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Open Access

Open Access refers to the free and unrestricted access to scientific research results on the internet. INN’s principles state that research outcomes should be made openly available where possible. Publishing agreements and the publication fund help to achieve this.

How to publish openly?

INN aims to facilitate open publication of research results by its staff. There are four main categories of open publishing: gold, green, hybrid and diamond:

Publication fund and gold

Gold open access means publishing scientific articles in journals that provide full open access. Approved open access journals are indexed in the DOAJ. Alternatively, it refers to publishing a book with open access to the entire book. Often, a publication fee (article processing charge) must be paid to the publisher. You can apply for financial support from INN’s publication fund to cover the publication fee.

INN's publication fund

Self-archiving and green

Green open access means making research results available in an open institutional repository. It is common to archive the accepted manuscript version of the article (author's accepted manuscript). INN’s publication policy states that all research articles should be archived in the university’s digital repository, Brage.

Brage: how to self-archive research results?

Publishing deals and hybrid

If a publication fee is paid for a single article to be openly accessible in a closed subscription-based journal, where other articles are not openly available, this is called hybrid open access. INN does not support this as it leads to double payment to the publisher. However, INN has several publishing agreements (publish-and-read agreements) that allow INN staff to publish with open access without incurring costs for publishing individual articles. INN pays an annual fee for access to the publishers' journals, and the ability to publish with open access is included in the agreement.

Publishing deals: see which publishers and journals are included

Diamond

Journals with full open access that do not charge publication fees are called diamond open access. These journals are often pre-financed and/or non-commercial. In Norway, there is a specific scheme for journals in the social sciences and humanities that is supported by the Ministry of Education and Research.

How to find and evaluate open access journals and publishers

We encourage staff to use the Norwegian register of scientific journals and publishers to get an indication of whether open access publishing is possible in various journals and publishers. If the journal is an approved journal with full open access, it will have a DOAJ symbol in the register. You can also check if a journal is included in a publishing agreement, and whether INN is part of the agreement.

Copyright and Creative Commons licenses

In open publishing, an open licence is used. Creative Commons licences (often abbreviated as CC licences) are the most commonly used sharing licences in academic publishing.

When publishing in open-access journals or books, it is typical to use a Creative Commons licence that allows the author to retain copyright over the work, while granting users the rights to copy, share, and further distribute the work.

In contrast, when publishing in scientific journals without open access, it is common for the author to transfer economic rights to the publisher, while retaining moral rights to the work.

Which licence should you choose?

When publishing with open access, you can typically choose from the various Creative Commons licences. INN recommends publishing under the most open licence, CC BY 4.0, but there may be legitimate reasons to choose a licence with restrictions, such as non-commercial use (NC: NoCommercial) and no derivatives (ND: NoDerivatives).

The most common licence is CC BY (Attribution), which also grants the most rights to the user, but there are different variants of Creative Commons licences. Read about the different licences:

Requirements for open access

Here is an overview of different stakeholder's requirements for open access in research publications.

INN University

INN University's ppen science policy states that 'Research processes and research results, artistic development work and teaching activities at INN University shall be made openly available where possible.'
INN's publishing policy is based on the principle that research processes should be 'as open as possible, as closed as necessary'.

Norway's national goals and guidelines

The government’s goal is that all pubclicly funded Norwegian research articles should be made openly available by 2024, and the government has established guidelines and measures for open access to research articles.

The Norwegian Research Council and Plan S

The Research Council is part of cOAlition S, a coalition of research funders from several continents that sets common international requirements for full and immediate open access to research publications (Plan S).

In line with Plan S, the Research Council requires full and immediate open access to all scientific publications from the projects they fund. The requirements apply to projects with funding from calls for proposals in 2021 and onwards.

EU and Horizon Europe

If your project is funded by the EU, regulations concerning Open Access vary according to the EU programme in question.

The EU requires that articles from projects financed through Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe be archived and made openly accessible. If possible, underlying research data should also be archived and made available.