VILLUM FONDEN and VELUX FONDEN have joined the Open Access policy for public research councils and foundations.
This will be adapted in the foundations grants. Respect for compliance with Open Access policy is included in our grant letters for research projects. Grant recipients must account for conditions relating to Open Access in the annual and final reports to the foundations.
Open Access policy
With this policy, research councils and foundations want to establish Open Access as the standard in scientific publishing. The aim is to ensure that all scientific articles, the quality of which has been assured by peer review and which have been published in a scientific journal, can be read and distributed without any financial, technical or legal restrictions.
According to the Open Access Policy all published scientific articles, which are the result of full or partial financing from VILLUM FONDEN, must be freely available to all, if allowed by the journal.
VILLUM FONDEN hopes that this policy also provides researchers a better standpoint regarding copyright to their own articles related to scientific publishing.
Requirements for the grant holder
The grant holder is - if the journal allows it - requested to parallel publish a digital version of the final, peer-reviewed scientific article accepted by the scientific journal. The article, which is a result of full or partial financing by VILLUM FONDEN, must be parallel published in an institutional or subject-specific repository, i.e. a digital archive.
The parallel publishing of the scientific article can - at the request of the journal - take place after a waiting period, i.e. a period in which the article is only available in the scientific journal, of up to six or twelve months after publication in the journal.
The final, peer-reviewed scientific article must include all graphic and other materials prepared for the article. Research data shall be excepted.
The grant holder is responsible for making sure that relevant publication or copyright agreements with publishers are in accordance with the grant conditions laid down by VILLUM FONDEN in connection to parallel publication.
Such conditions shall be observed according to current copyright rules.
Which types of publication are included?
The request for parallel publication only includes articles in journals, i.e. periodicals or series with a scientific aim, that are published through an analogue or digital publication channel with routines for quality assurance through peer review.
This means that the request for parallel publication does not include:
• monographs
• anthologies
• books
• popular science articles, i.e. articles processed by journalists without quality assurance through peer review
What does this mean for the grant holder?
In connection with acceptance of an article for publication in a scientific journal, the grant holder must maintain the rights to parallel publish an edition of the peer-reviewed and accepted scientific article.
This can be done by using the draft letter and appendix for publication agreement for publishers/journals, which are available on the website in Danish and English. If the publishers accept the request, the grant holder maintains a non-exclusive and non-commercial right to publish his/her own scientific articles. The above request for publishing via Open Access can also be met by publication by the grant holder directly in an Open Access journal (complete or hybrid).
Addendum to publication agreement
It is important that the grant holder do not compromise on the quality of the journal in which he/she wants to publish. Therefore, they are recommended only to publish in an Open Access journal if the profession finds that such a journal exists at a high, acknowledged quality level.
In connection with publication, the grant holder must ensure - possibly after the waiting period - that the article is parallel published in an institutional or subject-specific repository.
In case of doubt regarding the concrete approach in connection with parallel-publication, please contact the research library at the relevant institution or the responsible operator of the subject-specific digital archive.
In connection with reporting to VILLUM FONDEN, the grant holder will in the reporting form link to the scientific publications, which are subject to parallel-publication in Open Access because of full or part financing.
In the electronic reporting form, links to the scientific articles published in Open Access must be stated? (possibly with an indication of the waiting period, if this period had not ended on reporting).
If articles, because of full or partial financing from VILLUM FONDEN, are published in Open Access after the final reporting, a revised reporting form with links must be forwarded separately for the foundation.
Overview of journals´Open Access policy