Open Science in research projects

Types of documents concerned:

• Journal articles: obligatory,
• Other types of documents (monographs, proceedings, conference publications, etc..): recommended.

Summary of requirements:

• The article metadata and full text must be deposited in the repository at latest on the date of publication.
• The rules require depositing the final peer-reviewed version of the manuscript (postprint) or the publisher’s version, i.e. the final version of the text after incorporating all comments from peer-review process. Saving a preprint (i.e. author submitted manuscript) of a publication is not acceptable. What version of the text may be stored in the repository can be found in the license agreement with a publisher, possibly on the Sherpa Romeo server.
• Access to the full text in the repository may be delayed according to the conditions of the publisher (see below), no later than six months from the date of publishing in case of STM disciplines or twelve months in case of social sciences and humanities.
• All co-authors must agree with publishing the text and with its saving in the repository.
• Publications shall be deposited into an institutional or subject-based repository. For CTU authors these conditions are met by the CTU Digital Library.
• In case there is no other possibility, author may save the publication in the Zenodo repository.

Publisher policy:

• Get informed about the publisher self-archiving policy before submitting your manuscript. Possibly, you can try to negotiate individual copyright conditions for meeting the Horizon 2020 requirements. If the publisher provides no exception, you may try to negotiate an exception with the funder before publishing the article.
• If self-archiving is not allowed by the publisher, or the embargo period is too long, it is not possible to break the publisher policy. The publisher policy is superior to the Horizon 2020 requirements. However, most publishers allow to meet the funders Open Access criteria, sometimes it might require paying Open Access fees. Information on the journal Open Access policy can be found on the journal website or in the model copyright agreement. Notification - the publisher may apply different conditions to individual journals – we recommend to follow the conditions of the particular journal.
• Journals self-archiving policy can be checked in the journal/publisher license agreement, or in the Sherpa Romeo portal. Sherpa Romeo provides a comprehensive overview on each publisher and journal self-archiving conditions. Besides Sherpa Romeo, the How Can I Share It search engine can also be a good help. Authors can use the article DOI to find the rules that apply directly to their article (unless there are individual changes to their copyright agreement).

Providing Open Access after an embargo period has expired:

• In case the publisher has imposed an embargo period on the publication, the Horizon 2020 requirements allow an embargo period no longer than 6 months (12 months for publications in social sciences and humanities) from the date of publication.
• In the CTU Digital Library the embargo period can be set when uploading an article into the repository through V3S. The article will become accessible automatically after the given date.

Gold Open Access publications:

• To achieve higher accessibility of the publication, EC recommends to publish in Gold Open Access under Creative Commons licenses (in particular under CC BY). At the same time as an author you keep copyright to your work and you are free to reuse your article as you wish.
• Potential publication fees (APCs) are an eligible cost within the H2020 projects within the duration of the project.
• Gold Open Access articles should be deposited in the repository the same way as non-Gold OA articles.

Metadata requirements:

The article metadata in a repository must include:

• Funding programme identification ["European Union (EU)" and "Horizon 2020"] ["Euratom" and Euratom research and training programme 2014-2018"]
• The title of the project call, project acronym and number
• Date of publishing, eventually end of embargo period
• Permanent identifier (DOI, Handle).

Since 2017, all new H2020 projects have an obligation to provide evidence of reseach data management (RDM) and if possible, provide access to their research data.

Which data are subject to the requirements:

• The requirements apply to all underlying data for publications created within the project.
• It is optional to include all data generated within the project.

Exceptions and opt-out options:

You can opt-out from the RDM requirements anytime and at any extent. You may opt-out in the project application, and both before and after grant agreement subscription, even any time during the ongoing project. In this case the opting-out applies to all project activities retrospectively.

Opting-out is possible fully or partially. If you wish to opt-out partially, you can define files, which will be part of the RDM requirement and which will not.

Reasons to opt-out:

• Project generates no data
• The data will be a subject of a patent or other form of industrial property protection
• The data will be of a confidential or of secret nature and they cannot be published for security reasons
• The project will work with personal data
• Publishing the data will disable to achieve the goals of the project
• The data cannot be published for any other legitimate reason (these reasons shall be stated in the project application).

For publishing the research data, a principle ‘as open as possible, as closed as necessary’ is recommended to follow, i.e. to publish such data, which can be published.

Data Management Plan (DMP):

• The DMP is a detailed description of what data the project generates (if any) and how it is handled during and after the project. The DMP does not have to be created in case of full opt-out from the RDM requirements.
• The DPM describes the following aspects:
  • What types and what data formats will be created within the project.
  • What standards will be applied for the data identification and findability (metadata, permanent identifiers).
  • Where and how the data will be stored and accessible.
  • Whether and under what conditions the data will be available for re-use (data licensing).
• The DMP is a mandatory project output – the first version must be submitted within six months from launching the project. The DPM shall be updated continuously for the duration of the project.

