Open access to scientific publications

We require that RCF-funded projects commit to ensuring immediate open access to their peer-reviewed articles in accordance with Plan S principles and Finland’s national policy for open access to scholarly publications. This requirement applies to projects funded from RCF calls opened after 1 January 2021. The requirements that apply to projects funded earlier are available in the funding terms and conditions that were in use at the time the funding decision was made.

The RCF requires open access according to Plan S definitions.

We requires that RCF-funded researchers and research projects make research outputs wholly or partially produced with our funding available to the public immediately after publication. In the case of peer-reviewed articles, this can be achieved by:

1) publishing the article in a Plan-S-compliant, open-access scientific journal

The easiest way to check whether a journal or publishing platform is compliant with Plan S is to use the Journal Checker Tool, a database developed by cOAlition S. For Finnish scientific journals, the RCF exceptionally approves journals in which all peer-reviewed articles are published in a manner that is compliant with Plan S:n but other published material is not fully open access.

More information about the Journal Checker Tool database: Support for identifying compliant publication channels and repositories

2) storing a parallel copy of the article (Version of Record) or a pre-print, author’s accepted manuscript in a publication archive or database that is in compliance with Plan S

If the chosen scientific journal or publishing platform does not declare that they accept immediate self-archiving of either of these versions, we encourage the authors to propose making the article openly available immediately, as agreed in the publishing agreement. If the publisher refuses immediate parallel storage, the article can be made open access through self-archiving within an embargo (up to 12 months for social sciences and the humanities, up to 6 months for other scientific disciplines).

The RCF considers that all repositories operating in Finland with the support of Finnish universities and government research institutes fulfil these conditions. RCF-funded researchers may also use international, reliable repositories for self-archiving purposes.

3) by publishing the article within an agreement between the organisation or FinELib consortium and the publisher, allowing immediate open access (transformative agreement, Read & Publish agreement).

Peer-reviewed articles produced in RCF-funded projects may not be published using the so-called hybrid model, where individual articles published in subscription-based journals are made open access on payment.

Peer-reviewed scientific articles shall be published or self-archived under a global licence that guarantees immediate access free of charge. The licence must also guarantee the free redistribution and reproduction of article contents. The condition supports both the dissemination and reuse of research outputs and the researcher’s rights to research outputs and the results presented in them. The licence must also guarantee the free redistribution and reproduction of article contents. As a rule, the RCF requires the use of Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0, but also permits the use of licences CC BY-SA 4.0, CC0 and CC BY-ND. The articles may, subject to a licence, contain content produced by other authors, the copyright of which is not affected by the licences in question. It is not necessary to ask permission from the RCF for the use of permitted licences. This policy is applied retroactively to RCF funding decisions made after 2 November 2020.

To support open access to peer-reviewed articles, cOAlition S has published detailed technical conditions for scientific journals, publication platforms and repositories.

The coalition has also developed the Journal Checker Tool to help researchers supported by funders compliant with Plan S. The tool allows researchers to check whether a scientific journal or publishing platform complies with Plan S. In the case of non-compliant journals, the tool also provides guidance on how to implement immediate self-archiving as enabled by Plan S.

If a scientific journal published in Finland meets all the other conditions set out in Plan S for the implementation of open access, the journal need not be registered or in the process of registering in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). This especially applies to journals that have not made other material than peer-reviewed articles open access.

The Journal Checker Tool does not contain information on repositories compliant with Plan S. The RCF considers that all repositories operating in Finland with the support of Finnish universities and government research institutes fulfil these conditions.

Regardless of the chosen method of open access, the scientific publications of projects funded by the Research Council of Finland must be archived in a repository that guarantees long-term storage for and free open access to the publication. This can be done with either repositories maintained by research organisations or international discipline-specific repositories.

The Research Council also urges researchers to publish their conference articles and monographs with open access. The Research Council will prepare guidelines on the implementation and funding of open access to conference proceedings and monographs once the national policy on open access to scholarly publications has been updated with a policy on monographs.

In line with the RCF funding terms and conditions, the costs of ensuring immediate open access to peer-reviewed articles can be included in the overheads of the site of research.

The open access costs to be taken into account in the overheads mean that the site of research can finance the open access of the articles produced by the project it supports, even if the funding period for the project has already expired. The RCF obliges the site of research to take into account in the overheads percentage the funding needed for the site’s research projects to implement open access. Furthermore, the site of research is obliged to ensure that the project meets the open access requirements set out in the funding terms and conditions and to finance open access to publications accordingly. Through cooperation between the RCF and the sites of research, the practical implementation and financing of open access must be made as easy as possible for researchers.

The costs of open access to peer-reviewed articles refer to the following costs:

1. article processing charges required by open-access journals The RCF encourages international scientific publishers to join the cOAlition S Journal Comparison Service, which aims to shed light on publishing fees and services.
2. maintenance and development costs for self-archiving service maintained by site of research
3. costs according to transformative agreements; For these agreements, both the costs incurred by the organisation as a result of its participation in the FinELib consortium and the costs of agreements between the organisation and scientific publishers can be taken into account.

Justified layout and editing costs related to the preparation of scientific publications may be financed as research costs for the research project if they are associated with the project’s research or action plan.