European Commission asked to support open access

A group of European organisations are calling on the European Commission to support public access to the output of EC-funded research shortly after publication. 

A petition is being organised by SPARC Europe, the UK’s JISC, SURF of the Netherlands, the German Research Foundation (DFG) and Denmark's Electronic Research Library (DEFF). It urges the commission to follow the lead of other research funding agencies in mandating the publication of articles arising from EC-related funding after a given time period in open-access archives. It also asks the commission to explore a European-wide approach to policies and practices for the development of digital repositories as a means of making more visible the fruits of European research and maximising the return on public investment in research.

This call follows last year’s ‘Study on the Economic and Technical Evolution of the Scientific Publication,’ which was published by the EC. This study found that 'dissemination and access to research results is a pillar in the development of the European Research Area.'

The petition outlines the economic advantages of widening access to publicly funded research, including the encouragement of further research and promotion of European research outputs worldwide.