Julkaisut/en

Open access to scholarly publications

Introduction

Openness is a part of responsible research. Openness is one of the core values of science and research. The objective of immediate open access to researched information is to improve the quality of science and increase its social impact. The policy for open access to scholarly publications was created to serve these primary objectives of research.

This policy is a powerful statement in favour of openness in the Finnish research community for the next five years.

The objective of the policy is to guarantee that the research community and those applying research information in practice have access to researched information in a way that has never before been possible. The policy of open access to scholarly publications defines the principles, objectives and actions. By committing and promoting these the research community in Finland can achieve equal access to researched information. The current culture of publishing does not treat parties equally and the costs are not distributed fairly. At the same time, many research organisations can no longer afford to pay for access to key scholarly publications.

This policy is applicable in all research fields and in diverse research organisations. The efforts of independent organisations to increase open access are supported through the policy’s actions and principles.

Freedom of the researcher

This policy is a result of collaboration within the Finnish research community, constituting a shared view of the direction open access to scholarly publications should take. Its goal is to achieve open access in a way that supports and increases the researcher’s freedom and opportunities to share researched information. The researcher’s duty is to conduct research of the best possible quality. Researchers should primarily be able to choose a publication channel that best suits their work. The research community should guarantee the incentives and structures for open scholarly publishing in a way that supports the work and equality of researchers. This policy guarantees that Finnish researchers will be competitive in the international arena and ensures that they will not be faced with contradictory requirements between career rewards and open access.

International transformation

Fundamentally, this policy aligns with the international developments and existing policies. In particular, the recommendations of the Open Science Policy Platform, the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), the Competitiveness Council’s decision in 2016 that all scientific publications should be openly accessible by 2020, the OA2020 Initiative, the European Commission’s objectives for open access, and Plan S for research funders (2019) are shaping the future of open access on the international stage.

With this policy, the key research organisations located in Finland are making a commitment to promoting open access to research in Europe and aiming to be at the forefront of promoting open access.

The development of open access is closely connected with a wider transformation taking place in research, which is changing funding structures and roles in the scientific publishing field as well as the way researchers are rewarded. The principles and objectives of this policy on open access to scholarly publications both reflect and further this transformation. This policy can only be applied if the operating culture of the research community is transformed at the same time. For this reason, this policy refers to other policies and recommendations and emphasises the close connections between them.

Risks and threats

This policy involves identified risks. Researchers in different research fields have been worried about the lack of high-quality openly accessible publication channels and about the unrealistic timetables. These concerns are understandable.

In particular, the unwillingness of large international publishers to negotiate reasonably priced agreements for achieving immediate open access is a real threat. Likewise, the publishing costs paid by the research organisations, when acquiring material, should not increase to an extent that the cost weakens the financial position of the organisations, leaving them unable to afford other means of supporting open access.

During the transition phase, there is also a risk that the overall costs will increase and researchers will have fewer opportunities to publish their research in their preferred channel. It may also become more difficult to determine overall costs if the payment of fees is left to individual researchers – as a result, actual costs could increase unnoticed. Increasing costs could reduce equal opportunities for researchers to publish their work with open access. At the same time, changing structures call for a major dialogue on the direction and responsibilities of funding, also in the case of Finnish publications.

Collaboration and trust

At the core of the policy work is our trust that the common direction and joint actions will provide the best opportunity to achieve immediate open access for scholarly publications for the benefit of the research community and the society at large. We are not alone, as an increasing number of international actors and governments are setting open access as a key objective in their science policy. It is difficult to promote this important issue without ambitious goals.

The national strategic principles and objectives for open scholarly publishing have been formulated through collaboration between the Open Science National Steering Group in Finland and the Open Scholarly Publishing Expert Panel. In the case of journal and conference publications, two broad and open rounds of comments in February and May 2019 added significant input to the drafts of the policy and giving it a research community voice. These strategic principles and objectives will determine the shared direction of shared open scholarly publishing for the Finnish research community.

Structure of the policy

This policy is composed of principles and policy components, which determine objectives and actions. The principles define the general terms under which open scholarly publication should be sought. They consist of important principles for the research community that must be adhered to in the effort to achieve open access. The objectives are more time-dependent goals, which involve concrete actions. Objectives and their associated actions will respond to a changing international environment more readily than the principles.

Implementation and follow-up

The Open Science Coordination at the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies (TSV) is responsible for following up on the implementation of the national policy for open access to scholarly publications. The Coordination is responsible for supporting and promoting continuous dialogue on how to achieve the objectives as well as for keeping the policy up to date. The policy will be reviewed in 2022.

