The Dutch government has put Open Science on the political agenda. Firstly at national level, in 2013, and then at European level during the EU Presidency in 2016.

In order to implement the European agreements in the Netherlands, in February 2017 the National Plan for Open Science (NPOS) was signed by ten parties, including the KNAW (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences), NWO/ZonMw (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research /Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development), the VSNU (Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) and the UKB (Dutch Association of the University Libraries and National Library of the Netherlands).

An important ambition of the NPOS is to achieve 100% Open Access publication by 2020. From 2020, all academic publications funded with public money must provide direct Open Access to everyone and be reusable.

The VSNU/UKB is the lead agency behind this ambition and is initiating and coordinating joint policy between the main players involved. See also the 2018-2020 ‘Road Map’ to Open Access and the VSNU’s information page on Open Access.

Further information about Open Access, the latest news, Open Access in the Netherlands and the current Open Access agreements with publishers can be found on the Dutch national information portal openaccess.nl.

The UvA committed itself to open access in 2005 by signing the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities. In 2017, the UvA signed the National Plan Open Science with the aim of realising the national transition to open science. One of the three spearheads of the NPOS is embracing open access while aiming towards achieving 100% open access.

The UvA Open Science Programme 2020-2024 includes an open access policy, in which the UvA’s commitment to open access has been translated into responsibilities for staff:

‘As of 1 January 2021, UvA researchers will be required to register their academic publications immediately after publication and to upload the corresponding publisher’s version (or at least the accepted manuscript) to the UvA’s Current Research Information System (Pure) for long-term archiving. In addition, researchers are expected to use one of these three options to publish their work in open access:

1. publish an academic publication in open access immediately with a Creative Commons licence* with a publisher; or
2. make the publisher's version of a short academic publication freely available through the UvA repository (UvA-DARE) after a six-month embargo, pursuant to Section 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act; or
3. make the accepted manuscript of an academic publication freely available through the UvA repository (UvA-DARE) once the embargo imposed by the publisher has expired.’

* Preferably with a CC BY licence in line with the Plan S guidelines.

More information and support

The University Library supports and facilitates all options listed in the policy, and provides support and advice to researchers concerning open-access publishing. See sections 3–10 on this web page for more information.

If you have any questions, please send them to openaccess@uva.nl.

There are plenty of Open Access publishers. Generally, Open Access publishers offer just the same quality as traditional publishers. However, there are some so-called questionable or predatory journals that provide few if any editorial services or peer review in exchange for the publication fees. So how can you determine whether a publisher or journal is reliable and of good quality?

Tip: Use the guidelines on the website Think, Check, Submit for assessing journals or publishers.

Before opting for a journal or publisher, consult the following:

• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
  All publishers or journals listed in the DOAJ meet the criteria for transparency and best practice.
• Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)
  This lists book publishers and Open Access books that meet the requirements set by OASPA.
• Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA)
  Publishers affiliated to the OASPA must meet set membership criteria.

The guide Predatory and Questionable Publishing Practices: How to Recognize and Avoid Them provides information to help you recognize predatory journals or publishers.

Use the UvA Open Access Journal Browser to quickly find out if you, as an UvA researcher, can publish open access without any costs in a specific journal and what conditions apply.

Read & Publish agreements

In recent years, the Library has entered into so called Read & Publish agreements with the large(r) traditional publishers at a national level. As a result, UvA researchers do not only have access to journals (reading rights) but can also publish articles without costs – or in some cases a discount – in almost 11.000 full and hybrid open access journals from e.g. Elsevier, Springer, Wiley, SAGE, Cambridge, Brill or Emerald. An overview can be found on openaccess.nl.

In addition, the Library also enters into agreements individually on behalf of the UvA with small(er) – often discipline specific – publishers, which results in discounts or cost-free open access publishing in selected journals from:

• ACM
• BioMed Central (15% discount)
• Bioscientifica
• Cogitatio
• Company of Biologists
• Institute of Physics
• John Benjamins
• Microbiology
• Open Library of Humanities
• Portland Press
• Rockefeller University Press
• SPIE
• SpringerOpen (15% discount)

To be eligible for a discount or cost-free open access article, the corresponding author (the one who submits and corresponds with the publisher) must be affiliated to the UvA. Note that it varies from publisher to publisher if – next to research articles – other article types are also part of the agreement. Pay attention to the conditions!
Questions? Please contact openaccess@uva.nl.

Publishing grey literature
Subject to certain conditions, you can publish short works that you prepare yourself and which do not require additional layout or (external) peer review directly via UvA-DARE. For example booklets, reports, guides, white papers, handbooks or other types of work that are not usually eligible for publication by a publisher (also known as ‘grey literature’).

