Publication policy THUAS

On 24 April 2018, the Executive Board approved the memorandum "Ownership of research publications in relation to open access" (also called "open access policy" or "publication policy"). It expresses the ambition of The Hague University of Applied Sciences to publish in open access, within the framework of knowledge circulation and to join the open access policy of The Netherlands Association of Universities of Applied Sciences (VH).

What is the THUAS Publication Policy?

For the largest group of staff members, the authorship of research publications lies, according to the Copyright Act (Articles 1 and 7) and the Collective Labour Agreement for universities of applied sciences (Article E7), at The Hague University of Applied Sciences.

As a result of the THUAS publication policy, authors of research publications may continue to publish as they did in the past, but must agree with publishers on a publication licence that encourages open access publishing and reuse of the publication by The Hague University of Applied Sciences. The THUAS library is also able to support authors with this.

For a smaller group of staff members, the copyright on research publications does not rest solely with The Hague University of Applied Sciences. To these exceptions, THUAS instructs that efforts should be made to make written agreements on open access with possible co-authors, other institutions or companies involved and the publishers of research publications prior to publication.

As advice on licensing, the most obvious is a Creative Commons licence of CC BY, but exceptions are possible.

Forms of Open Access Publishing

Open access publishing can generally be done in two ways:

  • Via the golden route: you publish your research publication via the publishers' platforms in a (partly or entirely) open access journal.
  • Via the green route: you publish your research publication in a closed journal (to which you, as a reader, must subscribe) and an (authorised) version of your publication (whether or not after an embargo period) becomes open access in a repository. This is a publicly accessible database of the research institution. At The Hague University of Applied Sciences, this means that you can publish in the HBO Knowledge Base.
  • In addition, there are magazines that use a hybrid route, i.e. they partly contain articles that are only available to subscription holders and partly contain articles that are available to everyone. The full text of a specific publication is made available to all interested parties free of charge after the author has paid the APC to the publisher. This form will not be allowed by the European subsidy providers from 2020 onwards ("Plan S").

Both routes may have charges or conditions attached, depending on the contract between the publisher and author, of which copyright is an important part.

Benefits of Open Access

  • Results of research are known more quickly and to a wider audience (!) and are used and developed more extensively (knowledge circulation and impact).
  • This anticipates the assessment by the review committee: more and broader impact of the research (valorisation).
  • Author and work cited more often and earlier (more impact) => McKiernan research in 2016: OA cited 6 times more!
  • Ditto McKiernan: twice as likely to be cited within 4 to 10 months of publication and almost three times as likely to be cited within 10 to 16 months of publication than research published non-OA.
  • Increases support for the research climate and contributes to the image of the institution (knowledge creation and image).
  • Science becomes more verifiable and reproducible (through open data).
  • Scientists all over the world can learn about the research (free of charge).
  • Use of public money: knowledge by public money benefits the public more (free).
  • Cost to institution: (after transition period) cheaper model than current publishing model (becomes unaffordable).