APC costs,  Journal Impact Factor (JIF) (if present), ISSN numbers and links to the journals home-pages.

    Corresponding authors from Lithuania can publish their articles in open access at no cost in almost 60 De Gruyter published Subscribe to Open  (S2O) journals, covering natural, technical, engineering, as well as social sciences and humanities.

    Authors will be recognized automatically when they select Open Access during the submission process. The waiver will be applied upon acceptance of the manuscript.

    More information:

    • Full description of the proposal >>>
    • S2O journal list >>>

     

    The transformative agreement signed between LMBA and Emerald Publishing not only provides LMBA member institutions communities with access to the subscribed collections, but also allow their authors to publish in the subscribed journals in open access free of charge.

    For the three years determined in the agreement (2025,2026, 2027), the authors of all participating institutions will be able to publish 15 articles at no cost per each year. The vouchers are not divided by institutions and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis for articles submitted by the authors affiliated with participating institutions upon article acceptance. Therefore, authors willing to use this opportunity will have to contact both their institution and LMBA coordinator in order to receive the voucher.
    Important! The proposal is valid only for publishing in hybrid journals subscribed by the member institution: VILNIUS TECH authors can publish in open access free-of-charge in Emerald Engineering eJournals and Emerald Management eJournals collections journals.

    More information:

     

    Based on the signed  Read and Publish agreement with SAGE Publishing, VILNIUS TECH authors can publish their articles in open access free-of-charge in over 700 SAGE Choice hybrid journals, covering all major disciplines.

    The offer will be applied automatically upon the indication of author represented institution affiliation participating in the agreement in the manuscript submission system. After manuscript peer-review concluding in the manuscript acceptance, the author will be contacted personally by the e-mail regarding publishing in open access.

    More information:

    • Full description of the proposal >>>
    • The list of VILNIUS TECH subscribed Sage Premier journals, participating in the Sage Choice program >>>
    • Exceptions: journals not participating in Sage Choice program >>>
    • Detailed instruction of manuscript submission and offer application >>>

     

    Based on the signed Read and Publish agreement with ACS Publications, VILNIUS TECH authors can publish their articles in open access free-of-charge in ACS hybrid or ACS Au journals. In order to take advantage of free open access publishing in ACS Publications and journals, the authors:
    • During submission via ACS Publishing Center, as a corresponding author, select your institution from a drop-down box and use your affiliated university email address.
    • Ensure that the same institutional affiliation is clearly stated in the body of the manuscript as the affiliation of the corresponding author.
    • In the Journal Publishing Agreement, indicate that you wish to publish open access. After completing the agreement, click the “Order Open Access” link and submit the open access funding request. In the request, select the option to seek funding from the author’s institution.

    If the request is approved, the work will be published at no additional cost to the author in ACS open access with a  Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0 or CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence and made freely available on the ACS Publications website.

    The final published article will automatically be deposited on USPubMed Central and mirrored on European PCM databases.

    More information: details of the Transformative Agreement signed by LMBA >>>

     

    Manuscripts having VILNIUS TECH affiliations and submitted to Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) published computer and information technologies journals using institutional e-mail, will be automatically identified as compliant with the ACM Open transformative agreement’s terms and will be published in open access free-of-charge.

    More information:

    • About ACM Open transformative publishing model >>> and >>>
    • Lists and exceptions of eligible journals and conference proceedings >>>
    • About paper submission process >>>
    • Answers to the most common questions >>>

     

    VILNIUS TECH authors can publish their articles in open access free-of-charge in 8 journals published by Microbiology Society. Author eligibility will be assessed in the manuscript submission system automatically based on the affiliated country information, and the author will be offered to publish free.

    More information:

    • Full description of the proposal >>>
    • List of eligible journals >>>

     

    VILNIUS TECH authors can take advantage of the signed Read & Publish agreement with The Company of Biologists, allowing researchers to publish their results in open access free-of-charge in 5 life science journals.
    Important! The proposal applies only for original research papers / research articles.