Metadata requirements:

The data shall be stored in a repository that supports appropriate data formats, metadata standards, and licensing. It is obliged to link the data with the publication which is based on the data.
Any repository can be used that meets these requirements such as institutional, subject repository or any other repository. The list of data repositories is available in the Registry of Research Data Repositories .

License:

• Research data - if published, they shall be available open access under the CC BY or CC 0 license or equivalent if possible.
• Metadata must be publicly available under a CC 0 license or equivalent to the extent that legitimate interests or restrictions are protected and in accordance with the FAIR principles.

Related costs:

Any costs related to RDM are eligible project costs.

Recipients must provide open access to the peer-reviewed scientific publications related to their projects.:

• No later than the day of publication, a copy of the published version or the final peer-reviewed manuscript accepted for publication (postprint) must be stored in a trusted repository. Saving a preprint of a publication is not eligible.
• A reliable repository is any repository of your choice (including the institutional one) that meets the required metadata standards and offers interoperability. For CTU authors the EC requirements are met by the CTU Digital Library.
• In case there is no institutional or suitable subject repository available, authors may store their publications in any general/multidisciplinary repository such as Zenodo.
• Immediate open access via the repository must be provided – no embargo period is allowed.

Publisher policy:

• Get informed about the publisher self-archiving policy before submitting your manuscript. Possibly, you can try to negotiate individual copyright conditions for meeting the Horizon Europe requirements. If the publisher provides no exception, you may try to negotiate an exception with the funder before publishing the article.
• If self-archiving is not allowed by the publisher, or the embargo period is too long, it is not possible to break the publisher policy. The publisher policy is superior to the Horizon 2020 requirements. However, most publishers allow to meet the funders Open Access criteria, sometimes it might require paying Open Access fees. Information on the journal Open Access policy can be found on the journal website or in the model copyright agreement. Notification - the publisher may apply different conditions to individual journals – we recommend to follow the conditions of the particular journal.
• Journals self-archiving policy can be checked in the journal/publisher license agreement, or in the Sherpa Romeo portal. Sherpa Romeo provides a comprehensive overview on each publisher and journal self-archiving conditions. Besides Sherpa Romeo, the How Can I Share It search engine can also be a good help. Authors can use the article DOI to find the rules that apply directly to their article (unless there are individual changes to their copyright agreement).

Gold Open Access publications:

• To achieve higher accessibility of the publication EC recommends to publish in the Gold Open Access mode under the Creative Commons licenses (in particular under CC BY). At the same time as an author you keep copyright to your work and you are free to reuse your article as you wish.
• Potential publication fees (APCs) are an eligible cost within the H2020 projects within the duration of the project.
• Gold Open Access articles should be deposited in the repository the same way as non-Gold OA articles.

Metadata requirements:

License:

• Research article: must be accessible under the public CC BY license or equivalent.
• Monographs and other publications can be published under more restrictive licenses such as CC BY-NC, CC BY-ND, CC BY-NC-ND (see more on CC licenses here).
• Metadata must be publicly available under a CC 0 license or equivalent to the extent that legitimate interests or restrictions are protected and in accordance with the FAIR principles.

Metadata must contain:

• Description of the publication (author, title, date of publication, place of publication),
• Information on financing from Horizon Europe programme or Euratom,
• Project title, acronym and project number,
• Persistent identifiers
• Link (via persistent identifier – DOI, Handle) to any related research outputs – e.g. underlying research data stored in the repository elsewhere.

Related financial costs:

• Open Access publishing costs (Article Processing Charges, APCs) – are eligible costs, yet only for the duration of the project.
• Publishing in hybrid journals is not an eligible cost in the project.

Which data are subject to the requirements:

• The requirements apply to all underlying data for publications created within the project.
• It is optional to include all data generated within the project.

Recipients must handle the research data generated by the project in accordance with the FAIR principles and accept the following:

• To create and regularly update a Data Management Plan (DMP):
  • A document informing about each dataset - what data formats are being used, metadata and permanent identifiers, where it is stored, how it will be shared, etc.
  • The first version of DMP must be submitted within the first six months of the project duration.
  • The DMP must to be continuously supplemented and updated throughout the project.
• Provide open access to stored data through a trusted repository as soon as possible and within the deadlines set out in the DMP, unless otherwise specified.
• The dataset description in the repository provides information on all related research outputs and on tools and aids needed to reuse or verify the data
• The obligation to publish research data can be opted-out under the conditions set out below.
• In case open access is not provided to some (or all) data, this must be justified in the DMP.
• For publishing the research data, a principle ‘as open as possible, as closed as necessary’ is recommended to follow, i.e. to publish such data, which can be published.
• In case there is no institutional or suitable subject repository available, authors may store their publications in any general/multidisciplinary repository such as Zenodo.
• The list of data repositories is available in the Registry of Research Data Repositories .

