Open Science/Open Access Policies

What is an open science policy?

According to the UNESCO`s guide for open science policies, open science and open access policies can be defined as a set of guidelines, rules, regulations, laws, principles or directions designed to put open science values and principles into practice. Open science policies are essential to foster open science culture and to develop science, technology and innovations that contribute to making research more efficient, trusted, impactful, inclusive and responsive to societal needs. Open science policies can range from community to institutional and national to international policies.  

Institutional open science policies

Academic, research institutions and grant agencies create and implement institutional open science policies tailored to their needs and capabilities.

When designing and creating an open science policy, it is necessary to know the existing policies to prevent overlapping or contradiction. Therefore, policymakers should be familiar with current policies and understand how they affect them. Apart from that, they must be able to determine key performance indicators to assess whether the policy has achieved its goals, and they must be able to review and update the policy if the goals are not achieved. 

Useful tools and resources in creating an open science policy

Sherpa Romeo: an online resource that aggregates and presents publisher and journal open access policies from around the world.

ROARMAP (Registry of Open Access Repositories Mandatory Archiving Policies): a searchable international registry charting the growth of open access mandates adopted by universities, research institutions and research funders that require their researchers to provide open access to their peer-reviewed research article output by depositing it in an open access repository.

Open Access Network: a collaborative project offering information and networking and connecting initiatives to advance and foster open access in research. It also provides guidelines on creating an open access policy.