EC recommendations on 
open access to and 
preservation of scientific 
information
Iryna Kuchma
EIFL Open Access Programme Manager
Presentation at Autumn training school “Development and 
Promotion of Open Access to Scientific Information and 
Research”, September 20, 2014, Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria 
www.eifl.net
Attribution 4.0 International
Facilitate Open Science Training for European Research
Website: www.fosteropenscience.eu
Twitter: @fosterscience   / #fosteropenscience
Attribution 4.0 International

“Policies on OA to scientific research 
results should apply to all research that 
receives public funds. Such policies are 
expected to improve conditions for 
conducting research by reducing 
duplication of efforts and by minimising 
the time spent searching for information 
and accessing it. This will speed up 
scientific progress and make it easier to 
cooperate across and beyond the EU. 
Such policies will also respond to calls within 
the scientific community for greater access 
to scientific information.” http://bit.ly/Q3sDJ9 
““Enabling societal actors to interact in the 
research cycle improves the quality, 
relevance, acceptability and sustainability 
of innovation outcomes by integrating 
society’s expectations, needs, interests 
and values. Open access is a key feature of 
Member States’ policies for responsible 
research and innovation by making the 
results of research available to all and by 
facilitating societal engagement.”.” 
http://bit.ly/Q3sDJ9 
Why?
“Businesses will also benefit from wider 
access to scientific research results. Small 
and medium-sized enterprises in particular will 
improve their capacity to innovate. Policies on 
access to scientific information should 
therefore also facilitate access to scientific 
information for private companies...” 
http://bit.ly/Q3sDJ9
Why? (2)
“The Internet has fundamentally changed 
the world of science and research. For 
instance, research communities have 
been experimenting with new ways to 
register, certify, disseminate and preserve 
scientific publications. Research and 
funding policies need to adapt to this 
new environment. It should be 
recommended to Member States to 
adapt and develop their policies on OA 
to scientific publications.”
http://bit.ly/Q3sDJ9
“OA to scientific research data enhances 
data quality, reduces the need for 
duplication of research, speeds up 
scientific progress and helps to combat 
scientific fraud. In its final report ‘Riding the 
wave: How Europe can gain from the rising 
tide of scientific data’5 in October 2010, the 
High Level Expert Group on Scientific Data 
emphasised the critical importance of sharing 
and preserving reliable data produced during 
the scientific process. Policy action on 
access to data is therefore urgent and 
should be recommended to Member 
States.” http://bit.ly/Q3sDJ9
“Preservation of scientific research results is in 
the public interest. It has traditionally been under 
the responsibility of libraries, especially national 
legal deposit libraries. The volume of research 
results generated is growing tremendously. 
Mechanisms, infrastructures and software 
solutions should be in place to enable long-
term preservation of research results in digital 
form. Sustainable funding for preservation is 
crucial as curation costs for digitised content are 
still relatively high. Given the importance of 
preservation for the future use of research 
results, the establishment or reinforcement of 
policies in this area should be recommended to 
Member States.”  http://bit.ly/Q3sDJ9
“HEREBY RECOMMENDS THAT 
MEMBER STATES:
Open access to scientific publications
Ensure that, as a result of these policies: 
there should be open access to 
publications resulting from publicly 
funded research as soon as possible, 
preferably immediately and in any case 
no later than six months after the date 
of publication, and 12 months for 
social sciences and humanities;  
Ensure that, as a result of these policies 
(2): 
licensing systems contribute to open 
access to scientific publications 
resulting from publicly-funded 
research in a balanced way, in 
accordance with and without prejudice to 
the applicable copyright legislation, and 
encourage researchers to retain their 
copyright while granting licences to 
publishers;
Ensure that, as a result of these policies 
(3): 
the academic career system supports 
and rewards researchers who 
participate in a culture of sharing the 
results of their research, in particular by 
ensuring open access to their publications 
and by developing, encouraging and 
using new, alternative models of 
career assessment, metrics and 
indicators; 
Ensure that, as a result of these policies 
(4): 
transparency is improved, in particular 
by informing the public about agreements 
between public institutions or groups of 
public institutions and publishers for the 
supply of scientific information. This 
should include agreements covering the 
so-called ‘big deals’, i.e. bundles of print 
and electronic journal subscriptions 
offered at discounted price;   
Ensure that, as a result of these policies 
(5): 
small and medium-sized enterprises 
and unaffiliated researchers have the 
widest and cheapest possible access 
to scientific publications of the results 
of research that receives public 
funding.  
