Open Access lays the foundations for free-of-charge online access to the digital research outputs enabling to use them more freely with regard to the currently established copyright protection and licencing restrictions. Open content licences permit a lawful implementation of Open Access. Open Access provides the following benefits:
- for academic community – access to the most recent research output, availability of text and data mining, higher citation rates, retention of copyright by authors,
- for the public – access to research outcomes that were financed by taxpayers, development of citizen science,
- for funders – additional social and economic revenue, smaller number of overlapping research projects,
- for publishers – better visibility and usability of research output, transparency.
Regulation
Vilnius University supports and encourages Open Access to scientific information, scientific works and research data in line with the laws of the Republic of Lithuania as well as inner rules and regulations of the institution. Since 1 April 2015 Vilnius University has been uploading all materials related to scientific, art or study output including full-text files to eLABa, thus enabling Open Access without infringing copyrights or any other rights of rights holders. Since 1 January 2019 only those scientific articles and conference materials that are deposited to eLABa in PDF format and / or, in cases where articles or materials cannot be uploaded, registered as bibliographic records might be added to the list of publications that is submitted to the Review Commission in the process of academic reviewing.
| Gold open access | Green open access |
| Research output publishing in open access publications, also known as open access publishing – recommended. | Uploading research output to open access repositories, also known as self-archiving – mandatory. |
Those allocating financial resources for scientific research or entities supporting it in some other ways often require Open Access to publications as a mandatory condition. Research data should be as open as possible, but as much inaccessible as it is necessary. Open Access Documentation is provided as a separate list, however, the form and content of regulating documents vary considerably. For clarity’s sake Lithuanian science and studies institutions and the Research Council of Lithuania present their approach to Open Access in line with a standardized schema prepared by Jisc, SHERPA Services and ROARMAP.
| Institution | Standardized schema |
|---|---|
| Vilnius University | Standardized schema for regulations specifying Vilnius University’s open access to scientific (art) and study works |
| Vilnius Gediminas Technical University | Standardized schema for regulations specifying Vilnius Gediminas Technical University’s open access to data and scientific publications |
| Mykolas Romeris University | Standardized schema for regulations specifying Mykolas Romeris University’s open access policy |
| The Research Council of Lithuania | Standardized schema for regulations specifying the Research Council of Lithuania’s open access to data and scientific publications |
Publishing
The degree of the publication’s openness can be measured with the help of HowOpenIsIt? Open access publication costs should be planned and covered by the funds allocated for carrying out scholarly research. Vilnius University may allocate up to 20 per cent of finances from the Science Promotion Foundation for publishing researchers’ scholarly articles so as to enhance international visibility of scientific outcomes in open access journals. When concluding an agreement with a publisher, authors who prefer other publishing models are advised to sign the Author Addendum at the same time, granting the author the right to deposit his publications to eLABa and ensuring Open Access through self-archiving.
| Pure open access publications | Hybrid open access publications |
| Publications where all articles are available through Open Access. | Subscribed publications that provide Open Access only to some articles. |
| Article processing charge (APC) might be incurred for publishing. In these cases it is advisable to check if the publisher is not listed in Beall's List – a list of potentially predatory publishers. | Article processing charge (APC) is always incurred for Open Access publishing. Open access publishing offered by these publications is not advisable due to double charging – subscription fee and APC. |
| APC can be covered by the funds of the entities allocating finances. | It can be forbidden to cover APC by the funds of the entities allocating finances. |
| List of publications is submitted to DOAJ, the data of which is used by Web of Science, Scopus and others. | The option for open access publishing is indicated in the information about the publication. |
Self-archiving
Scientific (art) and study works produced by members of Vilnius University Community are deposited, preserved and made available online in most cases as full-text files in eLABa without infringing copyrights or any other rights of rights holders. The availability and maintenance of the information system is ensured by its administrator – the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania – and its main manager – Vilnius University.
| Author’s original | Accepted manuscript | Version of record |
| Version of work before peer reviewing. | Version of work after peer reviewing. | Publisher’s version. |
| May not be deposited to eLABa. | May be deposited to eLABa. | Is recommended to deposit to eLABa. |
SHERPA/RoMEO provides information on publishers’ policy regarding self-archiving which should be clarified before depositing research output along with full-text files to the repository. It is advisable to contact a particular publisher or take into account the information provided in the official website of the publication.
