Last month, the European Commission published a report called ‘Monitoring the open access policy of Horizon 2020’. The report examines, monitors and quantifies compliance with the open access requirements of Horizon 2020, for both publications and research data.
Not only has this study been commissioned to measure current compliance to open access research policies under Horizon 2020, but to also plan for future grant programs to support beneficiaries in the areas they identified as needing improvement. We’ve reviewed this report and have identified links with Open Research Europe (ORE), which we are exploring within this blog post.
Whilst this discussion centres around Horizon 2020, Open Research Europe is now accepting submissions from Horizon Europe beneficiaries as well. Therefore, all the features and benefits of ORE mentioned in this post are applicable for both Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe beneficiaries.
Efficiency of the Horizon 2020 open access policy
Horizon 2020 is in the top of funders in terms of the level of open access achieved, with open access publishing compliance standing at 83%. This is an increase from the previous programme (~65%) and somewhat outperforming of many of the largest non-discipline specific research funders in Europe and the United States.
The average article processing charge for gold open access is ~EUR 2,200. However, article processing charges are covered in full by the European Commission on ORE. This means authors do not need to find the funds to cover the costs themselves during or after the end of their grants. Full transparency of ORE’s funding can be found here, which provides a better understanding of the various elements of this service and enhances trust in the platform by being so open.
In terms of scientific discipline, the Natural Sciences had the largest number of publications (64,519), whilst the Medical and Health Sciences had the highest percentage for open access (88%). It was found that there are lower numbers of open access publications within Engineering, Technology, Humanities and Social Science. Contrary to the report, these are all areas that Open Research Europe has excelled in attracting and publishing content over the last few months whilst supporting these disciplines in the transition towards open science.
Of all publications containing a license, 49% were covered with Creative Commons (CC) licenses, permitting the reuse (with various restrictions) of data and text. CC-BY and CC-BY-NC license use are receiving steady increases since the start of the current Horizon funding program overall, with 65% of data being deposited with an open license. All ORE articles are published under a CC BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and leaves the copyright of the article with the current copyright holder.
Making all research outputs open
Recommendations from the compliance report include the need to monitor not only publications and datasets, but also other research outputs. Open Research Europe was developed with these outputs in mind. For example, Software Tools, Method Articles, and Registered Reports, among many others, can be published on the Open Research Europe platform. By providing a holistic platform, ORE aims to help authors better comply with Horizon 2020’s guidelines and will simplify the discoverability and reporting of outputs as well as their dissemination. This flexibility and sensitivity to the specificities of scientific domains and research fields is also acknowledged in the report as a key criterion to shaping the next-generation open access monitoring framework.
Open data compliance is identified in the report as being inconsistent. This is due to:
- Beneficiaries being unsure of what types of data must be open.
- A lack of knowledge concerning existing data protection regulations.
- Data management plans (DMPs) are often very rudimentary because researchers do not understand some of the key underlying principles such as FAIR data (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable).
This combined with the lack of awareness of terms relating to open access mean that authors may not be fully aware on how best to follow the Horizon 2020 guidelines.
As a bespoke open access platform designed to meet the needs of Horizon 2020 beneficiaries, authors may submit to Open Research Europe with confidence that technical open access requirements are fulfilled and that Article Process Charges are covered directly by the European Commission, with no further administrative burden to the author. Open Research Europe also endorses the FAIR data principles and, alongside article guidelines, Open Research Europe publishing staff are able to advise authors on how to make their data FAIR and ensure that data is deposited in validated repositories.
This report also found that only approximately 39% of Horizon 2020 deposited datasets are findable. ORE solves this by requiring data to be deposited in trusted repositories, supporting authors in making their data FAIR and by requiring a Data availability statement for all articles.
In summary
Publishing open access increases the visibility and impact of research. Surveyed researchers emphasised how their OA publications were more widely disseminated across different fields and to the general public. Additional benefits that fulfilling Horizon 2020 OA obligations led to include:
- Researchers having increased knowledge of Open Science concepts and principles.
- OA principles at the EU level are leading the way for an OA culture, often encouraging other European funders and institutions to adopt similar OA policies.
The report reiterated several requirements for Horizon 2020 beneficiaries when publishing their research, all of which Open Research Europe fulfils, and support authors to meet. These include that articles are available OA upon publication (or within 6-12 months at the latest, depending on the discipline); that research data and publications are deposited in relevant repositories, and that bibliographic metadata must be in a standard format.
By publishing with ORE, compliance with the European Commission’s OA policy is ensured – making ORE an ideal publishing venue for H2020 beneficiaries and an invaluable tool for improving compliance for Horizon Europe in the future.