Research data cannot be made available in the casethey are:

• contrary to the legitimate interests of the recipient including those related to commercial use, or
• contrary to any other restrictions - data protection rules, privacy, confidentiality, trade secrets, EU competitive interests, security rules, intellectual property rights, etc., or
• contrary to other obligations resulting from a grant agreement.

Metadata requirements:

License:

• Research data - if published, shall be available open access under the CC BY or CC 0 license or equivalent if possible.
• Metadata must be publicly available under a CC 0 license or equivalent to the extent that legitimate interests or restrictions are protected and in accordance with the FAIR principles.

Metadata must contain:

• Description of the dataset (description, date of publication, author(s), place of publication, information on an embargo),
• Information on financing from Horizon Europe programme or Euratom,
• Project title, acronym and project number,
• Persistent identifiers of the dataset
• Link (via persistent identifier – DOI, Handle) to any related research outputs – e.g. related articles or other research outputs stored in the repository elsewhere.

In the case other Open Science obligations are imposed, the recipients must comply with them.

In some cases, conditions may be laid down for further verification of scientific publications. In such a case, the recipient must provide access to the data or other results that will lead to the verification.

Where certain research outputs can help in the event of a general threat, recipients must make all research outputs available without delay, if necessary on the basis of the obligations imposed.

For more information: General Model Grant Agreement - HE MGA (Article 17, Annex 5)

 

 

The project proposal requires to describe Open Science and FAIR data principles in two different parts of the proposal and will be evaluated under two criteria:

• Excellence criterion requires:
  • max. of 1 page description of the implementation of Open Access practices
  • max. of 1 page describing Research Data Management (RDM), and how FAIR principles will be processed during the project.
• Efficiency criterion:
  • The impact of the research output will be evaluated based on the openess criteria and on a peer-review process by referees. Journal impact factor will not be taken into consideration.

 

Open Access - important criteria for writing a project application in Horizon Europe:

Open Science is an approach promoted by the European Commission to share scientific knowledge and facilitate collaboration through digital technologies. Open Access is an integral part of it and aims to provide immediate, free and long-term access to research results.

The project application to the Horizon Europe grant programme requires a statement on the practical implementation of Open Access in the research project and this information has an impact on the evaluation of the application.  In general, the European Commission lists mandatory and voluntary principles for Open Access, from which it is recommended to implement as much as possible. Insufficient explanation of the implementation of the mandatory part will result in a lower final evaluation of the application. A clear explanation of the implementation of the recommended principles will, on the other hand, earn the applicant a higher score. In order to meet this condition, it is important to be aware of the requirements placed on the applicant in the context of Open Access publishing. The overall description of the Open Science implementation should not exceed one page. Also, the length of a similar text for the research data management (FAIR data principles) is expected to be no more than one page.

Proposers should describe how open science practices (mandatory and recommended, as appropriate) are implemented and show how the implementation is adapted to the nature of their work.

Grant recipients in the Kappa programme are obliged to:

Provide open access to all peer-reviewed articles and to all underlying research data related to these publications.

Providing open access to research articles means to:

1. Post a copy of your article to a repository - no later than on the day of publication of the article, the recipient must save the final peer-reviewed manuscript (postprint) or the published version of the article in a repository. Along with the article, the underlying research data should be stored in a data repository as well.
2. Provide open access to the article:
   • by providing open access to the article in the repository (Green Open Access) - Provide open access to the archived copy of the article in a repository no later than 6 months (12 months in the case of social sciences and humanities) from the date of publication.
   • by Open Access publishing (Gold Open Access) - Immediate open access by publishing the article in an Open Access journal. Even Gold Open Access articles must be posted to the repository to provide long-term archiving and access.

Metadata requirements:

License:

• TA CR recommends publishing the results under the public CC-BY license.
• Metadata must be made public.

The article metadata must contain:

• Information on the grant provider, programme and project,
• Date of publication,
• Duration of an embargo period (if any),
• Persistent identifier (e.g. DOI).

Related financial costs:

Any costs related to providing open access, in particular Open Access publishing costs (Article Processing Charges, APCs) are eligible costs, yet only for the duration of the project.

Recipients must handle the research data generated by the project in accordance with the FAIR principles and accept the following:

• To create a Data Management Plan (DMP). The first version of DMP must be submitted within six months of the project duration.
  • The DPM describes the following aspects:
    • What types and what data formats will be created, collected and processed within the project.
    • Any methods and principles used for data management - e.g. what standards will be applied for the data identification and findability (metadata, permanent identifiers).
    • Where and how the data will be stored, shared and published.
    • How and where the data will be stored during the ongoing project and after the end of the project.
  • The DMP must to be continuously supplemented and updated throughout the project.

Metadata requirements:

License:

Store data in an open format in trusted repositories as soon as possible.

Metadata:

Provide concise and standardized metadata description.