    More information:

    • Full description of the proposal >>>
    • Proposal application guide for authors >>>
    • List of eligible journals >>>

     

    In order to take advantage of free-of-charge open-access publishing in selected IOP Publishing journals in physics and related sciences, authors must, when submitting their manuscripts in the ScholarOne submission system, check whether the institution they represent is indicated correctly. If not, the author can select Actions and Edit in the submission form and then choose from the list of matching institutions. Authors must also ensure that the institution they represent is clearly stated in the article itself.

    In the ScholarOne system, the author will have to choose one of the open access options, which will vary depending on whether the manuscript is being submitted to a hybrid or fully open access journal, and whether any fee waivers may be available.

    Important! If the author is publishing in a hybrid journal and the manuscript is not eligible for transformative agreement funding, or if the funding is declined by the author’s institution, the article will be published under a subscription license.
    If the author is publishing in a fully open access journal and the article is not eligible for transformative agreement funding, or if the funding is declined by the author’s institution, the author will be charged the APC.

    At the initial stage of manuscript evaluation, the system will identify whether the author is eligible for transformative agreement funding and will notify them by email.

    If the manuscript is accepted for publication, the author will be asked to sign the open-access copyright form to publish the article under Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0) licence.

    More information:

    • About the LMBA signed Transformative Agreement >>>
    • List of journals included in the agreement >>>
    • Detailed description of the adaptation of the agreement during of manuscript submission process >>>
    • Answers to frequently asked questions >>>

  • Regulation and Promotion of Open Access

    OPEN ACCESS REGULATIONS

     

    The basic principles of open access are set out in these documents, which the signatory states undertake to open access to the results of published research funded by their budgets and encourage researchers to publish their work in open access journals.
    2002 Budapest Open Access Initiative
    2003 Declaration of Bethesda on open-access publication
    2003 Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities

    International and national recommendations:

    2015, May 29 Counsil conclusions on “open, data-intensive and networked research as a driver for faster and wider innovation”.
    2016, February 29 Resolution of the Lithuanian Science Council on the approval of guidelines for open access to scientific publications and data
    2018, April 25 European Commission Recommendation on Access to and Preservation of Scientific Information.
    UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science

    • At the 40th session of UNESCO’s General Conference (2019), 193 Member States tasked the Organization with the development of an international standard-setting instrument on Open Science in the form of a UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science to be adopted by Member States in 2021. The Recommendation was developed through a regionally balanced, multistakeholder, inclusive, and transparent consultation process, and was expected to define shared values and principles for Open Science, and identify concrete measures on Open Access and Open Data, with proposals to bring citizens closer to science and commitments to facilitate the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge around the world.
    • The UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science complements the 2017 Recommendation on Science and Scientific Research. It is also based on the UNESCO Strategy on Open Access to Scientific Information and Research and the new UNESCO Recommendation on Open Educational Resources.

     

    OPEN ACCESS INITIATIVES

     

    SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition Europe) – a non-profit organisation that brings together academic institutions, libraries, research funding institutions, and some publishers in the collective support of Open Access and Open Science. The organisation aims to promote the exchange of research results and teaching materials in order to democratise access to knowledge, facilitate its discovery, increase investment in research, and return on education.

    OpenAIRE – Open Access Research Infrastructure in Europe, aiming at shifting scholarly communication toward openness and transparency and facilitating innovative ways to communicate and monitor research.

    EOSC  (European Open Science Cloud) – an environment integrating research infrastructures where European researchers, as well as science and technology professionals from different disciplines and countries, can store, share, and reuse data. The EOSC portal was launched on November 23, 2018, in Austria. The initiative seeks to unite a fragmented research ecosystem and promotes compliance with basic FAIR principles. The EOSC provides cross-border access to digital resources, research data, information technology, and software in all disciplines, and expands the range of open science and research data management services.

  • EU and Research Funder Regulations towards Open Access

    PROGRAM “HORIZON 2020”

     

    Horizon 2020 – the largest EU research and innovation program to exist in 2014-2020. The essence of the program is high-quality science and the creation of a knowledge and innovation society. More than € 80 billion in funding has been made available for program participants over seven years (2014-2020), in addition to private and national public investment. This program was initiated by the European Commission to boost economic growth and employment possibilities. All funds were invested in research and experimental development and innovation.
    The program was focused on open access not only to scientific publications but also to primary scientific data, as well as to the protocols and standards used to collect the data. It was recommended that research data be recorded in repositories and data management plans.

