b-on guaranteed until 2021

FCT has secured another cycle of subscriptions to international scientific journals from the online knowledge library – b-on, which will run from 2019 to 2021.

The results of negotiations with the 16 content providers involved ensured a set of conditions that are relevant to the scientific community: all previous collections are maintained and there is an increase in content from four publishers (Annual Reviews, IEEE, Institute of Physics, and Wiley). In addition, for the first time, clauses relating to Open Access have been introduced in some contracts: there are now eight publishers fully aligned with the FCT's open access rules, and it has been possible to negotiate discounts or exemptions from article processing charges (APC) with several publishers – details will be announced shortly on the b-on website.

B-on centrally manages subscriptions to tens of thousands of scientific journals nationwide, reducing costs and ensuring that public institutions in the fields of science and higher education have access to scientific publications, which are essential for the teaching and research community.

In negotiations with content providers, FCT relied on a technical advisory group that included members of CRUP, CCISP, and APESP, to whom it extends its gratitude. This made it possible to achieve the objectives of reconciling the right to read with the right to publish in open access, contain costs, and maintain and expand all content made available up to that point.