Open access for no extra cost

FAPESP’s policy of open access to scientific publications requires the use of institutional repositories to increase the visibility of science supported by the Foundation without interfering with researchers’ freedom to choose journals.

By Karina Toledo  |  Agência FAPESP – FAPESP’s Policy for Open Access to Publications Resulting from Grants and Fellowships (in Portuguese at http://www.fapesp.br/12592), formalized in an ordinance issued by the Executive Board (CTA) in early 2019, requires researchers funded by FAPESP to assure open access to their results by filing copies of articles with a public repository for anyone to read online or download free of charge.

The policy does not require, encourage or recommend publication in open-access journals, especially if such publication incurs an article processing charge (APC).

In presentations to universities in São Paulo State, FAPESP Scientific Director Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz has emphasized that “the ordinance in no way interferes with researchers’ freedom to choose the most suitable journals in which to publish their results”.

According to Luiz Nunes de Oliveira, Adjunct Coordinator for Special Programs and Research Collaborations in FAPESP’s Scientific Directorate, “The policy is designed to guarantee the broadest possible access to the results of research projects supported by FAPESP, in accordance with the rules stipulated by each journal, thereby increasing the visibility and potential impact of all this research. Of course, the authors of articles are entirely free to choose whichever journals they want. Open access makes research findings accessible not only to scientists but also to students, professional practitioners and the general public.”

The key elements for the success of open access are repositories of scientific articles, increasingly established by the world’s best universities. Practically all scientific journals allow authors to deposit a preprint, postprint or publisher’s PDF copy of their articles in a public-access institutional repository.

The preprint version is the original manuscript submitted for publication and has not been peer reviewed. The postprint version has been through the peer review process and incorporated reviewer comments; this version is the final one sent to the journal for publication. The PDF is the version of record that is published in the journal, having been professionally edited and typeset by the publisher.

Following a 2008 decision by FAPESP’s Board of Trustees to introduce an open-access policy, institutional repositories were set up by the Council of Rectors of the Universities of São Paulo State (CRUESP), the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) and the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP). Repositories enhance institutional visibility and promote the use of research results.

However, some publishers and scientific associations impose limits on the republication of the final version, including an embargo that may last six months to a year. Others are more liberal, allowing institutional repositories to hold PDFs of published articles. Examples include the American Physical Society’s repository.

“There are journals that allow access by nonsubscribers to preprints immediately after publication and then to postprints after a longer period. Some allow the post-print or publisher’s PDF to be offered. Each case has to be analyzed and released for the broadest access possible,” Oliveira said.

Libraries at the institutions to which researchers are affiliated should give them guidance and other kinds of support, he added. It is their responsibility to ensure compliance with journals’ rules and to apply the procedures required to facilitate access to publications in their repositories.

Assistance by librarians

Institutions are expected to introduce management methods and procedures that comply with FAPESP’s policy without obliging researchers to spend time doing so, Brito Cruz stressed. Librarians and library staff are also urged to assist and promote the initiative by offering training and up-to-date information.

“We advise university libraries to instruct authors to email preprints or post-prints of articles they submit to journals, with all the requisite bibliographic data. Librarians will do the rest, including versions permitted by publishers in their repositories and notifying researchers that this has been done by sending the link to the repository in question,” he said.

A portal called Sherpa/Romeo aggregates publishers’ open-access policies from around the world and provides summaries of self-archiving permissions and conditions of rights given to authors on a journal-by-journal basis. The portal covers thousands of journals and hundreds of publishers.

Copies of articles published in the 293 journals indexed by SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online), a program supported by FAPESP, do not need to be filed with repositories, as SciELO assures online open access to these journals, but universities are advised to provide access to their researchers’ scientific production in repositories of their own.

According to Brito Cruz, the ordinance offers other advantages in addition to open access to publicly funded research. “FAPESP’s policy has helped redefine the role of libraries, which are becoming both knowledge inventories and key drivers of diffusion of the knowledge created by universities,” he said. “The quality of some repositories is so outstanding that they enhance the visibility of the institution’s research, multiplying citations and impact, and contributing to the progress of science.”

FAPESP’s Policy for Open Access to Publications Resulting from Grants and Fellowships (in Portuguese): www.fapesp.br/12592.