    Statistics on Lithuania’s participation in Horizon 2020.
    More information about the program can be found here >>>

     

    PROGRAM “HORIZON EUROPE 2021-2027“

     

    Horizon Europe 2021-2027 – the most ambitious research and innovation program in the world,  which has replaced the EU Framework program Horizon 2020. It is aimed at building high-quality research and science-based innovation, fostering international cooperation, enhancing the EU’s competitiveness, and creating a single European Research Area. The goal of the program is to promote world leadership in research and innovation.
    By creating and improving the dissemination of high-quality scientific knowledge and technologies the program facilitates collaboration and strengthens the impact of research and innovation in developing, supporting and implementing EU policies and tackling global challenges. It also seeks to create necessary incentives for program participants (both knowledge creators and users) to freely share their research data and results for enabling their reuse, and in this way support the implementation of open access.

    Horizon Europe project aims to:

    • Increase the availability of scientific production;
    • Bring research and innovation to a higher level;
    • Improve access to high-quality content;
    • Make a greater impact on society by involving them in the research process.

    All these goals are addressed by ensuring that high-quality content would be made freely available in an open space. This is achieved by including associated stricter requirements in the new program:

    1. Publishing by open access model

    As specified in the European Commission’s Open Science Implementation Plan, publishing costs will be funded only for fully open-access journals (there will be no promotion or support for publication in hybrid journals).

    In addition, in March 2021, Open Research Europe, an open research publishing platform that presents the results of research funded by Horizon 2021-2027 and its predecessor Horizon 2020 was established. The platform provides free access to the latest scientific discoveries, research findings and insights for all interested parties – from researchers to citizens.

    It is noted, that open access provides the rights not only to openly read but also to copy, distribute, link or modify open content.

    1. Managing and opening research data

    In this program, higher emphasis is placed towards research data highlighting that data management must become an integral part of the research process. Accordingly, data management plans (DMPs) for findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) and open research data are made mandatory.

    Research data must be made openly available following the principle open as possible, closed as necessary.
    Implementation of Open access to research data implicates, that:

    • The data is deposited in the open data repositories;
    • The data is licensed under copyright (Creative Commons licenses can be used) and made freely available (through Horizon Europe or another website).

    The program emphasizes data collection and consolidation in the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), which is designed to openly share research data and seeks to become a common integrated European system.

    Information on the calls for proposals can be found on the European Commission’s website or on the participants’ portal, which shows specific areas of research and innovation and the timing of forthcoming calls for proposals. It also provides easy-to-understand guidelines and all the tools needed to apply for funding and administer projects.

    Detailed information about the program and calls for proposals can be found here >>>

    “PLAN S“

     

    On 8 September 2018, national research agencies and funding from eleven European countries, supported by the European Commission and the European Research Council (ERC), announced the establishment of cOAlition S. The purpose of the coalition is to ensure the immediate implementation of open access to research publications.
    Plan S is an initiative for Open Access publishing that was launched in September 2018. The plan is based on the principles of cOAlition S and requires that scientific publications resulting from research funded by public funds must be published in compliant Open Access journals or platforms.

    Accordingly, the employment of Open Access models (Gold and/or  Green Open Access) is made a mandatory condition for publishing publicly funded research, i.e. „With effect from 2021, all scholarly publications on the results from research funded by public or private grants provided by national, regional and international research councils and funding bodies, must be published in Open Access Journals, on Open Access Platforms, or made immediately available through Open Access Repositories without embargo.” (Plan S).

    Therefore, it is expected that the plan will ensure that thousands of research articles will be made openly available from their publication date, and will be licensed. In order to achieve this goal, 10 Plan S principles have been put forward.

    In addition, aiming to ensure that researchers do not get lost in the plethora of open-access journals and choose only high-quality open-access journals to publish their research, a Journal Checker Tool (JCT) has been developed to help researchers quickly review and identify journals that meet Plan S criteria and requirements.

    All 16 journals published by VILNIUS TECH also meet the Plan S criteria.

    More information about Plan S can be found here >>>