With many publishers agreements have been made about open access publishing. Unfortunately, this is not possible for all types of publications or journals. However, Dutch copyright law offers an alternative. Article 25fa of the Copyright Act (Taverne Amendment) allows researchers to share short scientific works (e.g. articles & book chapters), regardless of any restrictive publishers' guidelines.

The Taverne Amendment states that the maker of a short scientific work, research 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.

In 2019 the Dutch universities started the pilot ‘you share we take care’ enabling many publications – with consent of the author – to be made freely available to the public via the university repository. 

From the 1^st of January 2020, the Dutch Universities - including the University of Amsterdam - will widely roll out the use of the Taverne amendment. The Amsterdam Law School supports the Open Science movement and encourages her employees to participate in the initiative.

If you have a regular labor contract with the faculty, then please complete the license agreement. With this you give the Library permission, with a reliance on article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, to make the publisher’s version of your previous – and future – UvA ‘short scientific publications’ publicly accessible at the end of a six-month embargo after online publication in the university repository UvA-DARE.

For further explanation, please check the ‘frequently asked questions’ at the UvA staff website Article 25fa Dutch Copyright Act (Taverne) or reach out to openaccess@uva.nl if you still have any unanswered questions.