Science Europe Principles on Open Access to Research Publications (May 2015)

(Original, April 2015; this version revised May 2015.)

"Therefore, the Science Europe Member Organisations:

1. continue to support any valid approaches to achieve Open Access, including those commonly referred to as the ‘green’ and ‘gold’ routes;

2. recognise repositories and related facilities as key strategic research infrastructure which should comply with high quality standards;

3. advocate that research publications should either be published in an Open Access journal or be deposited as soon as possible in a repository, and made available in Open Access in all cases no later than six months following first publication. In Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, the delay may need to be longer than six months but must be no more than 12 months;

4. require that as part of the publication services provided against the payment of Open Access publication fees, effective mechanisms are in place to ensure that the publication of research outputs is subject to rigorous quality assurance;

5. will co-ordinate efforts to ensure the efficient and cost effective use of public funds, and combine programmes for covering Open Access costs with budget control mechanisms and to build up monitoring systems for these costs;

6. accept that it is essential that Open Access transactions need to be managed efficiently, with the co-operation of all parties involved;

7. require that funding of Open Access publication fees is part of a transparent cost structure, incorporating a clear picture of publishers’ service costs;

8. expect publishers to apply institutional-, regional-, or country-based reductions in journal subscriptions, in line with increases in author- or institution-pays contributions;

9. stress that the hybrid model, as currently defined and implemented by publishers, is not a working and viable pathway to Open Access. Any model for transition to Open Access supported by Science Europe Member Organisations must prevent ‘double dipping’ and increase cost transparency;

10. recognise that some redirection and reorganisation of current budgets will be necessary. Governments should give due consideration to the fact that public funds for journal subscriptions often come from other ministries or institutions than those directly responsible for funding research; consequently, some rebalancing of budgets may be required...."