During this policy period, the Ministry of Education and Culture will monitor the implementation of open access to scholarly publications through the National Research Information Hub. Every research organisation will provide information on its own publications at their chosen frequency, but no less often than once a year, to the VIRTA Publication Information Service when the Ministry of Education and Culture collects information on publications.

Many of the actions proposed in the policy build on existing work. In other words, the policy is strongly based on earlier solutions and shared responsibilities. However, it is also forward-looking as it includes actions that should be taken with a view to the future. For this reason, the many actions are recorded to start in 2020.

The policy period is 2020–2025. During this time the objective of the policy will be sought in stages by furthering the various actions, all the while taking into account the special characteristics of the different types of publications.

Strategic principles and the associated responsibilities

Principle 1: Cost management

The total cost for scholarly publications will not exceed the current overall cost when transitioning to open access. The estimate of overall costs reflects all present costs and the total volume of research.

Ensuring the realisation and monitoring of the principle:

• Review of the initial situation: During 2020 the Finnish National Library will conduct an assessment in cooperation with the research organisations to estimate the overall cost of open access to scholarly publications for the research organisations. Additionally, the Finnish National Library will estimate the cost of open access for Finnish scientific publishers. The review will account for the costs of open access that have already been incurred.
• Continuous monitoring: The Finnish National Library will annually monitor the overall costs of access to scholarly publications and changes in the cost structure in cooperation with the research organisations.

Principle 2: Equal opportunity to publish

All researchers have an equal opportunity to publish their research through open access, regardless of field of research, funding basis, or career stage.

Ensuring the realisation and monitoring of the principle:

• Review of the initial situation: During 2020, the Open Science Coordination will review the specific challenges related to equal opportunities.
• Continuous monitoring: The Open Science Coordination will monitor developments in equal opportunities in cooperation with the research organisations, and will initiate dialogue on ways to increase equal opportunities.

Principle 3: Independent assessment

When assessing scholarly publications, the quality and openness of individual research publications are considered independently.

Ensuring the realisation and monitoring of the principle:

• Review of the initial situation: During 2020, there will be a review on how open access to publications is currently taken into account in the systems for assessing researchers at higher education institutions and other research organisations.
• Continuous monitoring: Coordination of a regular review of how open access to publications is taken into account in the systems for evaluating researchers at higher education institutions and research organisations.

  a) The Publication Forum will monitor the open access publication channels and impact of open access on the average level of quality of the publication channels.

  b) The Responsible Evaluation of Researchers recommendation defines in more detail the importance of open of research practices in researcher assessment.Publications-footnote-1

Principle 4: Dynamic assessment

The assessment of researchers and research takes into account new and changing forms of publishing reflecting open science.

Ensuring the realisation and monitoring of the principle:

• Review of the initial situation: During 2020, a review will be conducted of how new forms of open scholarly publishing are taken into account in the systems for evaluating researchers and research at higher education institutions and other research organisations.
• Continuous monitoring: There will be regular reviews of how new forms of open scholarly publishing are taken into account in the systems for evaluating researchers and research at higher education institutions and research organisations.

  a) Research organisations and research funders commit to taking open access into account in their evaluations. The Responsible Evaluation of Researchers recommendation defines research outputs, including data and research methods, open access and evaluation in more detail. More details on open access to research material are outlined in a separate policy.

Policy component 1: Open Access to Journal and Conference Articles

Objective 1: New scientific articles and conference publications will be immediately openly accessible.

No later than 2022, all new scientific articles and conference publications will be immediately openly accessible.3

Actions required to achieve the objective:

1. FinELib magazines have the right to publish all articles open or parallel at the time of publication.. By 2022, the scientific journal agreements of FinELib must include the right to publish all articles with open access or make them openly accessible via a repository route at the time of publishing.
2. Immediate openness in direct contract negotiations. The research organisations will strive to achieve immediate open access in direct agreement negotiations with the publishers that are not included in the agreements concluded by FinELib.
3. Approval of reasonable fees for openness. The research organisations may accept reasonable fees that guarantee open access to individual articles when a separate agreement has not been reached with the publisher.
4. Research organisations alllow for parallel publishing. The research organisations will enable a repository route through their own open access repositories or those maintained by another party, with the aim of achieving immediate open access in cases where an article cannot be published with open access in the publisher’s channels at a reasonable cost.Publications-footnote-8
5. Open access training and support. The research organisations will offer their researchers training and support concerning open access to scholarly publications, ensuring that researchers can easily gain information on publication channels that fulfil the criteria of immediate open access in the fields of research that are essential for each research organisation.
6. Management creates conditions for open access. The management of the research organisations and of the research groups will create opportunities for open access to scholarly publications taking into consideration the nature of each organisation.
7. Prioritisation of publication channels enabling open access. Researchers will prioritisePublications-footnote-9 sending research to publication channels that enable immediate open access (including open scholarly publishing channels and open access repositories).
8. Research funders allow costs to be included in funding. The research funders will enable the costs of open access to be included in funding.
9. Definition of measures of reasonableness of article fees. Coordinated by the Open Science Coordination, the research organisations and research funders will determine benchmarks to evaluate how reasonable Article Processing Charges (APC) are. International examples (e.g. Plan S) will be followed when determining the benchmarks.
10. Create an operating model for the development of new and new types of open publication channels. The research organisations and funders will create a joint operating model for participating in the development of new and novel open publication channels and supporting the conversion of existing channels into open ones in a sustainable way, as well as helping existing open channels become more established.

