Austrian Policy on Open Science and the European Open Science Cloud (2022) — Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF)

What is this about?

The policy sets Austria’s national framework for open science, making openness the default while balancing ethics, privacy, and intellectual property. It requires open access to publications, use of Creative Commons licenses, persistent identifiers, FAIR data practices, and trusted repositories. Responsibilities are outlined for researchers, institutions, funders, and publishers, covering rights retention, data management, and infrastructure support. Exceptions for sensitive or commercial data are allowed but must be justified transparently. Monitoring focuses on the quality of openness—metadata, links, reproducibility, and data/code sharing—rather than just publication counts. The policy aligns with international initiatives like Plan S and the European Open Science Cloud, emphasizes equity and inclusion, and provides practical guidance to help Austrian stakeholders implement open and responsible research.

For whom is this important?

ResearchersResearch institutionsJournal publishersFunding institutions

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