TAKE 5 With PALOMERA – European Commission

The PALOMERA project, funded by the EU, has undertaken a two-year effort to investigate the reasons behind the limited inclusion of books in open access funder policies. Its goal was to offer actionable recommendations aimed at addressing this issue. In the latest edition of our “Take 5 with PALOMERA” blog series, we spoke with Victoria Tsoukala, Policy Officer for Open Science at the European Commission, to discuss her insights on the project and its outcomes.

5 questions

1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself as an organisation and your role in it?

I have been a policy Officer with the Directorate General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) in the European Commission since 2017. DG RTD is responsible for the research policy of the Commission and for defining and managing the part of the multiannual funding on research and Innovation, currently Horizon Europe between 2021-2027.

Open access and open science have been an important policy of the Commission already since FP7 with requirements of its grantees, but also with increasing support for policy development and coordination in Member States. Open science and open access are an important part of the European Research Area as they enable the free circulation of knowledge.

As part of a unit with relevant remit in DG RTD, my role has been to define and monitor the Horizon Europe open science policy, and to work in particular on open access requirements and policies for the Commission, including enabling infrastructures such as Open Research Europe, developing calls for funding, which includes the call through which PALOMERA has been funded, and supporting the implementation of the ERA Policy Agenda.

2. Why do you think the PALOMERA project is relevant and timely?

PALOMERA came at a very timely point when open access policies regarding articles had already advanced at a more intense pace compared to the ones for books.

Articles have been the main focus of open access policies and discussions for a long time, given that nowadays they constitute the principal way in which many disciplines disseminate work. Policies had not emphasized or even included books/monographs because the process for the composition, production, publication and dissemination of books/monographs, including its economics, differ substantially from those of articles.

Concrete evidence to understand the current landscape of scientific book and monograph publishing in different fields of science for which it is important, as well as the bottlenecks and strategies to progress in open access, were urgently necessary in view of supporting the relevant funder/institutional nascent policies for open access across Europe and their alignment.

Victoria Tsoukala, from European Commission DG RTD. Photo: Private

3. With the recommendations now prepared and published, what are your reflections on them?

The recommendations clearly capitalize on the research performed by the project to illuminate the ecosystem and workings of scholarly books/monographs and open access to them. They ostensibly cover all important topics identified in surveys, interviews and other relevant research, and in this sense, they are thorough and also nuanced.

They thoroughly address stakeholders and are appropriate to the different kinds of stakeholders, including technical recommendations, where relevant and necessary. The different levels of recommendations appropriately signify that the requirements for open access book policies and the work to be done concern all of the stakeholders and are, at the same time, top-down and bottom-up activities and actions that need to take place.

More work will be clearly necessary to communicate recommendations to the relevant stakeholder communities and see to their potential implementation, an effort that will have to rely largely on resources outside of the project, as it now finishes. 

4. In your opinion, what is the biggest impact PALOMERA had or will have within the scholarly communication sphere?

PALOMERA has already achieved to increase significantly the body of knowledge regarding scholarly books/monographs and open access; the knowledge gained from the project will be extremely useful for funders and institutions that seek to delve into open book policies (the Commission included!).

It has also increased the awareness amongst funders and institutions regarding the need to act. It will be the bet for the future whether it will impact the direction of policy development for funders and institutions with its recommendations, as well as with the funder forum it has established. 

5. How do you see things evolving after the project finishes?

As it quite commonly happens with projects, they come to an end at a high point of productivity and results, and everyone wishes there were more time and funding! I have been there! I believe that PALOMERA and all the colleagues involved in it have been very efficient at involving stakeholders, funders in particular, as I see with great pleasure. It is my wish, and everyone’s I believe, that some of the work regarding the implementation of the recommendations and the development of aligned policies can be taken over by other existing structures and groups in which funders/institutions are involved, so as to move forward.

To learn more about the PALOMERA project, visit the project’s page. 

This series was produced by the Work Package 5 team from the PALOMERA project. Check out all posts using the Take 5 with PALOMERA partners category on the OPERAS blog.