Objective 2: The total cost of scholarly publication channels and individual publications is transparent and publicly available

The total cost of scholarly publication channels and individual publications is transparent and publicly available

Actions required to achieve the objective:

1. FinELib will publish the scientific journal agreements concluded with publishers including their total cost.. FinELib will publish the scientific journal agreements concluded with publishers including their total cost.Publications-footnote-10
2. The Ministry of Education and Culture will continue to collect cost data. The Ministry of Education and Culture will continue to collect cost data on the material directly ordered by the research organisations.
3. FinELib will record journal agreements in the international ESAC agreement registry. FinELib will record journal agreements in the international ESACPublications-footnote-11 agreement registry
4. The terms of the contract allow the publication of price information. The research organisations will aim for contractual terms that enable them to publish cost data.
5. APC data for Finland are included in the OpenAPC. By 2022, the research organisations and FinELib will make sure that the APC data for Finland are included in the OpenAPCPublications-footnote-12.
6. The total cost of scholarly publications domiciled in Finland is transparent and publicly available. The total cost of scholarly publications domiciled in Finland is transparent and publicly available.

Objective 3: CC-licence to all new research publications to protect researcher’s rights

By 2022, a CC-licence is applied to all new research publications to provide open access and to protect researcher’s rights.

Actions required to achieve the objective:

1. FinELib’s scientific journal agreements include the right to publish all articles open. By 2022, the scientific journal agreements by FinELib must include the right to publish all articles with open access under a Creative Commons (CC) licence.

   a) If a repository route is used as the means for enabling open access, a CC licence that guarantees open access should also be used.

2. It is recommended that metadata are made open under a CC0 licence. To ensure the transfer of publication data, it is recommended that metadata are made open under a CC0 licence.
3. TSV will coordinate training on licences for researchers and research support services. Federation for Finnish Learned Societies will coordinate training on licences for researchers and research support services in cooperation with the Finnish Association for Scholarly Publishing, the Finnish CC Group and the research organisations.Publications-footnote-13
4. Research organisations provide training and support for open licences. The research organisations will offer their researchers training and support for open licences. In addition, they will ensure that researchers can easily gain information on the various licences offered by publication channels in the fields of research that are essential for each research organisation.
5. Researchers will prioritise sending research to publication channels that enable a CC licence. Researchers will prioritisePublications-footnote-14 sending research to publication channels that enable a CC licence.

   a) A CC BY licence is recommended as the primary option.

Objective 4: National publication model for immediate open access

The research community creates a jointly funded publishing model that enables immediate open access to research articles published in Finland.

Actions required to achieve the objective:

1. The Federation for Finnish Learned Societies will facilitate the creation of a jointly funded and sustainable publishing model. By 2020, The Federation for Finnish Learned Societies will facilitate the creation of a jointly funded and sustainable publishing model.

   a) The Federation for Finnish Learned Societies is responsible for developing and maintaining the Journal.fi service, which is intended for editing and publishing scientific journals, with resources provided by the Ministry of Education and Culture.

2. The research organisations and funders will commit to equal treatment with regard to the language of publishing when evaluating researchers. The research organisations and funders will commit to equal treatment with regard to the language of publishing when evaluating researchers.
3. Finnish scholarly pub-lishers will ensure the data in their publications in preserved through sustainable means. By 2022, Finnish scholarly publishers will ensure the data in their publications in preserved through sustainable means.

   a) The publishers may outsource the arrangements for data preservation to another trusted operator.

