Research funded by public grants
An increasing number of funders require researchers within their projects to publish immediate open access (OA). Through Plan S, international and national funders, such as Horizon Europe and Research Council of Finland, demand that scientific publications based on publicly funded research must be OA. Other research funders may also impose requirements or recommendations for open access to publications.
Consider requirements for open access publishing already at the application stage and in the publication plan. Also follow the funder's instructions on how costs for publishing (APC, but also other costs) should be considered in the project budget and/or through ÅAU's transformative agreements with publishers and the APC pool. Always check the current requirements for open access on the funder's own website and, if your project has already been granted funding, in the funding agreement.
Plan S
= An initiative for OA publishing by cOAlition S, an international consortium of research funding and performing or
ganizations. The Plan S initiative requires that scientific publications funded by public grants from 2021 onwards must be published OA immediately (without embargo).
“With effect from 2021, all scholarly publications on the results from research funded by public or private grants provided by national, regional and international research councils and funding bodies, must be published in Open Access Journals, on Open Access Platforms, or made immediately available through Open Access Repositories without embargo.”
Rights Retention Strategy
cOAlition S has developed the Rights Retention strategy to allow researchers financed by cOAlition S funders to freely choose the journal to publish in (even closed journals) and still comply with the Plan S requirement. Implementing "rights retention" means that the researcher demands the right to parallel publish their manuscript without embargo.
Funders committed to Plan S:
- Research Council of Finland
The Research Council of Finland requires funded projects to commit to publishing their research results with open access and making their research data openly available.
- Horizon Europe"Horizon Europe will require immediate open access to all scientific publications"
How to comply with funders' OA requirements (Plan S)
Plan S requires articles to be openly published in the primary publication channel (full/hybrid OA) or to be parallel published without embargo and with a CC license (green OA).
1. Publish in a full OA journal
or
2. Publish in a hybrid journal which is included in an ÅAU transformative agreement with the publisher. Read more about publication arrangements for ÅAU researchers here.
Check in advance that the journal meets Plan S requirements by first selecting your funder, e.g., Horizon Europe or the Research Council of Finland, in Chronoshub's journal guide. Click on "Select Funder" and enter the funder. The search function is based on the Journal Checker Tool, which can also be used separately.
3. It is possible to publish in any (closed) journal, but always ensure your right to parallel publish in a way that complies with Plan S requirements, i.e., that you can parallel publish without an embargo. If the journal does not offer such an option, you can demand Rights Retention:
- Inform the journal when you submit the article that the AAM/VoR is licensed with a CC license (primarily CC BY) because the funder mandates it.
| Model: “This research was funded, in whole or in part, by [Organisation name, Grant #]. A CC BY or equivalent licence is applied to [the AAM/VoR] arising from this submission, in accordance with the grant’s open access conditions’’. |
Write to openscience@abo.fi if you need help contacting the journal!
- When the article is published: parallel publish your AAM/VoR in AboCRIS without embargo.
- If a conflict arises between you and the journal, please contact your funder.
Other funders' OA requirements
Updated 28.4.2025
Business Finland (In English)
"The Funder requires that the publications resulting of the project work and results and the research
data must be made openly available following the beneficiary’s internal guidelines for open access.
The means of open publication must be addressed in the publication plan included in the project’s
research plan."
Kone Foundation (In English)
"We recommend that researchers we support make their research results freely available to all. Researchers can make their scholarly publications openly accessible by posting them on the internet in, for example, the open-access repository of the research institute or with a world-wide provider such as Researchgate.net or Academia.edu. Research results can also be published in scholarly journals, which make their articles openly accessible. When it funds projects, the Foundation can also provide funding for the processing fees of open-access journals. However, if this is the case, the processing fees should be paid to journals that make all articles freely accessible than to journals that collect subscription fees."
NordForsk (In English)
"Project Leaders are responsible for ensuring that the project’s research results are made available through open access within six (6) months of publication.If publication takes place through parallel publication in open institutional repositories, then the project research results must be deposited at the time of publication and be openly accessible within six (6) months. NordForsk may grant an extension of the time of deposit up to twelve (12) months, provided that the project manager can clearly document that reasonable efforts has been made to comply with the six-month publication requirement.
Open access applies to research results in scientifically peer-reviewed articles published in journals and conference reports. The obligation to enable open access to the research results does not apply to monographs and book chapters.If the publisher has paid an open-access fee, the publication must be published with the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY). NordForsk funding can be used to cover costs for publishing in open access journals".
Society of Swedish Literature (SLS) (på svenska)
Potential costs for open access publishing should be included in the budget. SLS does not grant funds for publishing in hybrid journals.
Permission to parallel publish in AboCRIS - template letter
Most academic publishers and journals allow researchers to parallel publish a copy of the final, peer-reviewed version (AAM) of their article in an open, digital repository. Information about the publishers' and journals' parallel publishing policies can be found in Sherpa/Romeo or on the journals' websites.
If this information is missing and is also not mentioned in the publishing agreement, you can request its addition to the agreement.
Template letter for contacting publishers/journals:
Read more about Plan S funders' requirements
This guide by Åbo Akademi University Library is licensed under CC BY 4.0 