Open Access

What is Open Access?

Open Access (OA) refers to free, online access to research results. The goal is to make the outcomes of publicly funded research as widely available as possible. You can read more about open research at openscience.no.

Note that for medical and health science studies involving humans, the Research Council of Norway also has specific requirements and guidelines regarding the prospective registration of studies and the publication of results.

See Vitenarkiv for information about options available to hospitals.

Different Paths to Open Access

There are several ways to publish that comply with the requirements of the Research Council of Norway and others:

Publishing in OA journals.
Publishing in subscription-based journals where UiO/OUS has agreements for prepaid open access.
Publishing in subscription-based journals with simultaneous archiving in an open repository.
Publishing in subscription-based journals with article processing charges for making the article OA (though this is not recommended).

There are tools and guidelines available for selecting journals that meet these requirements and ensuring opportunities for open publishing. See below for more information.

Please note that the agreements UiO has for discounts in some OA journals do not apply to OUS and other healthcare institutions. However, some publisher agreements also cover OA journals, meaning that it is not necessary to pay an APC in those cases either. See the University Library's website for details on the individual agreements: Open Access Agreements – University of Oslo Library.

Plan S and Funding Source Requirements

The Research Council of Norway, the EU, and several international organisations have joined forces under Plan S to accelerate open publishing and introduced stricter requirements for open access in calls from 2021 onwards. Furthermore, the government has issued guidelines stating that all publicly funded research must be open by 2024.

The key changes in the Research Council's contract terms from 2021/22 include:

A version of the published article with the correct content (AAM - Author Accepted Manuscript or VoR – Version of Record) must be made available at the time of publication; embargo periods of 6-12 months are no longer permitted.
The article must be published under a licence that allows further distribution:

CC BY: Allows sharing — copying, distributing, and spreading the work in any medium or format. Modification — remixing, adapting, and building upon the material for any purpose, including commercial use.
CC BY-ND: Allows sharing — copying, distributing, and spreading the work in any medium or format for any purpose, including commercial use (modifications not permitted).

Costs for article processing charges cannot be charged directly to the project budget and must be covered by the division/department.

If the journal imposes an embargo period, the Research Council expects this to be bypassed by including the following statement in the web application when submitting the article for review:

"This research was funded, in whole or in part, by [Norwegian Research Council, Grant #]. A CC BY or equivalent licence is applied to [the AAM/ the VoR] arising from this submission, in accordance with the grant’s open access conditions.”

If the journal, against expectations, refuses publication under these terms, the Research Council must be contacted.

For EU grants for research and innovation projects, similar requirements for open publishing and open research generally apply to all grants under Horizon Europe. As of April 2023, there are proposals for new, more specific requirements on how research results and data should be made accessible.

Several Norwegian contributors have explicit policies on open access, but with varying wording:

The Dam Foundation: Scientific articles from research funded by the foundation must be made openly accessible. See Guidelines for Transparency - The Dam Foundation (in Norwegian).
The Regional Health Authority (HSØ RHF): Research projects that receive funding should preferably publish scientific articles openly.
The Norwegian Cancer Society:
“The Project Owner should strive to ensure that a copy of peer-reviewed scientific articles based on research wholly or partially funded by the Norwegian Cancer Society is stored in appropriate, open-access digital archives. Research-generated data must be deemed to be publicly available if there are no special reasons that argue against it or if contractual terms and conditions or governmental rules exist that prevent this.”

Websites that are regularly updated with information on conditions from the Research Council, EU, and other aspects of open access:

Publishing (UiO – in Norwegian)
Openscience.no (in Norwegian)

How to Check if a Journal is Compatible with Plan S – Journal Checker Tool

A web application has been developed to check whether a specific journal can be used. This is available via the Register of Scientific Publishing Channels (Kanalregisteret – in Norwegian).

Search Kanalregisteret to see if your preferred journal is at Level 1 or Level 2, as per the Guidelines for Scientific Publishing.
Then, use the Journal Checker Tool to verify if the journal meets Plan S criteria.

By entering the funding source and institution (e.g., Oslo University Hospital), you can determine if the journal is compatible and which options are available to ensure open access.

How to Assess if an OA Journal Meets the Standards

Checking the status in the Register of Scientific Publishing Channels (as described above) allows you to select journals that meet the formal requirements for readership, editorial standards, and peer review (Level 1). However, there is an increasing number of journals prioritising rapid publication (and invoicing) over maintaining a certain academic standard. Check with your academic community for their experiences with the specific journal. Be sure to use the exact journal name provided to avoid confusion due to similar names.

The National Publishing Committee has a mechanism for reporting journals that may not maintain adequate academic standards, though only a limited number have been flagged so far. See Nivå X (in Norwegian) for more details.

Agreements for Open Access Publishing for Researchers at OUS

In some cases, researchers at Oslo University Hospital (OUS) can avoid publication fees, making their articles and other publications freely and openly accessible to other researchers and the public.

Agreements have been negotiated with major publishers, including Elsevier, Wiley, IOP, Taylor & Francis, and Springer Compact, as well as some smaller publishers. Details about each agreement and its duration can be found on the University of Oslo's website: Agreements and Discounts (Norwegian).

Note:

Not all health trusts within HSØ participate in all publisher agreements negotiated through UiO and the national consortium.
There may be quota limitations, meaning that free publishing options may not apply at the end of the year for certain journals.

If you encounter problems or have questions, contact the University Library at UiO via email: openaccess@ub.uio.no.

Funding Open Access Publishing

The costs associated with publishing Open Access (OA) vary between journals, particularly during this transitional phase:

No cost: When APCs (Article Processing Charges) are included in the agreement with the publisher.
Discounted APCs: Often applicable only to UiO-affiliated researchers.
Full APC costs: These must be covered by the department or project.

At OUS, from 2022 onwards, OA publishing costs must be fully covered by the department/division or, in certain cases, by the projects.

Research Council of Norway: Does not allow these costs to be charged directly to project accounts for RCN projects. However, overhead/indirect costs may be used (see below).
EU (Horizon 2020): Allows OA costs to be charged to projects if they are related to OA journals/platforms but not for APCs from subscription-based journals (hybrid).
Other Funders: Funding policies may vary; check contract terms.

The Research Council’s rates for positions were adjusted in 2022 to include overheads intended to cover OA publishing costs. However, at OUS, the internal contribution rates are lower than the Research Council’s baseline, meaning there are no pooled funds at either the divisions or central level to cover OA costs.

Regional research support can provide guidance if extra overhead is to be applied to cover OA costs for a specific project. Other hospitals may have different policies regarding this.

This page was translated from Norwegian using ChatGPT and edited by Ellen Johnsen