cOAlition S Accelerating the transition to full and immediate Open Access to scientific publications

What is this about?

cOAlition S: Accelerating the Transition to Full and Immediate Open Access to Scientific Publications (2018), published by Science Europe, sets international expectations for open science and open access with a focus on the EU. Written in English, it frames openness as the default while balancing ethics, privacy, intellectual property, and security, following the principle of being “as open as possible, as closed as necessary.” The document emphasizes immediate open access to publications, Creative Commons licensing, persistent identifiers, FAIR data principles, and deposition in trusted repositories. It outlines responsibilities for researchers, institutions, and funders, including rights retention, transparency in embargoes, and cost management. Adoption is supported through infrastructure like repositories, registries, and research information systems, aligned with initiatives such as Plan S and the European Open Science Cloud. Equity and responsible openness are highlighted, ensuring inclusion, multilingual communication, and safeguards for sensitive or Indigenous data. Serving as a benchmark and practical checklist, it offers actionable steps to improve transparency, reproducibility, and equitable access across Europe and beyond.

For whom is this important?

All stakeholders in research

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