b-on guaranteed until 2021

The 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 guaranteed a set of relevant conditions for 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). Additionally, for the first time, clauses relating to Open Access have been introduced into some contracts: there are now eight publishers fully aligned with the FCT's open access rules , and with several publishers it has been possible to negotiate discounts or exemptions from publication fees (article processing charges, APC) – details will be announced shortly on the b-on website.

b-on centralizes subscriptions to tens of thousands of scientific journals nationwide, reducing costs and ensuring access by public institutions in the area of science and higher education to scientific publications, which are essential for the teaching and research community.

In negotiations with content providers, the FCT had the support of a technical advisory group for negotiations that included members of CRUP, CCISP and APESP, to whom it is grateful. It was thus possible to achieve the objectives of reconciling the right to read with the right to publish in open access, cost containment, and maintenance and expansion of all content made available until then.