Research lobbies lock horns with science publishers over open access 25 May 2021 | News
Universities and research institutes urge science publishers to stop imposing embargoes on manuscripts funded by agencies that make open access a condition of public grants
Rik Van de Walle, president of CESAER. Photo: Ghent University
Nearly 900 universities, research organisations, and funding agencies want science publishers to be more transparent and abide by open access rules, after scientists complained their submissions are rejected if they apply a public copyright licence to accepted manuscripts.
In a joint statement published today, research-performing and research-funding organisations represented by the European University Association, Science Europe and CESAER, call on all publishers to stop requiring researchers to sign over their rights and to end the use of restrictions and embargoes.
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Greater citations, wider reach, and visibility are a few of the many benefits that accompany such articles.
Over the past decade, there has been a rising clamour for more accessibility of scholarly journals. Those available in print are subscription based making it challenging for other researchers to access, verify, reproduce, cite or utilise research papers, further resulting in restricting the community from engaging in multiple aspects of research.
With technological advancement, students and researchers no longer have to sift through piles of physical research papers and journals. While the print form of such resources is still relevant in this digital era, online infrastructure has made these resources more accessible. Considering the present crisis, many institutions are setting up repositories or open access platforms to make paywalled research papers accessible across the globe. The Open Access platforms have become a movement around