Increasingly, funders require that articles based on a funded research project are made Open Access – for the technical and natural sciences, typically within 6-12 months after publication.
However, many journals have embargo periods of over 12 months, which makes it difficult to live up to the funder requirements.
Denmark has a so-called green Open Access strategy
Green Open Access means that you publish a scientific article in a traditional journal and simultaneously upload the post-print (also called the "author's accepted manuscript") in a research repository such as DTU Orbit. The post-print is subsequently made freely available online - typically after an embargo period.
| OA in Denmark and at DTU |
OA and international Funding, incl. EU |
Typical journal
embargo period
|
| National strategy = 12 months embargo
|
Horizon 2020 =
6 months in Science,
12 months in Social Science
|
Generally 2-48 months
|
| DTU policy = national strategy
|
ERC = as Horizon2020 |
| Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond, Danmarks Grundforskningsfond and Innovationsfonden = 6 months embargo
|
|
The consequences have increased
As funder demands for Open Access have matured over the years, the consequences of not complying with them have increased. Thus, DTU Library has seen examples of funders threatening to reduce parts of the grant if researchers do not comply with the OA requirements in the contract.
It is therefore important to consider Open Access publishing very early in a research project. There is no local Open Access fund that can cover the costs of Open Access at DTU, and the researchers' options are in many cases limited to, for example:
- choosing a publishing channel that meets the funder requirements of short embargo periods
- allocating funds to finance OA publishing when applying for grants from the start (not all funders allow this, however)
- seeking to negotiate a shorter embargo period with the publisherchecking whether DTU Library has negotiated discounts on APCs on behalf of DTU researchers (hybrid Open Access).
Hybrid Open Access – pay to release the article
Some publishers offer researchers the option of paying a fee (APC) to make an otherwise subscription-based article Open Access (hybrid Open Access). DTU's publication policy discourages hybrid Open Access as DTU will end up paying twice for the article – first for DTU access and then for Open Access.
However, some publishers offer a discount on the Open Access fee as part of DTU Library's subscription:
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute – MDPI
- Portland Press
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS)
Read about Open Access and funders on our website
See examples of journals' embargo periods
For information about discounts on Article Processing Charges, APCs, as part of DTU's subscriptions send an email to: elibrary@dtu.dk