Why do we require open access?
Open access supports preservation, verification and broader use of results and data in research and development in practice. It fastens results achievement and significantly supports innovations. Open access also contributes to transparency and monitoring of the use of public funds and enhances quality, trust and creativity in research.
Following the example of the EC´s framework programme Horizon 2020 and in reaction to the trend in science and research we adopted the principles and practice related to Open Access in the programmes of the EEA and Norway Grants. We want to prepare our beneficiaries for further research collaborations within european programmes and initiatives and to contribute to the development of the European Research Area.
OPEN ACCESS TO RESULTS
is generally understood as ensuring long term, immediate, free online access to the results of science, research and innovations (in particular to full texts of research publications) without any limits.
Beneficiaries in the KAPPA Programme are required to ensure open access to all the J-type project results – “peer-reviewed scientific article”, i.e. free online access for any user to all peer-reviewed scientific publications and to all supportive data related to such publications (i.e. underlying data and metadata).
The condition of open access for the J-type results is met when both of the following steps are fulfilled (these steps might or might not occur simultaneously, depending on chosen way in step 2, and so forth the embargo period of the publisher in case of the green route):
1. Uploading the result to a repository – The beneficiary must upload a machine-readable electronic copy of the final peer-reviewed version of the article (postprint or published version in case of the golden route) in a repository for scientific publications at the latest upon publication. The beneficiary should upload the underlying data in a data repository at the same time.
2. Ensuring open access to the result – Te beneficiary must ensure open access to the article in one of the following ways:
2.1 Self-archiving (green route) – Ensuring open access to the full text of the article in an open repository within at most 6 months (12 months in case of the social sciences and humanities) from the publication. For that purpose a beneficiary can make an amendment to the publishing agreement, a template can be found here.
2.2 Open access publishing (golden route) – Ensuring immediate open access by publishing the article in an open access journal. The publisher usually charges a fee (article processing charge – APC). Also when choosing the golden route it is necessary to upload the article in a repository to ensure long term preservation.
The beneficiary must also ensure open access to the bibliographical information (metadata) of the published article in the chosen repository. The metadata should contain information about the grant provider, programme, project and state the publishing date, embargo period and a persistent identifier (e.g. Digital Object Identifier – DOI).
Costs related to ensuring open access and possible publishing fees are eligible costs for the project implementation period.
TA CR recommends to the beneficiaries not to transfer copyrights to the results and to grant the publisher only the necessary license to publish. We also recommend publishing the results under public licenses, such as Creative Commons (CC-BY), which allows others to access, mine, use, disseminate and reproduce the research work, data and works derived from them. The only restriction is the acknowledgement of the author.
OPEN ACCESS TO RESEARCH DATA
means ensuring free online access to research data for anyone for their further mining, use, reproduction and dissemination. Open data is used to validate the presented results, contribute to further and faster innovations and increase the citation rate of publications. The approach “as open as possible, as closed as necessary” should apply for open data and their sharing, i.e. as open as possible, but with regard to the interests of the beneficiary. Data does not have to be shared, for example, in the case of commercial use, or because of personal data protection or intellectual property rights. Apart from the openness of the data, it is important to correspond to the FAIR principles when sharing:
F
Findable – the data can be easily found
by people and machines and are described by high-quality metadata with unique identifier.
A
Accessible – the data are stored
in a suitable repository and available
in open access mode, with clear information provided on the conditions and possibilities of using the data.
I
Interoperable – the data are stored
in a standardized format and are described by using controlled dictionaries and standard terms.
R
Reusable – the data are sufficiently described and shared under the least restrictive licence possible, in order to the users of data know the origin of data, what it describes and how they can use it.
Beneficiaries should responsibly manage the research data generated within their project in accordance with the above principles. Quality data management improves transparency, efficiency, risk management, organization and preservation of data, ensures continuity and consistency during staff turnover, prevents duplication of activities and facilitates writing of publications and data sharing.
Beneficiaries in the KAPPA Programme are required to submit a Data Management Plan (“DMP”) within 6 months from the project start, where they describe what data will be created, processed and / or collected. It should also contain the description of data management methods and principles that will be used; how the data will be shared and published; and how and where the data will be stored during the project implementation and after the end of the project.
Good data management practice: