Dr Dagmar Meyer
*
ERC Executive Agency, Unit A1
Open Access to Excellent Science - the
European Research Council's approach
Open Access Week at EPFL
24 October 2013
*…with contributions by Daniel Spichtinger, European Commission, DG RTD

• Introduction
 What do we mean by Open Access? Why Open Access?
 Different roles of Commission and ERC
 Open Access in FP7 (Open Access pilot)
• ERC approach to Open Access in FP7
 ERC Statements / Open Access Guidelines
 FP7 Special Clause 39 ERC
 Practical implementation
• ERC Open Access support initiatives
 Europe PMC and arXiv
 Open Access in the SH domain
• Open Access in Horizon 2020
 What changes?
 Pilot on Open Access to Research Data
 Open Access under Horizon 2020 in the ERC programme
Established by the European Commission
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Established by the European Commission
• OA = online access at no charge to the user
 to peer-reviewed scientific publications
 to research data
• For publications:
 OA comes after a decision to publish
 does not interfere with the decision to exploit research results commercially e.g. patenting
 publications not of lower quality: in general same peer review process as for other publications
• Two main OA publishing business models
 Gold OA : costs covered (by authors/funders)  immediate OA
 Green OA : deposit of manuscripts  immediate/delayed OA
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Established by the European Commission
EU Policy objective:
 to optimise the impact of publicly-funded scientific research, both
 at European level (Framework Programmes), and
 at Member State level (encouragement of national initiatives; policy coordination)
Expected impacts:
 Economic growth (accelerated innovation)
 Better science (build on previous results)
 More efficient science (avoid duplication)
 Improved transparency (involving citizens & society)
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Established by the European Commission
 The mission of the ERC is to support excellent fundamental research in sciences and the humanities.
 The main outputs of this research are new knowledge, ideas and understanding, which the ERC expects its researchers to publish in peer-reviewed articles and monographs.
 The ERC considers that providing free online access to these materials is the most effective way of ensuring that the fruits of the research it funds can be accessed, read and used as the basis for further research .
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Established by the European Commission
The European Commission is a...
The European Research Council is …
• Policy maker


Proposes EU legislation
Legislates with other EU institutions
 Invites Member States to act
• Funding agency
 Sets access and dissemination rules for EC-funded research
 Research Framework
Programmes (next: Horizon2020)
• Capacity builder
 Funds infrastructure projects relevant for open access and
Digital Science
• Primarily a research funder
 No policy remit as such
 Primary objective: to fund the best researchers conducting the best research
 Scientific Council to develop scientific strategy aimed at achieving this objective
 Open Access promoted as a means to further scientific excellence
 Funds projects that support EC policy
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Established by the European Commission
• OA pilot in FP7
 7 areas of the Framework Programme (>1300 projects to date)
 20% of total FP7 budget (2007-2013)
• OA publishing costs are eligible in FP7
 Since the beginning of FP7, for all projects
 Limited to duration of project
• European Research Council
 Joined the OA pilot in 2012 (Special Clause 39 ERC)
 Maximum embargo period accepted according to SC 39 ERC:
6 months for all disciplines (instead of 6/12 months for rest of pilot)
• OpenAIRE / OpenAIRE plus
 EU-funded portal giving access to repositories across Europe
(implements FP7 Pilot); linking publications and underlying data
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Established by the European Commission
• Seven areas
1. Energy
2. Environment
3. Health
4. Information & Comm. Technologies [only cognitive systems, interaction & robotics]
5. Research Infrastructures [only e-Infrastructures]
6. Science in Society
7. Socioeconomic Sciences & Humanities
• Embargo (COM: 6/12 months / ERC: 6 months)
• allows publishers to ensure a profit on investment (by e.g. charging for subscription),
• while then providing OA to research articles once embargo period has lapsed.
• Special Clause 39: FP7 grant recipients are expected to
1. deposit peer-reviewed research articles or final manuscripts resulting from their FP7 projects into an online repository;
2. make best effort to ensure open access within 6 months after publication (COM: 12 months for Science in Society and for Socioeconomic Sciences & Humanities).
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Established by the European Commission
 ERC Scientific Council Statement on Open Access –
December 2006
 ERC Scientific Council Guidelines for Open Access –
17 December 2007
 Open Access Guidelines for researchers funded by the
ERC – June 2012
 New: Revised Guidelines adopted on 22 October 2013
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Established by the European Commission
 Open access required for research papers and monographs that are supported in whole, or in part, by ERC funding
 Maximum embargo period 6 months (12 months for Social
Sciences and Humanities)
 Use of discipline-specific repositories strongly encouraged
(Europe PubMed Central for LS domain, arXiv for PE domain; no recommendation for SH domain)
 Alternatively institutional repositories or centralised ones such as Zenodo)
 Research data should be retained and researchers should be prepared to share their data where possible
 Host institutions are encouraged to cover open access related costs after the end of the project for up to 24 months
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Established by the European Commission
 In addition to Article II.30.3, the beneficiary shall deposit an electronic copy of the published version or the final manuscript accepted for publication of a scientific publication, related to foreground published before or after the final report, in an institutional or subject-based repository at the moment of publication .
 The beneficiary is required to make its best efforts to ensure that this electronic copy becomes freely and electronically available to anyone through this repository :
 immediately , if the scientific publication is published
"open access", i.e. if an electronic version is also available free of charge via the publisher, or
 within 6 months of publication.
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Established by the European Commission
 ERC Open Access Guidelines:
 aspirational (not legally binding)
 should be followed by all ERC funded researchers on a voluntary basis
 Special Clause 39 ERC:
 legally binding
 addressing beneficiary
 no reference to research data
 systematically included in Grants resulting from 2012 calls onwards ( i.e. ERC grants from calls in 2007 –
2011 not affected by the Special Clause )
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Established by the European Commission
 ‘Best effort’ formulation strongly encourages researchers and publishers to comply while guaranteeing scientific and academic freedom.
 Detailed instructions on how to fulfil the ‘best effort’ requirement provided in the Guide to Intellectual Property
Rules for FP7 projects .
 Authors should seek information on publishing models and copyright/licensing policies of the journal(s) to which they plan to submit, and check compatibility with the maximum embargo of six months (see the SHERPA/RoMEO website http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo ).
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Established by the European Commission
 If publishers' policies do not allow compliance with
Grant Agreement, authors should negotiate an amendment or request an authorisation to selfarchive within the specific embargo period (model letters available on CORDIS).
 If negotiations are unsuccessful, researchers should consider submitting to another journal ( no obligation ).
 In case of non-compliance, beneficiaries must be able to demonstrate that they have made their "best effort", e.g. through a letter from the publisher stating refusal to allow compliance with the reasons for refusal).
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Established by the European Commission
Europe PMC - repository for LS domain with added services:
 Linked to PubMed Central in USA (huge number of publications & users)
 Large number of journals automatically upload author manuscripts or published version
 Funded by group of 24 European funders including ERC
 ERC grantees can request set-up of PI account and use manuscript deposition service to satisfy open access requirements
 High degree of take-up (about 740 accounts set up , i.e. more than 50% of LS grantees, also some grantees from relevant panels in the PE and SH domain)
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Established by the European Commission arXiv – e-print server for PE domain:
 Hosted at Cornell University
 Long history as pre-print server for physics and mathematics
 but: some development work needed to become fully suitable as OA repository – currently no possibility to encode embargo periods
 Funded through Cornell University, Simons Foundation and group of about 170 institutions, mostly from US and
Europe ("crowd funding")
 ERC has recently joined the initiative and will propose enhancements to add value for ERC and ERC grantees
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Established by the European Commission
 Great diversity and fragmentation across the Social
Sciences and Humanities domain
 No specific subject-based repository recommended so far
 Monographs important means of publication (SSH specificity) – presenting particular challenges
 ERC Open Access WG is following the debate; specific actions to support OA in the SH domain may be developed in the future
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Established by the European Commission
 OA pilot in FP7
•
'Best effort' to provide OA, during and after the project
• 7 areas
• Scientific publications relating to foreground (ERC: including monographs)
•
Allowed embargos: 6/12 months (ERC: 6 months for all areas)
 OA publishing costs
• Eligible while project runs
 OA mandate in Horizon 2020
• Obligation to provide OA (during the project)
•
All areas of Horizon 2020
•
Peer-reviewed publications
• Allowed embargos: 6/12 months
• In addition: pilot for research data
(taking into account commercial interests, privacy, security)
 OA publishing costs
• Eligible while project runs
• Other options currently under discussion
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Established by the European Commission
 Will take into account privacy, security issues, commercial interests
• Issues to consider:
• What data? (underlying data, raw data, metadata)
• Where should data go?
• Use and re-use / ownership
• Not just Open Access: data-sharing and management
• Need to create incentives for researchers
 Public consultation 2 July 2013
– high level of interest (more than 100 participants) – Report and individual presentations available on EC website ( https://ec.europa.eu/digitalagenda/node/67533 )
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Established by the European Commission
 ERC Open Access mandate in H2020
•
Peer-reviewed publications
• Practical application of mandate to monographs yet to be decided
• Allowed embargos: 6/12 months also for ERC projects
• 6 months for projects in LS and PE domain,
•
12 months in SH domain
 ERC will NOT take part in the data pilot in 2014
• May join at a later stage
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Established by the European Commission
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