Policy component 2: Open Access to Theses

Language versions: fi en sv

Open access to scholarly publications, Policy component for open access to journal and conference articles, Open education and educational resources, open access to scholarly publications. National policy and executive plan by the higher education and research community for 2021–2025: Policy component for open access to theses

Open Access to Theses

The Declaration for Open Science and Research states that "In the research community, responsible openness is a part of everyday research throughout the research process, and research organisations have assessment practices, incentives, and services in place to support this." 1 This also applies to the thesis process, and this policy component on open access to theses applies to all theses completed in higher education institutions (bachelor’s and master’s theses at universities and universities of applied sciences, advanced studies theses, licentiate theses, and doctoral theses). Open science enables a broader use of research results by the research community and society, thus increasing the impact of research as well as the level of scholarship and innovation in society. Openness and the transparency of the process are also intended to support the quality of research. In the context of universities of applied sciences, a thesis is a task that requires and demonstrates expertise and takes into account aspects of the challenges of working life, thus making openness particularly useful from a professional point of view. The policy component on open access to theses has been developed to serve these basic objectives from the perspective of theses.A thesis written in a public educational institution is, in principle, a public document 2 A thesis being a public document means that the metadata of the thesis are available, and the thesis is accessible directly or upon request. According to a 2019 decision by the Administrative Court of Northern Finland, copyright law does not limit the disclosure of information about a public document, and the author's consent is not required for disclosure 3 All theses are public, but in addition to publicity, efforts and skills are needed to promote openness, both in terms of publications and education. Openness is a core value of science and research, and a part of responsible research and teaching.

The of immediate open access is to raise the quality of science and research and to increase their societal impact and visibility 4 According to a Ministry of Education and Culture's guideline 5, universities and universities of applied sciences must ensure that their theses do not contain confidential material and that they are made public as soon as they are approved. If the research material of a thesis contains confidential material, it should be placed in the background/annex material rather than the publicly accessible part of the thesis. The Publicity Act defines what information should be kept secret 6. The National Defence University and the Police University College may, if necessary, deviate from the thesis publicity requirement on the grounds of security classification. Open access to a thesis means making the work available online free of charge. In some subjects, there may also be parts of a thesis, such as events or artwork, which cannot be made open. In practice, it is mainly the archivable part of the thesis that can be opened. Openness and the degree of openness are the thesis author’s choice, but organisations and supervisors must ensure that every thesis author has the option to be open and to determine the degree of openness, for instance by providing the infrastructure and guidance to enable openness.In principle, theses are not considered publications, but doctoral theses are also research publications. Similarly, articles that are included in theses are publications, to which the policy on open access to scholarly publications applies. Theses and dissertations are usually made openly available in a repository (e.g. Theseus, institutional repository).

Responsible Opening of Theses

Higher education institutions are responsible for providing thesis supervisors and authors with support and guidance in opening theses responsibly. An essential part of this support and guidance is to provide advice on the laws (e.g. General Data Protection Regulation, The Copyright Act) and principles of good scientific practice to be followed when making a thesis public and possibly open access. It is also important to advise, for example, that when publishing and opening theses, one must respect the copyright of third parties, especially concerning the use of images, and that the privacy of research subjects should be respected. Higher education institutions must ensure that thesis supervisors and authors have sufficient support and guidance to meet accessibility requirements for all theses. The minimum digital accessibility requirements are defined in the Act on the Provision of Digital Services and the accessibility of theses is also required in the third principle of the National Policy on Open Education and Educational Resources.

The necessary support includes, for example, templates for the production of accessible theses. Higher education institutions should also provide support and guidance on choosing the appropriate license if the author decides to make their thesis open access. As a general rule, Creative Commons (CC) licences should be favoured, as they are widely used and provide the reader with clear information on how to use the thesis. When opening the metadata of a thesis, it is usually best to use a CC0 licence, which allows the metadata to be easily distributed from one system to another. It is the responsibility of the thesis supervisor to guide the author on responsible opening of the thesis with the help of the university's guidelines and support. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the thesis author to follow the provided guidance.

Merits and Other Benefit of Opening a Thesis

An openly accessible thesis reaches a wider audience, and openness increases its impact as other students and researchers can benefit from the work already done. The merits of open science, such as making data, methods, and publications openly accessible, should be more widely recognised, and national and international recommendations do aim to reduce the weight of citations in various research and researcher evaluations 7 An open thesis will also find a readership outside the scientific and research community, and it can be used as a portfolio and demonstration of skills at the beginning of a career. Both companies and specialist organisations can use the results for practical solutions and development work. As societal impact is an important part of the academic merit system, further use of the thesis outside the research world will also benefit the author. From the perspective of higher education institutions, open theses are a reflection of the knowledge produced by the education and training institutions and the effectiveness and quality of their activities 8 The degree of openness of a thesis is always the choice of the thesis author, taking into account potential partners as well as legislation. Therefore, the thesis supervisor will not directly gain merit from making a thesis open access.

