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Open access publications

Aalto's open access target of peer reviewed, scientific publications (categories A1-A4) was 86 % in 2022. At the end of February 2023, the percentage is 85 %, almost on target.

Costs of open access publishing

The costs of open access publishing can be divided into open access fees (also called article processing charges, APCs) and the costs incurred from transformative agreements. Transformative agreements provide our researchers possibility to access scientific journals and collections, and publish articles open access without any fees for authors.

 service includes open data of open access fees paid by institutions. In Aalto, this data is based on combining data from Aalto’s research information system ACRIS (publication data) and Rondo (open access payments). OpenAPC displays information of journal articles at publisher, journal and article level, and data is updated four times a year.

In 2022, Aalto paid open access fees of journal articles worth of almost 470 000 EUR. 

Open access agreements help researchers with open access fees

As a member of the , Aalto provides open access agreements with several publishers. Costs of these transformative agreements are covered by Aalto's Research Services.

In 2022, approx. 33 % of Aalto's full and hybrid open access publications were published open access through our agreements.

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What to expect in 2023? 

Aalto's open access target of peer reviewed, scientific publications (categories A1-A4) is 90,4 % in 2023. Is it possible to reach this target, and can this be done without increasing the costs of open access publishing? 

Plan S effect 

 affects open access requirements of research funders such as Academy of Finland and Horizon Europe starting from funding calls 1 January 2021 onwards. According to Plan S principles, research funders require immediate open access and use of open CC BY license in peer-reviewed publications. For most publishers, this currently means that researchers must choose to publish article open access, which usually requires a separate open access fee.  

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RRS to help?

Plan S includes a  (RRS), which would allow researchers to parallel publish their peer-reviewed, accepted manuscript versions immediately open access under a CC BY license, and thus comply with Plan S principles without any separate open access fees. 

Several universities in Europe (e.g. four Norwegian universities) have already included RRS in their open access policies. However, RRS can also be seen as copyright infringement, due to different interpretations of copyright legislation. In Finland, RRS requires both national and university-level discussions.

Diamond open access (cost-free open access)

Diamond open access refers to full open access journals and platforms which do not charge fees to either authors or readers. . In 2022, an international  was prepared, with the aim to support and further develop diamond open access publishing model.  Plan S organisations, including Academy of Finland, support this action plan. 

During 2023, our goal in Aalto is to collect more information about diamond open access channels currently used in Aalto, as well as increase information of diamond open access channels among Aalto's researchers.

Help and guidance? 

Aalto’s Open Science and ACRIS team gives guidance in Plan S and funders’ open access requirements, publishers’ policies and open access agreements.

You can contact us at acris@aalto.fi.