The Library will support you with advice on open licenses, metadata and obtaining and assigning a DOI (and, if necessary, an ISBN) for the work to be published.
If you wish to publish a work via the repository, please contact the Library.

Open archiving of a postprint
If open access publication of an article or chapter via a publisher is not possible, you can make the postprint of your publication openly available via the UvA’s repository. The postprint – often referred to as an ‘accepted manuscript’ or abbreviated to AM or AAM – is the peer-reviewed manuscript accepted for publication that does not yet contain the publisher’s logos or formatting. You can make this version available via Pure (see guide), after which the postprint can be downloaded via your UvA personal page and UvA-DARE.

Publishers apply different embargo periods regarding the open archiving of postprints. On the Jisc – Open Policy Finder website (look under ‘Accepted’ and check the ‘Location’), you can find out the conditions for almost all journals.

By invoking Section 25fa of the Copyright Act (referred to as the Taverne amendment), researchers are entitled to make a short academic work funded by public resources freely accessible after a reasonable period.

Section 25fa of the Copyright Act (Auteurswet):
“The maker of a short scientific work, the research for which has been paid for in whole or in part by Dutch public funds, shall be entitled to make that work available to the public for no consideration following a reasonable period of time after the work was first published, provided that clear reference is made to the source of the first publication of the work.”

By decision of the board, as of 2024 short scientific works (e.g. articles, chapters, case notes and conference contributions) of all UvA researchers – if they are not published open access already – will be made freely accessible pursuant of the section mentioned above after six months embargo through the repository of the UvA, DARE. In doing so, the UvA – like other universities in the Netherlands – is following the principles established nationally.

As a result of this decision, researchers no longer have to give explicit permission to the Library (opt-in). The Library will take care of this, unless a researcher objects(opt-out).

Open access obligations
Most research funding organizations attach an Open Access obligation when providing research funds. These Open Access requirements can be found in the guidelines of the various research funding organizations, including the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) the several research programs from the European and private funders as Wellcome Trust or Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Upfront budgeting
Always include the costs of Open Access in your project budget. At the UvA, there are no additional funds available for claiming this type of cost retrospectively. And advantage of the national discount schemes with Open Access publishers.

Plan S – accelerating open access
Plan S is an initiative of cOAlition S – an international consortium of research funding organizations, including the NWO – aimed at accelerating the transition towards 100% Open Access. With effect from 1 January 2021, publications that result from money from these research funding organizations should be published immediately as Open Access. Plan S primarily focuses in first instance on academic articles. The requirements for monographs and book chapters will be published at a later stage.

Open access requirements
The implementation guidelines outline how researchers can meet the requirements of Plan S. The most important requirements for publishing academic articles are: immediate Open Access, accessible under a Creative Commons license and with retention of copyright.

These conditions can be met by:

• publishing in an Open Access journal or on an Open Access platform with a CC BY license;
• archiving a final or accepted peer reviewed version (AAM) direct in the institutional repository with a CC BY license;
• publishing open access with a CC BY license in a (hybrid) journal that is party to a ‘transformative agreement’.

Helpful tools
You can use the Journal Checker Tool that is developed by cOAlition S, to determine if a specific journals meets the Plan S requirements.

Rights Retention Strategy (RRS)
When a journal doesn’t offer any open access possibilities and the ‘self-archiving policy’ makes it impossible to archive an open version of the AAM immediately: then use the Rights Retention Strategy from cOAlition S to meet the Plan S requirements. See also the flyer on RRS with a concise explanation and instructions on how to inform the publisher.

Implementation by NWO
NWO will implement the principles of Plan S for all calls that are published from 1 January 2021 onwards and will be applicable to publications related to those calls. See for more detailed information the webpage dedicated to Plan S by NWO. Note that the principles will also be obligatory for several ZonMW programs.

If you have any questions about Plan S, you can ask them at openaccess@uva.nl.

With the establishment of the UvA Open Science Programme 2025-2029, funding is once again available for diamond open access via the Diamond Open Access Fund.

What is diamond open access?
With diamond open access initiatives – journals or publication platforms – authors do not have to pay to publish an article, and these articles are also immediately available to readers free of charge via open access. Diamond open access initiatives play an important role in the transition to an affordable, sustainable, equitable and academic community-managed system of open access publishing.

Funding by the UvA
Diamond open access initiatives often struggle to secure funding, and the importance of this open access model is frequently still insufficiently recognised in open access strategies. The UvA is therefore taking responsibility by establishing the UvA Diamond Open Access Fund (UvA DOAF). The fund is used to

1. provide long-term support for – more than twenty – existing UvA initiatives and, in addition;
2. enable new initiatives at the UvA to apply for financial support.

