EURAB's Proposed OA Mandate: Strongest of the 20 Adopted and 5 Proposed So Far

The ROARMAP Registry of University and Funder Self-Archiving Mandates keeps growing: 56 policies, 20 adopted mandates, and 5 proposed mandates so far, worldwide. But the latest mandate proposal from EURAB is the best of them all: So good that I don't have a single recommendation for improving it! It has all the essential ingredients:

(1) Deposit of peer-reviewed postprint is required
(2) Deposit required immediately upon acceptance for publication (no exceptions, no delays)
(3) Deposit in Institutional or Central Repository
(4) Set access to deposit as Open Access as soon as possible, within 6 months at the latest.

Optimizing OA Self-Archiving Mandates:
What? Where? When? Why? How?

That's it. It's not possible to design a better policy, or one that is surer to get the entire international research community to 100% OA more reliably, quickly or effectively. Here's the policy. Please emulate it at your university, research institution or funding agency and we'll reach the optimal and inevitable at long last.

---

Recommendations of the European Research Advisory Board (EURAB)

The European Research Advisory Board (EURAB) has recommended that the European Commission should promote open access publication policies for all their publicly funded research. EURAB was invited by the Commission to examine the issue of scientific publication with particular reference to policy recommendations regarding open access for Framework Program 7 (FP7). It has recommended that a clear policy at European level is required which sets out a number of key high level principles. The Commission can play a role in three respects: as a funding body, as a policy body, as a supporting body.

1. The publication policy should not compromise the freedom of scientists to publish wherever they feel is most appropriate.

2. The effect of the policy should be to increase the visibility of and improve access to the research funded by the Commission.

3. The policy should be based on recognized best practice

4. EURAB recommends that the Commission should consider mandating all researchers funded under FP7 to [deposit] their publications resulting from EC-funded research in an open access repository as soon as possible after publication, to be made openly accessible within 6 months at the latest.

a. The repository may be a local institutional and/or a subject repository.

b. Authors should deposit post-prints (or publisher's version if permitted) plus metadata of articles accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journals and international conference proceedings.

c. Deposit should be made upon acceptance by the journal/conference. Repositories should release the metadata immediately, with access restrictions to full text article to be applied as required. Open access should be made available as soon as practicable after the author-requested embargo, or six months, whichever comes first.

d. Suitable repositories should make provision for long-term preservation of, and free public access to, published research findings.

5. Given the complexity of the issues involved, the Commission should consider implementation of this policy on a phased basis, starting with research funded by the European Research Council.

The Commission should strongly encourage all Member States to promote open access publication policies for all their publicly funded research.

---

If your university, research institution, or research funding agency has adopted or proposes to adopt an OA self-archiving mandate, please register it in ROARMAP for others to emulate.

Stevan Harnad
American Scientist Open Access Forum