Earlier this year, Open Research Europe (ORE) announced that its author eligibility criteria has changed, offering new opportunities for more researchers to submit their work to the platform. To help authors navigate the changes, we have put together the following blog post to answer some common questions you may have. Read on to find out more about the expanded eligibility criteria for Open Research Europe authors.
What changed in the eligibility criteria?
When Open Research Europe originally launched, only research funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme was eligible for publication, and later this included research funded by Horizon Europe. To meet the increasing demand from researchers funded by other Framework Programmes to publish their research openly and transparently, Open Research Europe has expanded its eligibility criteria – now more authors than ever can submit their research for publication on the platform. Authors funded by any of the 40+ EC programmes, including Horizon 2020, may now submit their work to Open Research Europe:
Additionally, eligibility to publish in Open Research Europe has been extended to the staff of the European Commission, alongside its decentralised and executive agencies. Scientific outcomes of their employment that meet the publishing requirements of the platform are now welcome.
Why has eligibility to publish in ORE been expanded?
The European Commission, the financer of ORE, is committed to advancing equity and inclusivity in science publishing. By expanding the platform’s eligibility criteria, more EC-funded researchers can now contribute their research to Open Research Europe, encouraging greater diversity in the research outputs published on the platform. All published papers on Open Research Europe are free to read, which leads to increased accessibility of information for researchers across many different disciplines.
When do these changes come into effect and how does this impact existing authors?
Good news! These changes are already in effect, so if your research is funded by any of the EC Programmes above, you may submit your findings to Open Research Europe today!
Additionally, existing authors will not be impacted by the changes to author eligibility. If your research is funded by Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe or Euratom (including ERC, MSCA, COST Actions, ERA-NET and any other cascading actions under these programmes), you are still eligible to submit your research to Open Research Europe and the submission process is the same as it was previously.
I’m funded under an EC programme included in the expanded criteria; how do I submit to ORE?
Authors can submit their findings to Open Research Europe. We accept a wide variety of article types, such as Data Notes, Method Articles or Software Tool Articles. For the full list of accepted article types, see the table below:
All work must be original and must not be undergoing peer review at another publishing venue, and the authors must be prepared to address any comments raised by the reviewers during the peer review process. Open Research Europe’s open peer review and open data policies remain unchanged.
If you have any questions surrounding the submission process, please contact our editorial team and they will be happy to answer any queries.
Will there be any further changes in the future?
In the long term, the European Commission is working to expand the eligibility criteria even further. The ambition is for ORE to become a top-quality, trusted collective open access publishing service for the public good. Ideally, ORE will be collectively owned and supported by research funders and research institutions and will operate as a service for researchers with no author-facing fees in a non-profit mission. To achieve this, conversations are ongoing between the European Commission and other national funders to reach a mutual agreement and implementation plan.
Visit the European Commission Website to discover all the EC programmes which facilitate submission to Open Research Europe.
