Visibility of scientists

3. Publications in open access journals

Open access is free, free and unhindered online access to digital scientific information that enables reading, storing, distributing, searching, retrieving, indexing and/or other lawful use. Free in this context means permanently free from any restrictions and setting conditions for access and use (Hrvatska deklaracija o otvorenom pristupu, 2012)

Open Access (OA) is divided into three levels:

1. Green OA allows open access by archiving or self-archiving works in digital repositories. Depending on the publisher's requirements, the author's version of the manuscript before or after review, and sometimes the final version published in the journal, can be archived. Works are mainly archived in institutional repositories, which is most often done by the authors themselves, or in publicly available subject repositories, and can also be published on the personal web pages of the authors or institutions. Access to the stored works is often subject to an embargo, i.e. a period of time that must elapse before the work becomes publicly available. The embargo period is determined by the publisher, and in some cases archiving may be mandatory due to the requirements of the research funder or the author's institution.
2. Gold OA involves publishing scientific papers in journals that provide open access. These can be fully open journals or so-called hybrid journals, where only a portion of the articles are available in open access. In the gold path, articles are available to the public immediately after publication. The costs of publishing in open access (Article Processing Charges – APC) are most often borne by authors, their institutions or research funders. However, there are also examples where publishers cover the costs themselves or they are financed from state funds, as is the case with some Croatian scientific journals. This model is often called diamond or platinum open access because it allows openness without costs for authors.
3. Diamond OA is a model for publishing scholarly works in which scholarly journals and publishing platforms do not charge a fee to authors or readers. This model is a publishing initiative initiated and led by the academic community. Diamond journals provide completely free access to and use of scholarly information, further increasing the availability of research results to the wider public. This model often depends on public funding, grants from academic institutions, or donations.

A major initiative to promote open access and open science has been implemented since 2018 by cOAlition S, a group of research funding organizations, with the support of the European Commission and the European Research Council (ERC). cOAlition S aims to achieve full and immediate open access to scientific publications. To achieve this goal, they have developed Plan S, which requires all research funders supporting this initiative to require immediate open access to all scientific publications resulting from their funding.

Plan S contains ten principles:

1. Authors or their institutions retain copyright. All works must be published under an open license, preferably under the CC BY license.
2. Funders will provide the criteria that high-quality journals, open access platforms and repositories must provide.
3. In cases where high-quality open access journals or platforms do not yet exist, financiers will provide support in their establishment and the establishment of an open access infrastructure.
4. Where applicable, the costs of publishing works in open access are borne by funders or scientific institutions, not individual scientists. The emphasis is on the idea that all authors should have the opportunity to publish their works in open access.
5. Funders will support different business models of open access journals and platforms. When open access publication fees are applied, they must be proportionate to the publication services provided, and the structure of such fees must be transparent to inform the market and allow for potential standardization and limitation of fee payments.
6. Funders will encourage governments, higher education institutions, scientific research organizations, libraries and the academic community to harmonize strategies, policies and practices, especially with the aim of ensuring transparency.
7. The above principles will apply to all types of scientific publications, but it is necessary to take into account that ensuring open access to monographs and book chapters will take somewhat longer and will require a special process.
8. Funders support the hybrid model solely as a transitional path within clearly defined time frames until full open access is achieved.
9. Funders will monitor compliance with regulations and sanction grant beneficiaries who do not comply with the set conditions.
10. Funders commit to evaluating the intrinsic value of the work when assessing research results in making funding decisions, regardless of publication channel, impact factor (or other journal metrics), or publisher.