#EGU23

The global scientific community agrees that science, knowledge and publications should be open and accessible to everyone. Within the international science landscape, however, different strategies are applied to reach this goal within the near future. Various global or national initiatives are pursued to introduce transformative agreements between publishers and research institutions or libraries to accelerate the transformation from subscription-based to open access publishing. An increasing number of funders/research institutions set up institutional agreement with publishers to cover publication costs for their researchers. The pace and nature of establishing such agreements greatly varies between research institutions in various countries which leads to disadvantages for researchers across the world.

More than 20 years ago, EGU pioneered its publication model of open access publishing with open peer review for transparency and high quality in publishing. In this tradition of these values, this plenary discussion aimed to bring together representatives of European research institutions and funding agencies. The discussion focused on how and why different approaches towards fully open access publishing are pursued and on possible steps to achieve jointly and efficiently the common goal of open access publishing and open science on European and wider levels.

Access to science, knowledge and publications should be open to everyone!

This Great Debate brought together four experts in various aspects of Open Access Publishing to discuss current challenges and potential solutions:

- Françoise Rousseau-Hans, Coordinator of the French Unified Consortium of Higher Education and Research Organizations for Access to Digital Publications (COUPERIN)
- Nicola Spaldin, Chair of the Working Group of Open Science, European Research Council
- Colleen Campbell, Strategic Advisor for Max Planck Digital Library, Coordinator of the Open Access 2020 Initiative (OA2020)
- Johan Rooryck, Executive Director cOAlition S, the international initiative to make full and immediate Open Access to research publications

The Great Debate covered specific topics, including:
- the advantages and disadvantages of agreements between publishers and institutions
- reasons why fully open access publishers, like Copernicus, are not prioritized in negotiations of such agreements
- recommendations for improving national guidelines on open access publishing,
- the costs that are associated with the publication of scientific papers.

The insights gained from the Great Debate will help scientists to make informed decisions on the choice of journals for publishing their work. In addition, it will contribute to recommendations for improving guidelines on open access publishing at national and international levels.

Convener: Barbara Ervens
Co-conveners: Denis-Didier Rousseau

EDITORS NOTE: All opinions, statements and questions are the speakers own and do not necessarily reflect the European Geosciences Union, but have been shared here in the name of supporting open, transparent and unedited discussion on this topic.

More information: https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.o...

Recorded at #EGU23 on Thursday 27 April 2023.

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