Glossary

Accessibility: Digital accessibility means supporting equality and inclusion, i.e. 'that as many people as possible can use online services as easily as possible. It also means that accessibility has been taken into account in the planning and implementation of the services' (Open Science and Research Coordination in Finland 2021, 9). Accessibility is mandatory for public documents such as theses and open educational resources, among others. Accessibility involves good technical implementation, ease of use, and comprehensibility of content (Open Science and Research Coordination in Finland 2021, 9–10).

Accompanying material: Information or materials related to the thesis assignment that should be kept confidential.

Archivability: The archivable part of a thesis includes any part of the thesis where the publication format allows for long-term preservation. In some disciplines, there may also be parts of a thesis, such as events or artistic works, which are not archivable.

Article processing charge: A fee that may be charged by the publisher of an open access journal to the author or their organisation. Article processing charges may be charged by fully open access journals (so-called "gold standard" journals) or by "hybrid" journals, where only part of the content is open access. (The Helsinki Term Bank For the Arts and Sciences)

Availability: Availability refers to the accessibility of information in, for example, a public document. This means that the information in the document can be used at the desired time and in the required manner. An accessible document may, for example, be openly accessible or available on request.

Business collaboration: Business collaboration refers to collaboration between research organisations and companies for consideration or free of charge, which may vary from informal interaction to organised collaboration. Forms of collaboration include contract research, commissioned research, training and consulting. The collaboration can be funded by a public or private sector organisation.

Creative Commons: Creative Commons, the world's most common open licensing system, was created in 2001. It is the preferred licence for open source material in many countries. Creative Commons licences are designed to be easy to use and understand. It is up to the author to decide on the licence according to their own objectives. In principle, a CC licence includes an irrevocable worldwide right to redistribute the material. By choosing the appropriate additional conditions from a list of four, the author can limit these rights as they see fit. Read more: https://creativecommons.org/

Data Management Plan: Data Management Plan (DMP) is a formal and dynamic document that specifies how resources are managed across the life cycle of a thesis, covering, for instance, research data, analysis steps (e.g. protocols, algorithms, procedures), devices and tools (e.g. information on lab equipment and manufacturers, reagents, infrastructure, software), other relevant documentation, versioning, preservation, services, terms and conditions, and open development and sharing of research data, methods and infrastructures. (Open Science and Research Coordination in Finland, Federation of Finnish Learned Societies 2023, 34)

Embargo: A restriction under which material can be freely used only after a set waiting period, for example once a publication has been released.

FAIR principles: FAIR principles are a set of guidelines to make research data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. This facilitates scientific discovery and access to knowledge. (Open Science and Research Coordination in Finland 2023, 34.)

Institutional repository: Institutional repository is a technical system for the storage and open online publication of scientific publications and the services built around it. (The Helsinki Term Bank For the Arts and Sciences)

Metadata: Metadata or descriptive information refers to the context, content and structure, management and/or processing of research data and information describing and summarising its compilation.

Open access: The publication in its entirety is available on the Internet free of charge and without restrictions to read, print and copy at least for non-commercial use.

Open licence: A pre-formatted licence, the terms of which must be respected before the material can be used. Openly published material is available to all. If material is to be used publicly, the terms of the licence must be respected. Thus, anyone who uses the work further can comply with the terms of the open licence, which include, for example, attribution of the author and source in a way formulated by the author. The user obtains the rights granted by the licence (such as redistribution and modification rights) by complying with the terms of the licence. (Open Science and Research Coordination in Finland 2020, 2; link in Finnish.)

Opening a thesis: Opening a thesis means that the archivable part of the thesis is made available online free of charge. Making the thesis public means that the metadata of the thesis are available, and the thesis is accessible directly or on request. A public thesis is therefore not necessarily open.

Predatory publication: A journal or other publication that presents itself as scientific but neglects the responsibility of a scientific publisher, for example for peer review, and relies on aggressive marketing and charging fees to authors (The Helsinki Term Bank For the Arts and Sciences).