2. Ensure that research funding 
institutions responsible for managing 
public research funding and academic 
institutions receiving public funding 
implement the policies by:
defining institutional policies for the 
dissemination of and open access to 
scientific publications; establishing 
implementation plans at the level of 
those funding institutions; 
2. Ensure that research funding 
institutions responsible for managing 
public research funding and academic 
institutions receiving public funding 
implement the policies by (2):
making the necessary funding 
available for dissemination (including 
open access), allowing for different 
channels, including digital e-
infrastructures where appropriate, as well 
as new and experimental methods of 
scholarly communication;
(3): adjusting the recruitment and 
career evaluation system for 
researchers and the evaluation system 
for awarding research grants to 
researchers so that those who 
participate in the culture of sharing 
results of their research are rewarded. 
Improved systems should take into 
account research results made available 
through open access and develop, 
encourage and use new, alternative 
models of career assessment, metrics 
and indicators;
(4): giving guidance to researchers on 
how to comply with open access 
policies, especially on managing their 
intellectual property rights to ensure 
open access to their publications;
(5): conducting joint negotiations with 
publishers to obtain the best possible 
terms for access to publications, 
including use and re-use;
(6): ensuring that results of research that 
receives public funding are easily 
identifiable by appropriate technical 
means, including through metadata 
attached to electronic versions of the 
research output.
Open access to research data
3. Define clear policies for the 
dissemination of and open access to 
research data resulting from publicly 
funded research. These policies should 
provide for:
- concrete objectives and indicators to 
measure progress; 
- implementation plans, including the 
allocation of responsibilities (including 
appropriate licensing);
- associated financial planning. 
Ensure that, as a result of these policies:
research data that result from publicly 
funded research become publicly 
accessible, usable and re-usable 
through digital e-infrastructures. 
Concerns in particular in relation to 
privacy, trade secrets, national security, 
legitimate commercial interests and to 
intellectual property rights shall be duly 
taken into account....
(2) datasets are made easily 
identifiable and can be linked to other 
datasets and publications through 
appropriate mechanisms, and 
additional information is provided to 
enable their proper evaluation and use; 
 
(3) institutions responsible for 
managing public research funding and 
academic institutions that are publicly 
funded assist in implementing national 
policy by putting in place mechanisms 
enabling and rewarding the sharing of 
research data;  
(4) advanced-degree programmes of 
new professional profiles in the area of 
data-handling technologies are 
promoted and/or implemented.  
Preservation and re-use of scientific 
information
4. Reinforce the preservation of scientific 
information, by:
defining and implementing policies, 
including an allocation of responsibilities 
for the preservation of scientific 
information, together with associated 
financial planning, in order to ensure 
curation and long-term preservation of 
research results (primary research data 
and all other results, including 
publications);
(2) ensuring that an effective system of 
deposit for electronic scientific 
information is in place, covering born-
digital publications and, where 
relevant, the related datasets;
(3) preserving the hardware and 
software needed to read the 
information in future, or by migrating 
the information to new software and 
hardware environments on a regular 
basis;
(4) fostering the conditions for 
stakeholders to offer value-added 
services based on the re-use of 
scientific information.”
Thank you!
Questions?
iryna.kuchma@eifl.net 
http://www.fosteropenscience.eu/ 
www.eifl.net