Open Access Publishing
Open access ensures that scientific publications are accessible to everyone free of charge.
Publishing agreements
In publishing agreements, authors agree on copyright issues, such as the principles of authorship and terms for open access publishing and self-archiving (green open access). Researchers should make sure that terms either offer immediate gold open access or allow for green open access agreed upon with the funding bodies.
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Authorship
Aalto University is committed to the goal of the the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity (TENK), according to which:
- the principles of authorship are discussed at the planning stage of the research project
- the authorship has been agreed upon at the latest before the manuscript is submitted for publication.
provides a tool to prevent disputes regarding authorship.
Aalto University guidelines for agreeing on authorship
Publishing agreements
In publishing agreement it is agreed on how the publisher, researcher and the university of the researcher may use the publication, e.g. whether the researcher is allowed to self-archive the article to the institutional repository of the university and which version is allowed to be deposited. Self-archiving to a commercial service such as is often prohibited. Licenses for open access publishing are also often agreed upon in the publishing agreement.
Read more about Creative Commons Open Content LicensesIn accordance with Aalto University's copyright policy, the researcher signs a publishing agreement as the copyright owner. The publishing agreements should be archived. They tell you how you can use the publication.
Compliance with the requirements of the funder in publishing agreements
In externally funded research projects, copyright ownership of all project results is transferred ÄûÃʵ¼º½ University in accordance with Annex 1 of the employment contract. For scientific publications resulting from such projects, Aalto University is responsible for ensuring compliance with the funder's open science and open access publishing requirements. In accordance with its copyright policy, Aalto University transfers the signing of publishing agreements to the researcher, provided that the agreement complies with the funder’s requirements.
Please check Funders' open science reguirements before signing the publishing agreement. For example, the funder may have requirements related to immediate open access publishing and licenses.
The funder may imburse open access fees (article processing charges, APCs) if they are included in project budget. Please note that APC fees can only be paid for the duration of the research project. Once the project is over, this will no longer be possible. The funder may also require the fees for open access publishing be paid by researcher's university.
Plan S
Several European research funders are committed to the principles of Plan S, which promotes openness of research outputs. These principles apply to publications resulting from funding received from 1.1.2021.
Read more on Funders' open science requirements
Read and publish agreements with publishers
Aalto University has open access agreements with publishers. This means that the researchers with Aalto affiliation acting as the corresponding author can publish the articles without open access fees (APCs) or get discounts on them.
Open access agreements with publishers
Publishing agreement and self-archiving
Publishers determine which version of a publication may be deposited in the university repository (ACRIS, which is integrated with Aaltodoc at Aalto University) and whether an embargo period applies. Typically, the permitted version is the so-called post-print - the final peer-reviewed manuscript that includes revisions from the review process but does not contain the publisher’s layout, logo, or pagination. You can check the default self-archiving (green open access) policies of well-known, international publishers on Open Policy Finder website. Please note that funders may have requirements related to immediate open access and licenses of the self-archived manuscripts.
ACRIS, open access publishing and manuscript service
Copyright and social media
Copyright applies also to sharing the original publications via social media networks (, , ). The researchers must take copyright issues into account when sharing publications through these platforms. The persistent availability of publications is not guaranteed in networking sites. "How can I share it?" is an online service where you can find information on which version of the publication you can share e.g. in social media. However, not all publishers are included in the service.
Contact information
For any questions, please don't hesitate to contact Open Science and ACRIS team (acris@aalto.fi).