Public thesis: see Opening a thesis

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Structured data

Type	DocumentType:Policy
Name (fi)	Oppimisen ja oppimateriaalien sekä tutkimusjulkaisujen avoimuus. Korkeakoulu- ja tutkimusyhteisön kansallinen linjaus ja toimenpideohjelma 2021–2025: Opinnäytetöiden avoimuuden osalinjaus
Name (sv)	Öppen utbildning och öppna lärresurser samt öppen tillgång till forskningspubliktioner. Policy och åtgärdsprogram för det finländska högskole- och forskarsamfundet 2021–2025: Delpolicy för öppen tillgång till lärdomsprov
Name (en)	Open education and educational resources, open access to scholarly publications. National policy and executive plan by the higher education and research community for 2021–2025: Policy component for open access to theses
Description (fi)	Avoimen tieteen ja tutkimuksen julistuksessa todetaan: “Tutkimusyhteisössä vastuullinen avoimuus on osa tutkimuksen arkea läpi koko tutkimusprosessin, ja tutkimusorganisaatioissa on tätä tukevat arviointikäytännöt, kannustimet ja palvelut.” Tämä koskee myös opinnäytetyöprosessia, ja tämä avoimuuden osalinjaus koskee kaikkia korkeakoulujen opinnäytetöitä (tutkintoon johtavat kandidaatintutkielmat, pro gradu -työt, syventävien opintojen opinnäytetyöt, AMK- ja YAMK-opinnäytetyöt, lisensiaatintyöt ja väitöskirjat). Tutkimuksen avoimuudella mahdollistetaan tutkimustulosten laajempi käyttö tutkimusyhteisössä ja yhteiskunnassa, mikä lisää tutkitun tiedon vaikuttavuutta, sivistystä ja innovaatioita. Avoimuuden ja prosessin läpinäkyvyyden on tarkoitus myös tukea tutkimuksen laatua. Ammattikorkeakoulukontekstissa opinnäytetyö on asiantuntemusta edellyttävä ja osoittava tehtävä, jossa huomioidaan työelämän haasteiden näkökulmat, jolloin avoimuudesta voidaan katsoa olevan hyötyä erityisesti ammatillisesta näkökulmasta. Opinnäytetöiden avoimen saatavuuden osalinjaus on tehty palvelemaan näitä perustavoitteita opinnäytetöiden näkökulmasta.
Description (sv)	I Deklarationen för öppen vetenskap och forskning konstateras att "[a]nsvarsfull öppenhet är en del av forskningssamfundets vardag genom hela forskningsprocessen. Forskningsorganisationerna har utvärderingspraxis, incitament och tjänster som stöder öppen vetenskap och forskning." Detta gäller också lärdomsprovsprocessen, och denna delpolicy omfattar alla lärdomsprov som genomförs vid högskolor (kandidatavhandlingar som leder till examen, avhandlingar pro gradu, lärdomsprov för fördjupade studier i medicin, odontologi och veterinärmedicin, examensarbeten för yrkeshögskoleexamen och högre yrkeshögskoleexamen, licentiatavhandlingar samt doktorsavhandlingar). Öppenhet i forskning möjliggör bredare användning av forskningsresultat i forskningssamfundet och samhället, vilket ökar den forskningsbaserade kunskapens genomslag samt bildning och innovation. Processens öppenhet och transparens ska också främja forskningens kvalitet. Sett ur yrkeshögskolesynvinkel kräver och demonstrerar ett lärdomsprov sakkunskap, och det beaktar också olika aspekter på arbetslivets utmaningar. Därmed kan öppenhet ses som särskilt värdefullt ur ett yrkesperspektiv. Delpolicyn för öppen tillgång till lärdomsprov är utformad för att tillgodose dessa grundläggande mål ur lärdomsprovens perspektiv.
Description (en)	The Declaration for Open Science and Research states that "In the research community, responsible openness is a part of everyday research throughout the research process, and research organisations have assessment practices, incentives, and services in place to support this." This also applies to the thesis process, and this policy component on open access to theses applies to all theses completed in higher education institutions (bachelor’s and master’s theses at universities and universities of applied sciences, advanced studies theses, licentiate theses, and doctoral theses). Open science enables a broader use of research results by the research community and society, thus increasing the impact of research as well as the level of scholarship and innovation in society. Openness and the transparency of the process are also intended to support the quality of research. In the context of universities of applied sciences, a thesis is a task that requires and demonstrates expertise and takes into account aspects of the challenges of working life, thus making openness particularly useful from a professional point of view. The policy component on open access to theses has been developed to serve these basic objectives from the perspective of theses.
Field	Domain:ScholarlyPublications
Validity start	2020
Validity End	2025
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Has part	Opinnäytetyöt/Section 1
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Objective 1: Theses will be openly accessible.

All theses approved from 2025 onwards will be openly accessible.

