Tag Archives: policy

UNESCO to make its publications available free of charge as part of a new Open Access policy | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

UNESCO will make its digital publications available to millions of people around the world free-of-charge with an open license. Following a decision by the Organization’s Executive Board in April, UNESCO has become the first member of the United Nations to adopt such an Open Access policy for its publications. The new policy means that anyone will be able to download, translate, adapt, distribute and re-share UNESCO publications and data without paying.

It’s time to align policy

says Alma Swan, director of Key Perspectives Ltd. and SPARC director for european advocacy in Nature’s article “How to hasten open access”.
So, harmonization is happening. But the development of seamless policies among funders needs to be the focus of advocacy. It will mean less author confusion and greater compliance. Authors will begin to understand the potential of truly open research and be inspired to devise further innovative practices. Then we can expect true disruption: a very different kind of scholarly communication, catalysed by good policy.

RCUK Open Access Policy – When to go Green and When to go Gold

RCUK Open Access Policy – When to go Green and When to go Gold

Mark Thorley, NERC (Natural Environment Research Council), Head of Science Information and Chair RCUK Research Outputs Network on the Research Councils UK policies concerning open access:

Our policy requires that peer reviewed research papers which result from research that is wholly or partially funded by the Research Councils must be published in journals which are compliant with Research Council policy on Open Access.(…) So what does this mean for authors?  If the journal they want to publish in only offers policy compliance through a Gold route, they must use that journal’s Gold option. (…) if a journal offers neither a Green nor a Gold compliant route, it is not eligible to take RCUK funded work, and the author must use a different, compliant, journal. (…) The Research Councils are not anti-Green and support a dual approach for delivering OA.  However, we do have a strong preference for Gold, and I will explain why in my next blog post.