Data
A scheme introduced by the inventor of the World Wide Web Tim Berners-Lee helps to discern the degree of data openness. The data are organized into certain levels according to their benefits provided and costs incurred. The data published under this scheme can be certified accordingly.
| Level | Description |
| 0 | Data of any format accessible through the Web. |
| 1 | Data of any format accessible through the Web and released under the open licence. |
| 2 | Structured data that can be processed by computers. This data are accessible through the Web and released under the open licence. |
| 3 | Structured data that are presented in open formats. The data are also accessible through the Web and released under the open licence. |
| 4 | Structured data that are presented in open formats with Universal Resource Identifier (URI) attributed. The data are also accessible through the Web and released under the open licence. |
| 5 | Linked open data that are interconnected thus revealing their context. |
Research data management is one of the key components in Open Science. Published research data are attributed to open data.
Licensing
Applying open content licenses ensures legal use of the works published in the Internet under conditions indicated by copyright holders. Those allocating financial resources for research or entities supporting it in other ways often cover open access publishing costs only in cases where research outputs are published under open content licence CC BY.
| Types of open content licences | May the work be used for commercial purpose? | Can the work be changed or adapted? |
| CC BY | Yes | Yes |
| CC BY-SA | Yes | Yes |
| CC BY-ND | Yes | No |
| CC BY-NC | No | Yes |
| CC BY-NC-SA | No | Yes |
| CC BY-NC-ND | No | No |
Glossary
| Term | Definition |
| Accepted manuscript | The version of a journal article that has been accepted for publication in a journal. A second party takes permanent responsibility for the article. Content and layout follow publisher’s submission requirements. (NISO-RP-8-2008) |
| APC | An article processing charge is a fee sometimes paid when applying Gold open access. |
| Author’s original | Any version of a journal article that is considered by the author to be of sufficient quality to be submitted for formal peer review by a second party. The author accepts full responsibility for the article. May have a version number or date stamp. Content and layout as set out by the author. (NISO-RP-8-2008) |
| eLABa | Lithuanian Academic Electronic Library. |
| Embargo period | An embargo is a period during which Open Access to full-text articles is not allowed. |
| Gold open access | Publishing of research output in open access publications, also known as open access publishing. |
| Green open access | Uploading of research output to open access repository, also known as self-archiving. |
| Hybrid open access journal | A hybrid open access journal is a subscription journal in which some of the articles are Open Access. This status typically requires the payment of a publication fee (also called an article processing charge or APC) to the publisher in order to publish an article Open Access. |
| Open Access | Term defining full-text files available in online environment. It includes „digital (scientific) literature freely accessible through Internet and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions“ (Suber, 2012) |
| Open content licence | An agreement between copyrights’ holders and the public setting the terms under which copyrights’ holders give permission to use the work to other persons (third parties). |
| Open data | Data that can be used and disseminated by everyone freely with the condition that the source of the data is indicated (if this condition is applied). |
| Repository | A whole package of services and measures aiming at the management and dissemination of electronic scientific research output. Institutional repository of Vilnius University is a part of eLABa. |
| Self-archiving | Uploading of research output to open access repositories, also known as Green open access. |
| Version of record | A fixed version of a journal article that has been made available by any organization that acts as a publisher by formally and exclusively declaring the article “published”. This includes any “early release” article that is formally identified as being published even before the compilation of a volume issue and assignment of associated metadata, as long as it is citable via some permanent identifier(s). This does not include any “early release” article that has not yet been “fixed” by processes that are still to be applied, such as copy-editing, proof corrections, layout, and typesetting. (NISO-RP-8-2008) |
Consulting
Consultations on Open Access are provided to members of Vilnius University academic community by phone + 370 5 219 5059 or via email . Information is also provided during meetings that can be initiated by filling in a form Request for a Consultation Regarding Open Access.
| Aiding measures | Definition |
| Explanatory notes to regulations regarding Open Access | By the decision of Vilnius University Senate No. S-2017-11-2 regulations regarding Open Access to the works of science (art) and studies were introduced; the regulations will come to force from 1 January 2019. Explanatory notes to the regulations were worked out. |
| Author Addendum to a publishing agreement | Recommended Author Addendum drafts to an agreement with publishers granting the right to upload works to eLABa and make them publicly available. |
| Frequently asked questions | Answers given to researchers’ most frequently asked questions regarding open access. |