EU

According to a European Commission study that examined Scopus data between 2009 and 2016 for open access publications, Switzerland leads the EU, with 39% of its research publicly accessible. Open access is defined as freely accessible scientific research that creates opportunities for reutilizing publications, codes and data to increase scientific productivity and discoveries, while decreasing scientific misconduct.

The EU defines two types of open access: green open access refers to when an author or representative archives the scientific article in an online repository prior to, simultaneously or after publication; gold open access refers to when an article is immediately published as an open access article. While green open access publications remained the majority, their numbers decreased by two percentage points in 2016 to represent 14% of publications, while the number of gold open access publications increased one percentage point the same year to make up 14%. According to the methodology report, transitioning to open access has been sluggish due to factors including costs and journal policies. However, the study stated that the number of open access publications has been slowly growing over the past seven years.

Croatia and Estonia rounded out the top 3 European countries for open access publications, with 38% and 37% of their research available in open access format, respectively. By field, 66% of open access publications were multidisciplinary, with agriculture, forestry and fisheries, and biological science and basic medical research representing 42%, 39% and 38%, respectively.

Source: European Commission

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