Open Access

Background

Open Access publishing is an important part of the Open Science movement, which is already well underway. UKB – sometimes in collaboration with UNL – has included an Open Access component in contracts with the major publishers since 2015. This allows our authors to publish scientific articles in Open Access at no additional cost. This allows our authors to publish scientific articles in Open Access at no additional cost. In addition, all Dutch universities have a repository, where researchers are able to make author versions of their publications available in Open Access. However, there is still much to be done.

Goal

The Open Access working group sees itself as a bridge between local, national and international developments – for example at universities, research funders and publishers – and researchers who have to deal with these new developments. We have a broad network, provide solicited and unsolicited advice on new developments, support projects, for example, for the development or implementation of new tools or policies, and are pivotal in communication towards researchers and the public. Its goal is to facilitate the transition to Open Access for all parties.

Activities

The Open Access working group is involved in a wide range of activities. The following are a selection of its activities this year, in no particular order:

  • The working group has played an active role in creating the new National Open Access Strategy which was adopted by UNL in December 2025. In the coming years the working group will be involved in multiple action lines outlined in the strategy to make open access publishing as sustainable and equitable as possible. New publication channels such as the Netherlands University Presses, Publish-Review-Curate platforms and preprinting will also be taken into account.
  • The UKB Working Group Open Access has strategic responsibility for openaccess.nl. The day-to-day operation and editorial work are carried out by a dedicated editorial team. The website provides up-to-date information on Dutch Read & Publish agreements, as well as background information and news about developments in Open Access.
  • The working group is working on an advice how the Netherlands could also implement a Rights Retention-policy. This allows authors to publish in subscription journals while retaining the copyright to all versions of their work apart from the final published one. In this way, authors are enabled to deposit a copy of the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM, also referred to as post-print) in a trusted repository, under a Creative Commons license, without embargo.
  • Supporting important services for open access remains an important part of our work. The working group is exploring the option how we can (financially) support as a consortium open metadata infrastructures that are vital in the open access process, in order to provide these services with a higher degree of sustainable support and more efficiency for the universities.
  • In 2025, the online community ‘Netherlands Open Access Books’ was launched. The community will serve as a dynamic hub where Dutch and international librarians can share experiences, best practices, innovative ideas, and solutions to navigate the complexities of open access book publishing. In the coming period, the team will continue to add content to the platform, make plans for its long-term sustainability and explore ways to enhance its visibility.
  • AI has a growing influence on publishing. The working group will contribute to a larger UKB wide task force to advise the consortium how to deal with AI in the ecosystem of publishing.
  • The working group provides feedback on how to improve the Open Access Journal Browser, developed and maintained by Wageningen University and Research (WUR). Here, researchers not only find information about journals that are part of Dutch Read & Publish agreements, but also general information about a large collection of scientific journals.
  • The working group aims to publish an information guide on an open access related topic every year. . For example, the working group has written guides on preprints, Creative Commons licences, questionable publishing practices, and on how to flip a journal to Diamond Open Access. See the list of Guides under the heading Documents

Results, the status of Open Access in the Netherlands

The efforts for Open Access in the Netherlands are paying dividends year after year: the percentage of Open Access has been growing steadily for years. In 2024, 95% of Dutch articles in scientific journals were available in Open Access. This year the monitor, carried out by UKB, has been based on Open Science principles for the first time and will become the new standard for monitoring open access nationally from now on..

Documents

Members

Our working group consists of one Open Access expert from each university. All members bring different types of expertise from their backgrounds, for example in law, research or communication. In addition, it has links with NWO, universities of applied sciences, DANS-KNAW, NPOS and UNL.

Ron Aardening – Maastricht University
Pascal Braak – University of Amsterdam
Lisa Idebolo – TU Eindhoven
Beatriz Ferreira – Tilburg University
Dirk van Gorp – Radboud University Nijmegen
Chantal Hukkelhoven – Wageningen University and Research
Just de Leeuwe – TU Delft
Nicole Loorbach – University of Twente
Anne van den Maagdenberg– Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Secretary
Heleen Palmen – Universiteit Leiden, chair
Maria Constantin – Erasmus University Rotterdam
Giulia Trentacosti – University of Groningen
Rashmi Shetty – Universiteit Utrecht
Astrid van Wesenbeeck – KB Nationale Bibliotheek Den Haag
Arjan Schalken – SURF
Jeroen Sondervan – NWO and regieorgaan OA

UKB Liaison: H.N. van Wijngaarden– Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Links

National platform for open access: Openaccess.nl
Universiteiten van Nederland: Open Access
Open Science Guide
Guide to Creative Commons for Scholarly Publications and Educational Resources
A Practical Guide to Preprints
Predatory and Questionable Publishing Practices Guide
How to flip your journal: A guide to more equitable publishing with Diamond Open Access