Actions required to achieve the objective:

1. All thesis authors have an equal opportunity to publish their thesis open access.. All thesis authors have an equal opportunity to publish their thesis open access, regardless of, for example, grade, field of research, funding base or career stage.
2. By 2025, higher education institutions provide thesis supervisors and authors with support and guidance on how to open theses responsibly. Thesis supervisors and authors will have the necessary skills to open theses responsibly..
3. Higher education institutions recommend that the archivable part of the thesis be licensed under a Creative Commons license, taking into account copyright. Other open licences, such as open-source licences, may also be used depending on discipline. 1. Institutions of higher education develop guidelines for thesis supervisors and authors on how to open theses responsibly.2. Organisations offer support to the thesis supervisor and the author in choosing the appropriate open licence. Third party rights must be taken into account when licensing..
4. The metadata of theses, excluding abstracts, will be openly published under a CC0 licence.1. Organisations will provide support and guidance for metadata production..
5. By 2025, higher education institutions provide a contract template for theses conducted in cooperation with companies and other organisations (such as research institutes). Conditions for open access will be defined as part of the contract template..
6. By 2025, higher education institutions provide a contract template for collaborative work on theses, defining the conditions for open access..
7. From 2025 onwards, higher education institutions support and train thesis supervisors and authors in data management. The thesis author will write a data management plan to the extent required by the thesis level, if the thesis involves research data. 1. Both the supervisor and the thesis author have knowledge of and skills to apply the FAIR principles. The organisation provides support for FAIR management, e.g. in the form of guidelines. If research data included in the thesis is opened, it will be handled in accordance with the policy for open research data and methods..
8. Accessibility requirements apply to all theses. Higher education institutions will provide thesis authors with an accessible template for the textual material as well as guidance and support for its use. Support will also be provided for other thesis formats to ensure the thesis author can make them accessible..
9. For articles included in theses, the policy component for open access to journal articles and conference publicationsis applied.1. Higher education institutions provide support and templates for obtaining permission to republish articles included in theses.2. For article-based theses, the use of delayed publication (embargoes) should be avoided. 3. Authors' awareness of predatory publishers and their practices will be increased..
10. Higher education institutions aim to cover reasonable costs of open access publication of theses (e.g. article processing charges, Teosto fees).1. Thesis authors are informed about open access article publication channels without author fees..
11. Higher education institutions provide a publication repository for the archivable parts of theses (e.g. institutional repositories, Theseus)..
12. Portfolios and theses containing prior learning outputs may be subject to the policy on open education and educational resources. Where appropriate, prior learning or theses will be identified and recognised..

Sources

• cOAlition S (2019): Plan S.
• Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA)
• EUE (2016): Competitiveness Council’s declaration that all scientific papers should be freely available by 2020..
• European Commission (2018): Open Science Policy Platform recommendations.
• European Commission (2018): Commission Recommendation (EU) 2018/790 of 25 April 2018 on access to and preservation of scientific information.
• OA2020-Initiative
• Finnish National Board on Research Integrity (2018): Agreeing on authorship – Recommendation for research publications..

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The publication in its entirety is available on the Internet free of charge and without restrictions to read, print and copy at least for non-commercial use.

In this policy, culture of open scholarship refers to the working environment and methods of science and research.

The National Research Information Hub compiles and distributes information on research conducted in Finland, including information on publications, research material, research infrastructures, researchers and research projects. CSC –The IT Center for Science (CSC) is building the National Research Information Hub commissioned by the Ministry of Education and Culture. More information: research.fi.

In this policy, services are understood as activities that an organisation uses to promote and make the culture of open scholarship possible.

Suomalaisten yliopistojen, ammattikorkeakoulujen, tutkimuslaitosten ja yleisten kirjastojen muodostama konsortio, jonka tehtävä on turvata ja parantaa elektronisten aineistojen saatavuutta.

Creative Commons, maailman yleisin avoin lisenssijärjestelmä, luotiin vuonna 2001. Se on suosituslisenssi avoimille aineistoille useissa maissa. Creative Commons -lisenssit on suunniteltu helppokäyttöisiksi ja helposti ymmärrettäviksi. Aineiston tekijä päättää itse lisenssistä omien tavoitteidensa mukaisesti. Lähtökohtaisesti CC-lisenssi sisältää maailmanlaajuisen peruuttamattoman oikeuden jatkolevittää aineistoa. Valitsemalla sopivat lisäehdot neljän eri ehdon joukosta tekijä voi rajoittaa näitä oikeuksia sopivaksi katsomallaan tavalla. Lue lisää: https://creativecommons.org/

Creative Commons, the world's most common open licensing system, was created in 2001. It is the preferred licence for open source material in many countries. Creative Commons licences are designed to be easy to use and understand. It is up to the author to decide on the licence according to their own objectives. In principle, a CC licence includes an irrevocable worldwide right to redistribute the material. By choosing the appropriate additional conditions from a list of four, the author can limit these rights as they see fit. Read more: https://creativecommons.org/

