Open Science

2. Open Access to Scientific Publications

Open Access (OA) to scientific publications is a key component of open science, with the primary goal of ensuring free online availability of scientific and artistic works without financial, legal, or technical barriers (other than those related to internet access itself). In the academic community, universities and research institutions increasingly strive to ensure that all publications resulting from the work of their employees and students, as well as all their own editions, are available in open access.

This goal can be achieved in several ways, depending on the publishing strategy and editorial policy.

In all three aforementioned cases, it is crucial to publish works under one of the Creative Commons licences, whereby the use of the CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution) licence is generally recommended, as it allows for the widest possible reuse provided the original author is credited. Also, in all publications, it is of utmost importance to transparently state author affiliations and funding sources to ensure the traceability and integrity of research.

To support open access, it is advisable for higher education institutions to require their employees to, at the latest by the time of publication, enter bibliographic data into the CroRIS-CROSBI open system and deposit the full text into the institutional repository of their institution. Such an approach ensures centralised records and the availability of scientific production.