Open Access: Introduction

Contact oa@tuni.fi if you have any questions about, e.g.,

• discounts for article processing charges
• self-archiving
• sharing articles
• Creative Commons licenses
• open educational resources.

Check the library website for all events and training for open science.

The Tampere higher education community systematically follows up on and evaluates the progress and impact of Open Science and Research. 

Learn more about proportions of Open Access publications in Tampere University in our guide for research impact and visibility.

The role of data is good to take into account in Open Access publishing. Open Access also affects the visibility and impact of the research. In the Tampere higher education community theses will be published openly. Read more in our guides:

• Research Data Management
• TUNICRIS
• Research impact and visibility
• Publishing a dissertation at Tampere University
• Publishing a master´s thesis

Open Access (OA) is about the open, free availability of scientific information. It means that the user has the right to read, copy, print and link full-text versions of scientific publications. A scientific publication can be defined as publicly available once it is readable on the Internet by both the scientific community and the general public, free of charge.

Make your work open access by

• Publishing your article in a journal that supports Open Access (Gold Open Access).
• Self-archiving your article or accepted manuscript (post print version, final draft)  in an institutional  repository according to the agreements of the copyrights owner (Green Open Access).
• Making an article openly accessible by paying an extra fee (Hybrid Open Access).
• Self-archiving your article, accepted manuscript  (post print -version, final draft) or pre print version of it to a subject-based repository (e.g. ArXiv, bioRxiv, PubMed Central, RePEC, SocArXiv or SSRN) according to the agreements of the publisher.
• Publishing your book by using Open Access -based services or publishers.

In making your work open you must take into account embargoes that publishers apply to self-archiving. Often the embargo for self-archiving is 12 months or longer. Many research funders do not allow embargoes longer than 6 months (12 months in humanities and social sciences). If the embargo set by the publisher extends this, self-archiving does not comply with the requirements of the research funder.

Tampere Universities have adopted an Open Science Policy that reflects their commitment to the principles of academic integrity and the promotion of open access to their research output. The policy highlights the general principles of openness of Tampere higher education community. In addition, the policy takes into account the monitoring and evaluation of the open science policy. A coordination group will be set up to guide and monitor the implementation of an open science policy.

The principles concerning open access publication:

• In the Tampere higher education community, researchers publish their research results in the most feasible and appropriate publishing channels, which are of the highest quality and have significant impact. Scientific publications are opened up either in parallel versions or in high-quality Gold Open Access channels, if the latter exist in the field.
• In the Tampere higher education community, all scientific publications are self-archived unless the publisher prevents it.
• As part of preparing the research process, the researcher should draft a publication plan where he/she defines how his/her publications will be opened.
• Tampere University publishes doctoral dissertations and other theses openly unless prohibited by the terms of an external publisher.

The aim of the action program is to ensure that the principles of open science are implemented naturally in the university processes and in the everyday work of the researcher.

According to the Tampere University's Open Science Action Plan:

• With its internal processes, the University will ensure that the processes of merit and reward support its commitment to open science.
• Expertise in matters of open science will be made an integral part of research training.
• In all essential forums, the University will promote the formation of suitable publication policies and agreements; moreover, it will participate in their national and international development.
• As part of its internal operations management, Tampere University will regularly and systemically reflect upon the preconditions and realisation of open science.

Open Access Guide:

Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)