The OA Interviews: Bernard Rentier, Rector of the University of Liège

Bernard Rentier, Rector of the University of Liege, was determined to ensure that ORBi captured all the research being produced at the University, so in 2008 he introduced a self-archiving mandate — which requires all ULg researchers to deposit their papers in ULg's institutional repository, ORBi. To further motivate compliance, Rentier announced that depositing papers in the repository was henceforth the sole mechanism for submitting them to be considered when researchers underwent performance review. Today ORBi is the most active institutional repository of its type in the world (Ranking first of 1,418 IRs), and ULg researchers are beginning to see the benefits of embracing OA, both in terms of increased citations and prestige, and enjoying the excitement of seeing some of their older papers begin, as Rentier puts it, “to live a new life”. But Rentier is not a man who would ever be content to see OA implemented in his own university alone: He wants the research community at large to seize the opportunities that OA provides. To that end he has also taken on the chairmanship of EnablingOpenScholarship (EOS).