Open Science Policies - Open Access Policy
Scientific articles - Via Transformativa
-
A hybrid journal is a journal that provides both open access articles and articles that are only accessible for a subscription fee.
-
No. Open access journals and platforms, as well as hybrid journals, must comply with the technical requirements specified in the annex to FCT's Open Access Policy.
-
In open access journals, all articles are published in open access, while in hybrid journals only part of the articles are published in open access, the rest being published in closed access.
By consulting the Journal Checker Tool, it is possible to determine the type of journal in question through the results obtained following the query made to clarify the available ways of complying with the Open Access Policy offered by the journal in which you intend to publish.
The following indicates which type of search result corresponds to which type of magazine.
-
A transformative agreement is an agreement that provides for the payment of a price to the publisher that covers the publication of articles in open access. The agreement is said to be transformative because it "transforms" the money that was traditionally paid to subscribe to content, i.e. the money paid to read, into money paid to support the publication of articles in open access.
As part of the b-on (Online Knowledge Library) initiative, the FCT has signed transformative agreements with a number of publishers, from which authors affiliated to b-on member institutions can benefit.
Information on the transformative agreements signed by FCT within the framework of b-on can be found here Open Access (b-on.pt)
The list of b-on member institutions can be found here Members (b-on.pt)
-
Expenditure on APC in hybrid journals outside of transformative agreements is not considered eligible expenditure in FCT funding instruments, in order to avoid what is known as double dipping, i.e. a double source of revenue for publishers from, on the one hand, charging APC for placing articles in open access and, on the other hand, charging a subscription price for the hybrid journals in which these articles are published.
It is therefore strongly discouraged for authors to pay APC as a way of guaranteeing the open access publication of their article in hybrid journals. In such cases, it is advisable to publish in closed access and for the author to guarantee compliance with FCT's open access policy by depositing their article in an RCAAP repository, following the retention of rights to their article.
-
Lists of hybrid journals by publisher where it is possible to publish in open access under transformative agreements with publishers present on b-on can be found on the b-on website, via the open access page: Open Access (b-on.pt).
Consulting the Journal Checker Tool will also reveal whether the journal is covered by a b-on transformative agreement, in which case this will be the result:
-
Once the quota for publication in open access under a transformative agreement has been exhausted, the article will be published in closed access in that journal, and the author must ensure compliance with FCT's Open Access Policy by using the green route.
-
No. Deposit in a repository guarantees the long-term preservation of the article, particularly in the event of the disappearance of the journal or publisher where it was published. For this reason, even articles whose open access is guaranteed by another means should be deposited in a repository in the RCAAP network.
-
No. The transformative agreement does not imply any delay in the times normally associated with the publication of an article, as these agreements have no impact on the procedures followed to publish or on the deadlines associated with them. These will be exactly the same as those applied to publication outside the framework of a transformative agreement.
-
No. The Author's Accepted Manuscript (AAM) version of articles published in closed access must be deposited in a repository of the RCAAP network, without being subject to any embargo period, following the retention of rights (RRS) by the author.
One of the aims of the Open Access Policy is to make articles funded by FCT available immediately, i.e. without any embargo period. The way to achieve this, in the case of articles published in closed access, is to make them available in open access by depositing them in a repository, which is possible following the retention of rights mentioned above.