Guest post – rethinking open access policy in development research: reflections on the INASP policy paper – INASP Blog

"The recently released INASP policy paper, Open Access Policy Options for Development Research Funders (August 2025), is an important and timely contribution to the open access conversation. It reviews the current state of open access policies across the development funder landscape and presents a useful framework for global development funders to consider issues of access, reuse, costs, impacts, equity, and resourcing, in the context of their own values and strategic objectives. These are the right components for funders to weigh as they navigate the complexities of knowledge dissemination in a rapidly changing environment.

This paper should encourage all funders to reevaluate their current open access policies — or create one if they do not have one. While this is a strong starting point, longer and deeper discussions are needed to explore how funders can best drive systemic change and tackle inequities in research publishing..."