Good practices: Open access

Diamond open access

The university supports parties that do not charge open access costs to authors or readers of publications (diamond open access). These publications do not only consist of journals and platforms, but also relate to the (open) infrastructure on which they are dependent.

Subscribe to Open: from subscriber to donor

Entering into Subscribe to Open (S2O) deals is a way in which the library can support existing journals in the transition to a diamond open access model. In S2O deals publishers make existing journals fully open access without charging costs to the authors. In order to make this possible libraries must promise to keep paying the same subscription fees as before. The library changes as it were from subscriber to donor.

Utrecht University Library is currently supporting four Subscribe to Open initiatives:

  • Amsterdam University Press
  • Berghahn
  • European Mathematical Society (EMS)
  • Annual Reviews

Taverne Amendment: publications automatically made open access

Included in the Dutch copyright act, we find Article 25fa, also known as the Taverne Amendment, named after former Member of Parliament Joost Taverne. Under this article,  researchers can make the published version of their short scientific publications  (journal articles, conference prodeedings and book chapters in edited volumes) open access available after a reasonable period of time following the first publication. Formerly researchers could tell the library that they wanted to participate in this scheme (opt-in). This option does not extract the total OA potential from UU publications. That is why the scheme will be reversed from 1 January 2024: publications will automatically be made open access, unless you, as a UU author, explicitly object (opt-out).

Open Infrastructure support

As part of the Utrecht University policy on open access, investments are made in open infrastructures that support open access publishing. These infrastructures must be non-profit and must guarantee scholarly quality. In this way a publishing climate is facilitated in which academic authors publish fully open access.

Have a look at the initiatives supported by Utrecht University