How open is EU-funded research data?
Publication Date/Time
2021-12-01T14:00:00+00:00
Country
Europe
Discover the results of the study “Monitoring the Open Access
Policy” (MOAP)
To make scientific breakthroughs possible and tackle complex issues,
we need collaborative and open science.  The European Commission’s
(EC) programme Horizon 2020 was created to fund projects contributing
to scientific openness. How well has it achieved its goal? How open
are the data and the research created by Horizon 2020 funded projects?


_What is Horizon 2020? _

The EC’s Horizon 2020 [https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/]
(2014-2020) is one of the world’s largest funding programmes for
research and innovation. It is succeeded by the Horizon Europe
programme (2021 –2027). The Horizon programmes aim to produce
world-class science and to remove barriers to innovation. They help
the public and private sector to innovate together to take ideas from
the lab to the market. 

One of the characteristics of Horizon 2020 is that the papers and data
published under its umbrella must meet the Open Access Policy
[https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/docs/h2020-funding-guide/cross-cutting-issues/open-access-dissemination_en.htm],
which states that anyone can read, download, copy, print, and
distribute the information in them.

_Monitoring the Open Access Policy (MOAP)_

In June this year, Athena Research & Innovation Center
[http://www.athenarc.gr/], PPMI [https://www.ppmi.lt/] and UNU-MERIT
[https://www.merit.unu.edu/] published the study ‘Monitoring the
Open Access Policy (MOAP) of Horizon 2020
[https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/56cc104f-0ebb-11ec-b771-01aa75ed71a1/language-en]’.

This study examines, monitors, and quantifies how well research data
and papers, published under Horizon 2020, meet the Open Access Policy.
It concludes with a set of recommendations to improve openness.

_The methodology of the assessment_

 	* Publications: researchers gathered 218.558 unique Horizon 2020
publications, of which 154.185 are peer-reviewed. To assess their
openness, Horizon 2020 was compared with other R&D funding programmes
that have similar access policies, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation
[https://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/policies-and-resources/open-access-policy] or
publicly available databases like Google Scholar
[https://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/publishers.html#overview].

 	* Datasets: researchers collected 6,231 distinct Horizon 2020
datasets. To assess their quality, several indicators such as
accessibility and interoperability were established.

_Key findings_

The study shows that for

	* PUBLICATIONS: 

 	* THE RATE OF OPEN ACCESS1 HAS STEADILY INCREASED OVER RECENT YEARS
to reach now 83% compliance with the Open Access Policy. This places
the EC at the forefront of publishers globally (12th place out of 47)
and indicates that Horizon 2020 publishes more open access papers than
some of the largest research funders in Europe (Switzerland, Sweden,
Germany, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Portugal), as well as in the United
States2. In addition, publishers also adhere very well to the
regulations as set by Horizon 2020, with an even more impressive
success rate of 95%3.
 	* THE RATE OF OPEN ACCESS VARIES BETWEEN SCIENTIFIC FIELDS AND
DISCIPLINES. The percentage of open access publications was highest
within medical and health sciences (88%) and natural sciences (82,8%).
Agricultural and veterinary science, engineering and technology,
social sciences, as well as humanities and arts all score on the lower
side of the spectrum. In figure 1 you can find a more nuanced picture
of the scores per sector. 

 [https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/DS_5.1.png]

_Figure 1. Percentage of open access (OA) publications per scientific
field_

	* DATASETS: 

 	* THERE ARE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DISCIPLINES. Studies related to
earth and environmental sciences, clinical medicine, chemical and
biological science, as well as nanotechnology, produce most datasets.
In contrast, animal and dairy sciences, environmental engineering,
languages, and literature, as well as mechanical engineering produce
the least. 
 	* THE SECTORS THAT PRODUCE THE MOST DATASETS, ALSO HAVE THE HIGHEST
RATE OF OPEN ACCESS. For more details, see figure 2.

 [https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/DS_5.2.png]

_Figure 2. Number of datasets published per scientific field_

To create this study, collaboration was of the essence. The European
Commission and funding agencies worked together closely to make this
study a reality. In general, to make scientific breakthroughs possible
and tackle complex issues, collaborative and open science is key.
Horizon 2020 started out in 2014 to accomplish just that, and this
study shows that it has indeed achieved that goal. 

To learn more, find the report, the study database, and the data
management plan
[https://data.europa.eu/data/datasets/moap-horizon-2020-database?locale=en]
on the portal.

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_ _

_Footnotes_

1 Monitoring of the open access policy of Horizon 2020
[https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/56cc104f-0ebb-11ec-b771-01aa75ed71a1]

2 Monitoring of the open access policy of Horizon 2020
[https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/56cc104f-0ebb-11ec-b771-01aa75ed71a1]  

3 This compliance rate refers to adherence to the regulations set out
in Article 29.3 for projects that had to comply to the article (those
in the ORDP), and uptake refers to compliance to Article 29.3 by all
projects, whether they had to comply or not. 
