Open Access

Table of contents

 

The concept of  Open Access

Open Access (OA) is free, universal, permanent, and immediate access for everyone to digital forms of scientific and educational data and content. According to the European Commission Recommendation of 17 July 2012 on access to and preservation of scientific information (2012/417/EU), scientific publications and research results should be made available free of charge at the earliest possible stage of the dissemination process. The policy of open access to scientific research results should apply to all research that receives public funding. Open access to publications and results of publicly funded research is also a requirement of the Horizon 2020 program. In Poland, the open access policy is defined in the document of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, published in October 2015 called Kierunki rozwoju otwartego dostępu do publikacji i wyników badań naukowych w Polsce.

 

The open access policy was presented in a presentation by Piotr Kępski from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education at a seminar on 8.12.2016.

 

In the first place, open access refers to works published in scientific journals, but it can also include publications such as books, monographs, recordings, preprints, software, and also research data. The main distribution channels for open publications are open journals and scientific repositories.

 

The sharing and use of scientific research results must take into account the protection of intellectual property rights. Open access is not equivalent to the public domain, as creators do not waive their copyrights and can impose all sorts of conditions on the release of a work. Publishing content on an open access model most often involves licensing it under one of the open licences, which are a kind of contract between authors and potential readers.

 

The benefits of open access include easier and faster scientific communication between different entities, academic institutions, industry, and researchers interested in the same research topic. Open access promotes the internationalization of research results, making science develop faster and more efficiently. It also means free access to scientific content for people outside the scientific community, doctors, teachers, entrepreneurs, and others.

 

Raport nt. realizacji polityki otwartego dostępu do publikacji naukowych w Polsce (March 2018).

 

CESAER

For several years, Poznan University of Technology has been a member of the prestigious international organization CESAER, which brings together Europe's leading technical universities and engineering schools from 26 countries.

 

CESAER (Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research) is a platform for mutual communication and cooperation among technical universities in the field of education, research, and innovation in the so-called Knowledge Triangle covering:

  • Conducting scientific research at the highest level and taking into account the latest advances in scientific and technological thought
  • High-level engineering education
  • Close cooperation with industry (integration of education, research and innovation - the so-called Knowledge Triangle)

CESAER regularly conducts consultations among the association's participants for mutual learning and exchange of experience. To this end, it appoints specific Task Forces to deal with specific projects.

  • Scientific Engineering Education
  • International Cooperation and Technology Transfer
  • Open Science (Task Force Open Science)
  • Funding Instruments
  • Human Resources

As part of its activities, CESAER supports the policy of open access to scientific publications and research data. The promotion, support, and monitoring of the openness process is handled by the international Task Force Open Science team.

 

You can read more about the organization and the European open access policy here.