Artificial intelligence, integrity issues, potential state influence and unwanted publication incentives, for example, pose significant challenges in the publishing landscape. In response, Universities of the Netherlands (UNL) has renewed its open access strategy. UNL chair Caspar van den Berg: "The Netherlands is among the global frontrunners in open access publishing, and we can be proud of that. With this renewed strategy, we build on that strong position and respond to new challenges around quality, integrity, copyright and sustainable financing. Together with our partners, we continue to work hard towards a fairer, more transparent and future-proof publishing system."
Scientific knowledge accessible to everyone
The academic world is undergoing a global transition towards a more open and inclusive way of conducting scientific research and education. Previously, Dutch knowledge organisations jointly set the ambition "to remove barriers to creating, reading, reusing and evaluating all Dutch scientific output as much as possible, so that everyone has sustainable access to scientific knowledge and can benefit from it". In that context, Dutch universities have succeeded in significantly increasing the open accessibility of scientific articles, with a rise from 42 percent open access in 2016 to 95 percent in 2024.
Key priorities for a future-proof publishing system
The current strategy from 2013 is now outdated. It has led to excessive dependence on revenue-driven publishers, a lack of control over copyright and metadata, and an unsustainable financial model. In addition, open access costs pose a problem for less affluent researchers and institutions, as they can read freely but lack sufficient resources to always publish open access. Furthermore, quality is under pressure — for example due to inadequate peer review in predatory journals, fraud via so-called paper mills, and AI-generated content.
The ambitions of universities in the area of recognition and rewards also clash with the criteria of rankings and perverse incentives to publish as much as possible. The universities want to address this and, with the new strategy, are focusing on:
- Control over copyright and metadata;
- Greater diversity in the scientific communication landscape;
- Sustainable innovation in publishing infrastructure;
- Transparency and accountability for quality and integrity;
- Enabling academic communities to develop publication strategies;
- Equality and openness.
The renewed open access strategy can be found on Zenodo. A steering group of representatives from universities and SURF will implement the strategy in the coming years. As first steps, universities in the Netherlands have started discussions on the desired publication culture of scientific research. The renewed publishing platform Open Research Europe also aligns well with the new open access strategy at the European level.
Source: Universities of the Netherlands