As a signatory to the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, the FWF is committed to supporting and promoting sustained open access to scholarly publications and research data. To this end, the FWF requires all project leaders and workers to make their publications freely available through open access media on the Internet. Exceptions to the open access requirement can only be made in cases where it is not possible for legal reasons. In such cases, the FWF requires grant recipients to provide justification to this effect in their final project reports.

With regard to open access activities, the following points should be taken into account:

a) Free access to publications can either be ensured through direct publication in open access journals or by archiving electronic copies of previously published original articles in subject-specific or institutional repositories. Exceptions to the open access requirement can only be made in cases where it is not possible for legal reasons. If there is a restricted period during which such archiving is not permitted, the period should not be longer than six months (twelve months in exceptional cases). In cases where the restricted period is longer or a specific publisher does not allow archiving at all, researchers should explicitly mention the FWF's open access policy.

b) In all FWF programs, grants covering the costs of scholarly publications in refereed specialist journals can be requested up to three years after the end of the project. In the case of journal articles, the FWF provides funding for open access as well as page charges, submission fees and color illustrations. In the case of monographs, proceedings and collections, the costs can only be reimbursed if the publishing house ensures open access. In the case of independent publications supported by the FWF, it is mandatory to archive simultaneously an electronic copy of the open access paper in the FWF-E-Book-Library (see "Support for Scientific Publications and Science Communication" at http://www.fwf.ac.at/en/projects/index.html).

c) If the research papers that arise from FWF funding likely to be in the life sciences (or related topics) and thus published in journals indexed by PubMed, researchers are required to make their referred papers freely available in the fulltext repository Europe PMC. An E-Mail will be sent by Europe PMC to projects which are addressed by this policy. For Details see: http://www.fwf.ac.at/de/public_relations/oai/pubmed.pdf

d) Research data collected and/or analyzed using FWF funds should (where legally possible) be made available free of charge by project leaders and workers in accordance with subject-specific standards no more than two years after the end of the project. The data should be provided in subject-specific or institutional repositories.

e) Project leaders are also required to acknowledge support from the FWF in every presentation and/or publication of research results arising from projects supported by the FWF. The following naming convention must be observed in all cases: Austrian Science Fund (FWF): [project number].

f) Open access activities are to be indicated in any reports to the FWF, and grant recipients are required to provide justification in cases where the FWF's open access policy could not be observed for legal reasons.

Background information on open access (in German)
> www.fwf.ac.at/de/public_relations/oai/informationen_oa.html

Sources of information on open access (in German)
> www.fwf.ac.at/de/public_relations/oai/informationsquellen_oa.html


Contact
Falk Reckling

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