Three routes to open access
There are different ways to achieve open access to scholarly publications.
Publishing in open access journals (gold open access)
Gold open access entails publishing in open access journals where all articles are made immediately openly available. Open access journals may be free to publish in, or the journal may charge an article processing charge (APC).
UiB staff can have the costs of publishing in open access journals covered through UiB's publishing agreements or publication fund.
Making publications available in open archives (green open access)
Green open access entails that scholarly publications are made openly available in open archives such as the Norwegian Research Information Repository (NVA). This means that even if a publication is not published open access, a peer-reviewed version can still be made openly available.
UiB staff can always make their scholarly articles openly available in NVA in accordance with UiB's rights retention policy.
Books and book chapters can also be made available in NVA if they are published under an open licence, or with permission from the publisher.
Open access publishing in subscription journals (hybrid open access)
Hybrid open access entails that individual articles are published open access in subscription journals by paying a publication fee.
UiB staff can publish open access in many hybrid journals at no extra cost through UiB's publishing agreements.
Make your article open access
Are you submitting an article to a journal? Please follow the steps below to ensure that your article is open access in accordance with the UiB policy. The guidance applies to original research articles and is valid if you are the corresponding author of the publication and affiliated with UiB.
Open access – step by step
- Look up the journal in the Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals, Series and Publishers.
- Under the heading "Indexing", check whether the journal is included in a publishing agreement. Then check that UiB is included in the agreement (click "Show who is included in the agreement"). If UiB is part of the agreement and all other terms are met, you can publish open access in the journal at no extra cost. Please state your affiliation to the “University of Bergen” when submitting the article and/or signing the publishing agreement. More information about the agreements and their terms.
- If the journal is not included in a publishing agreement with UiB as a participating institution but is indexed in DOAJ (see under the heading "Indexing"), you can apply for funding to publish open access from the Publication Fund.
- If the journal is not included in a publishing agreement and is not indexed in DOAJ, there will be no central funding schemes at UiB for open access publishing in this journal. Even if the article is published closed access, you can still make the article openly available, at no extra cost, by uploading the accepted version of the article to NVA.
Policies and requirements for open access
National authorities, institutions and funders all require open access to scholarly publications.
National goals and guidelines for open access to research articles
On 22 August 2017, the Norwegian Government adopted national goals and guidelines for open access to research articles.
The government’s goal is that all publicly 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.
Open access policy at the University of Bergen
The goal of the University of Bergen is to make scientific publications openly available. Research articles are to be made openly available through publication channels that offer open access to the publications or in open repositories. The goal is also to make monographs, anthology articles and artistic research openly available.
To safeguard staff and students' right to choose which journals they publish in, while still being able to make publications open access, the University of Bergen has introduced a rights retention policy. The rights retention policy gives UiB a non-exclusive right to make all scholarly articles authored by students and staff affiliated with the institution available under a Creative Commons license.
The Open Science Policy at UiB was adopted in 2020.
The Research Council of Norway
The Research Council of Norway requires full and immediate open access to all scholarly publications from the projects it funds. Articles must be made available without delay (embargo) and under an open license that permits reuse of the publication. For calls from 2023 onwards, there is also a requirement for open access to books.
All publications must be uploaded and made available in the Norwegian Research Information Repository (NVA) or another open research archive, regardless of whether they are published open access or not. The version of the article deposited must be either the final published version or the author's accepted manuscript.
EU – Horizon Europe
Projects funded by Horizon Europe must ensure open access to peer-reviewed scholarly publications immediately upon publication. Journal articles and chapters in anthologies must be made available under a CC BY license, while for monographs the licenses CC BY-NC, CC BY-ND or CC BY-NC-ND may also be used.
All publications must be deposited in an open and approved research archive and made openly available immediately upon publication. The version of the publication deposited must be either the final published version or the author's accepted manuscript.
The cost of open access publishing is eligible for funding within the project under certain criteria:
- Funding is given only for publishing articles in open access journals, not for open access publishing in subscription journals (hybrid open access).
- Funding is given for publishing books only if the entire book is published open access.
More information:
Horizon Europe Programme Guide (PDF)
Horizon Europe Annotated Model Grant Agreement (PDF)