Brussels, 27/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 27 May, the ministers with responsibility for research of the member states gave their approval to the aim of ensuring that so-called “open” science, guaranteeing open access to scientific publications, becomes the rule within the European Union by 2020.
In April, the European Commission pledged to make all scientific data from projects under the research and innovation framework programme 'Horizon 2020' “open by default” from 2017 onwards (see EUROPE 11535). The member states are currently starting to take the same approach, by making public support for research projects carried out by universities or research centres conditional on the publication of their results under open access, in other words made available free of charge over the Internet.
The conference “Open Science - From Vision to Action”, which was hosted by the Dutch Presidency of the Council in April, was a key stage in this process. It laid down 12 actions which were then regrouped into four major objectives. These are: guaranteeing open access to scientific publications; adopting a radically new approach to the re-use of research data; creating new compensation and evaluation systems; aligning policies and exchanging best practice.
These objectives were referred to very frequently by the ministers at their meeting in Brussels on Friday. The debate on the subject was central to the meeting. In the conclusions they adopted, they include these objectives and set a timetable to continue the transition to open access to scientific publications, which will be the default by 2020. They will use various methods, but do not necessarily rule out the use of embargoes for certain publications.
An interim stage has been set for 2018. This will concern freely accessible publications (Gold Open Access), publications available under “hybrid” access, whereby the author of an article can pay for it to be available under free access, even if it has already been published in a subscription journal (Hybrid Open Access) and, finally,” self-archive” publications, whereby an author places a copy of his or her article in an open archive (Green Open Access).
Will all of the member states manage to stick to the timetable? As Poland pointed out, this is an extremely ambitious agenda. A number of ministers have already indicated dates further into the future. Austria, for instance, said that open access to the publications of its universities and research centres enjoying public financing will not be the norm until 2025. The United Kingdom, on the other hand, plans to have “almost” all scientific articles under open access by 2020, with 25% under free access (Gold Open Access).
There is, however, a certain amount of concern behind the apparent consensus over “open science”. France, for instance, stressed the need to engage third countries to adopt the same approach as the EU, to ensure that it is not alone in publishing the results of research projects. There are also considerable economic stakes, for instance those connected to the economic model of scientific journals, which is based on a system of closed access, requiring subscriptions and licences. Finally, there is a power issue, as scientific journals are traditionally guided by peer quality control processes.
Several ministers, such as the Hungarian and the Swedish ministers, in this context stressed the need to find ways of encouraging all players to abide by the principle of “open” science, rather than just placing conditions on government funding. In order to analyse all elements, including how researchers and their employers can retain the intellectual property of their work, the Commission has set up a new platform (Open Science Policy Platform) and presented the ministers with its members. France has already objected, having noted that there were no French nationals on the list. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)