Open access to peer-reviewed scientific articles
We require that RCF-funded projects commit to ensuring immediate open access to their peer-reviewed articles in accordance with Plan S principles and Finland’s national policy for open access to scholarly publications. This requirement applies to projects funded from RCF calls opened after 1 January 2021. The requirements that apply to projects funded earlier are available in the funding terms and conditions that were in use at the time the funding decision was made.
The RCF requires open access according to Plan S definitions.
We requires that RCF-funded researchers and research projects make research outputs wholly or partially produced with our funding available to the public immediately after publication. In the case of peer-reviewed articles, this can be achieved by:
1) publishing the article in a Plan-S-compliant, open-access scientific journal
The easiest way to check whether a journal or publishing platform is compliant with Plan S is to use the Journal Checker Tool, a database developed by cOAlition S. For Finnish scientific journals, the RCF exceptionally approves journals in which all peer-reviewed articles are published in a manner that is compliant with Plan S:n but other published material is not fully open access.
More information about the Journal Checker Tool database: Support for identifying compliant publication channels and repositories
2) storing a parallel copy of the article (Version of Record) or a pre-print, author’s accepted manuscript in a publication archive or database that is in compliance with Plan S
If the chosen scientific journal or publishing platform does not declare that they accept immediate self-archiving of either of these versions, we encourage the authors to propose making the article openly available immediately, as agreed in the publishing agreement. If the publisher refuses immediate parallel storage, the article can be made open access through self-archiving within an embargo (up to 12 months for social sciences and the humanities, up to 6 months for other scientific disciplines).
The RCF considers that all repositories operating in Finland with the support of Finnish universities and government research institutes fulfil these conditions. RCF-funded researchers may also use international, reliable repositories for self-archiving purposes.
3) by publishing the article within an agreement between the organisation or FinELib consortium and the publisher, allowing immediate open access (transformative agreement, Read & Publish agreement).
Peer-reviewed articles produced in RCF-funded projects may not be published using the so-called hybrid model, where individual articles published in subscription-based journals are made open access on payment.
