In recent years, the question of open science has been at the center of discussions about the future of research and access to scientific information. Open science represents a new approach to the scientific process, based on the principles of accessibility, reuse of research data and the use of online technologies.

An important part to the transition to open science represents Plan S, which is an initiative for open access publishing. Key principle defines that from the year 2021 all scientific publication originating from publicly funded research are published in journals or on platforms that support open access.

Contact:

• odprta.znanost(at)upr.si

Current events and educational courses from the field of open science are published under News >>

1. What is open access?

Open access to publications means that the full text of the publication is freely available on the World Wide Web, on the publisher’s website and/or in a repository. Permitted and unauthorized use of the publication is indicated, for example by Creative Commons licenses.

2. What is Plan S?

Plan S is an open access publishing initiative. The initiative was announced by cOAlition S, which consists of national research organizations (ARRS in Slovenia) and European and international organizations that focus on the open access. The plan is divided into several principles. A key principle defines that from the year 2021 all scientific publications originating from publicly funded research are published in journals or platforms that support open access.

Coalition S has released a tool called Journal Checker Tool – a search engine that verifies compliance with Plan S and offers recommendations on how to publish in a selected journal in accordance with the open access policy.

3. What are unfair publishing practices?

There are predatory journals and predatory publishers, providers of misleading metrics and hijacked journals.

4. What is APC (Article Processing Charge)?

The APC is the cost that must be paid by the author or institution for publishing in open access. Information about vouchers and current reductions in publication costs are published at https://uk.upr.si/en/news/ (Springer Nature >>; Wiley >>; Elsevier >>; COSEC consortium >>; Nature journals >>; IEEE >>).

5. What is Gold Open Access (Gold OA)?

It indicates publication in open access journals. Open access journals provide access to articles without subscription and use a copyright model in which the author retains material copyright (eg Creative Commons licenses). Publication can be free for the author or it can require a payment of an article processing charge (APC).

6. What is Green Open Access (Green OA)?

Green open access indicates the storage of the author’s final peer-reviewed version of the article (preprint – postprint), that was accepted for publication in a subscription scientific journal, in an institutional repository, taking copyright into account. 
Repository of the University of Primorska (RUP) has established the possibility of self-archiving – submitting works for employees of the University of Primorska, also as a support for archiving works in green open access.

7. Secondary publication of articles in Open Access

1) Situation: The researcher has published articles 1, 2, 3 … in open access and under various Creative Commons licenses (hereinafter referred to as CC). He now wants to include these articles in the form of Version of Record (VoR), i.e. as published by the publisher on its website, in his new copyright work.

I.2) Question from the researcher: Can I include articles in the form of VoR that I have published under various Creative Commons licenses in my new copyright work (e.g. in a doctoral dissertation)?

I.3) Answer: Yes, in case that:

1. you have reserved the right to secondary publication in a concluded and valid publishing or licensing agreement,
2. you signed with the publisher before publication,
3. the right for secondary publication was kept.

You were obliged to do the latter in relation to research that is more than 50 % financed by public funds (Scientific Research and Innovation Activities Act, ZZrID, 1. para. 41. art.: https://pisrs.si/pregledPredpisa?id=ZAKO7733).

If you have not reserved the appropriate right to secondary publication in your publishing or licensing agreement, ask the publisher for it. If you cannot reach an agreement with the publisher and do not have the relevant rights, you cannot include articles in the form of VoR in your new copyright work, namely to avoid legal action by the publisher against you.

Links

• Open Science Slovenia
• European Open Science Cloud (EOSC)
• OpenAIRE
• Plan S
• Open Policy Finder
• Open Research Europe
• Manual for self-archiving research data in the Repository of the University of Primorska

Subpage Open Science at UP UK is funded by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation within the framework of the Action Plan for the Open Science (Objective 6.2 ReZrIS30).