Submitting an application
Would you like to professionalise or launch a diamond open access journal? Or start publishing an existing journal using the diamond open access model? If so, please submit an application to the fund. In 2026, five grants of 3,500 euros each will be available.

The Library manages the fund. For questions about the fund or to request the procedure and conditions for submitting an application, mail to: openaccess@uva.nl.

Deadline for submitting an application is November 1, 2026.

UvA DOAF Community
The Library brings diamond open access initiatives at the UvA together within the so-called UvA DOAF Community. By bringing these diamond initiatives together, they can not only exchange experiences and draw on each other’s knowledge, but diamond open access also gains visibility at the UvA.

Many Open Access publications can be found using the Library’s discovery tool CataloguePlus (filter by ‘availability’ --> open access) and the Google Scholar search engine. There are also several search engines that specifically target Open Access publications (articles and books):

• OpenAIRE – Explore: provides access to over 27 million Open Access publications from 15,000 institutions and 18 research funding authorities.
• ArXiv: repository with (approx. 1.5 million) academic Open Access publications and pre-publications in mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, economics and statistics.
• The Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) and OAPEN can be used to find peer-reviewed Open Access books.
• CORE: Open Access search engine providing access to academic repositories across the world. Provides access to 135 million indexed Open Access publications.
• Unpaywall is a browser extension that detects Open Access versions of articles on publishers’ websites. If the Library has no subscription and you cannot read a publication, this extension can provide a solution if you use the Firefox and Chrome browsers.

An explanation of some frequently used Open Access terminology:

Author Processing Charge (APC)
The fee paid to publish an Open Access article. In 2017, the average APC was € 1,700. Depending on the journal and publisher, the APC for Open Access articles varies from € 400 to as much as € 4,000.

Book Processing Charge (BPC)
The fee paid to publish an Open Access book. The fee for publishing an Open Access book varies according to the publisher and is between € 7,000 and € 15,000.

Unlike APC's for articles in hybrid journals, there is no general or UvA scheme to finance BPC's. See: OA Books Toolkit for information on OA book publishing, including funding options. 

Corresponding author
For the publisher, the corresponding author is the person who submits the article. In order to qualify for a discount scheme, it is usually a requirement for the corresponding author to have an affiliation (employment relationship) with the UvA.

Creative Commons (CC)
If you declare a Creative Commons licence to be applicable to a publication, this indicates that you are waiving certain statutory copyrights. There are various types of CC licences, of which CC BY is the least restrictive. Most research funding authorities demand or recommend this licence because this means that the publication is fully accessible according to the definitions of the Berlin Declaration (2003). See also: Guide to Creative Commons for scholarly publications and educational resources on the use of CC licences.

Diamond Open Access
If an author is able to publish Open Access in an Open Access journal or on an Open Access platform because the costs have already been paid by (academic) institutions, this is referred to as Diamond Open Access. Examples of this include Glossa or SciPost.

Gold Open Access
If a publication is immediately published in Open Access by a publisher with a Creative Commons licence, this is referred to as Gold Open Access. Generally, an Author Processing Charge (APC) or Book Processing Charge (BPC) is paid for this.

Green Open Access
If a version (postprint, preprint, publisher's PDF) of a publication is made public retrospectively by means of self-archiving in the University repository, for example, this is referred to as Green Open Access. No charges are involved in this.

Hybrid journal
A hybrid journal is a traditional subscription journal that also allows Open Access publication in exchange for the payment of an APC. The UvA has agreed discount schemes with the large traditional publishers at national level, enabling UvA researchers to publish free of charge in many of these journals.

Open Access
If a publication is freely accessible for everyone and its content can be read, downloaded, copied, distributed, printed, indexed, used in education, searched in and searched for, or otherwise used by anyone in accordance with the legally valid agreements, the publication is referred to as being Open Access. See also the Berlin Declaration (2003).

However, publications that are only freely accessible (Green Open Access) are often also referred to as Open Access, but they are subject to normal copyright and do not meet the above definition.

Postprint
Accepted version after peer review. This is the final version of the publication that will be published, but still without the publisher's specific layout (style, page numbers). This version is also referred to as the author accepted manuscript (AAM).

Preprint
Preprints are (academic) manuscripts that have not been peer-reviewed or published in a traditional publishing venue. In Open Science and academic publishing, the preprint is an increasingly important form of academic communication. By posting preprints, either on institutional or individual websites or preprint servers such as Arxiv, Repec and Zenodo, researchers can rapidly share their findings and build upon each other’s work. See also: A practical guide to preprints.