Creative Commons, världens vanligaste öppna licenssystem, skapades 2001. Det är den rekommenderade licensen för öppet tillgängligt material i många länder. Creative Commons-licenser (länk på finska) är utformade för att vara lätta att använda och för-stå. Upphovspersonen väljer licens enligt sina egna mål sättningar. Utgångspunkten är att en CC-licens innehåller en oåterkallelig världsomspännande rätt att vidaredistribuera materialet. Genom att välja lämpliga ytterligare villkor bland de fyra nedan kan upphovspersonen begränsa dessa rättigheter på det sätt som hen anser lämpligt. Inga ytterligare begränsningar eller villkor kan knytas till CC-licensen. Läs mer: https://creativecommons.org/

Opening up education or Open Education means extending access to and participation in education to larger audiences and target groups by lowering barriers to education and increasing accessibility, unrestrictedness, offering and learner-centeredness. It diversifies the possibilities of teaching, learning and building, joint development and sharing of knowledge and combines the pathways of formal and nonformal learning. Although open education is often carried out using digital technologies, open education is not the same as digital education or digitalisation of educational resources.

Digital accessibility means supporting equality and inclusion, i.e. 'that as many people as possible can use online services as easily as possible. It also means that accessibility has been taken into account in the planning and implementation of the services' (Open Science and Research Coordination in Finland 2021, 9). Accessibility is mandatory for public documents such as theses and open educational resources, among others. Accessibility involves good technical implementation, ease of use, and comprehensibility of content (Open Science and Research Coordination in Finland 2021, 9–10).

Information or materials related to the thesis assignment that should be kept confidential.

The archivable part of a thesis includes any part of the thesis where the publication format allows for long-term preservation. In some disciplines, there may also be parts of a thesis, such as events or artistic works, which are not archivable.

A fee that may be charged by the publisher of an open access journal to the author or their organisation. Article processing charges may be charged by fully open access journals (so-called "gold standard" journals) or by "hybrid" journals, where only part of the content is open access. (The Helsinki Term Bank For the Arts and Sciences)

Availability refers to the accessibility of information in, for example, a public document. This means that the information in the document can be used at the desired time and in the required manner. An accessible document may, for example, be openly accessible or available on request.

Business collaboration refers to collaboration between research organisations and companies for consideration or free of charge, which may vary from informal interaction to organised collaboration. Forms of collaboration include contract research, commissioned research, training and consulting. The collaboration can be funded by a public or private sector organisation.

Data Management Plan (DMP) is a formal and dynamic document that specifies how resources are managed across the life cycle of a thesis, covering, for instance, research data, analysis steps (e.g. protocols, algorithms, procedures), devices and tools (e.g. information on lab equipment and manufacturers, reagents, infrastructure, software), other relevant documentation, versioning, preservation, services, terms and conditions, and open development and sharing of research data, methods and infrastructures. (Open Science and Research Coordination in Finland, Federation of Finnish Learned Societies 2023, 34)

Rajoitus, jonka mukaan aineiston vapaa käyttö alkaa vasta säädetyn odotusajan jälkeen esimerkiksi julkaisun ilmestyttyä.

Begränsning, enligt vilken fri användning av materialet börjar först efter en reglerad väntetid efter att t.ex. en publikation kommit ut.

A restriction under which material can be freely used only after a set waiting period, for example once a publication has been released.

FAIR principles are a set of guidelines to make research data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. This facilitates scientific discovery and access to knowledge. (Open Science and Research Coordination in Finland 2023, 34.)

Institutional repository is a technical system for the storage and open online publication of scientific publications and the services built around it. (The Helsinki Term Bank For the Arts and Sciences)

Med metadata avses beskrivande och sammanfattande information om forskningsmaterialets kontext, innehåll och struktur, behandling och/eller hantering samt insamling av det.

Metadata or descriptive information refers to the context, content and structure, management and/or processing of research data and information describing and summarising its compilation.

Metadatalla, metatiedolla tai kuvailutiedolla tarkoitetaan tutkimusaineiston kontekstia, sisältöä ja rakennetta, hallintaa ja/tai käsittelyä sekä sen kokoamista kuvaavaa ja tiivistettyä tietoa.

A pre-formatted licence, the terms of which must be respected before the material can be used. Openly published material is available to all. If material is to be used publicly, the terms of the licence must be respected. Thus, anyone who uses the work further can comply with the terms of the open licence, which include, for example, attribution of the author and source in a way formulated by the author. The user obtains the rights granted by the licence (such as redistribution and modification rights) by complying with the terms of the licence. (Open Science and Research Coordination in Finland 2020, 2; link in Finnish.)

Opening a thesis means that the archivable part of the thesis is made available online free of charge. Making the thesis public means that the metadata of the thesis are available, and the thesis is accessible directly or on request. A public thesis is therefore not necessarily open.

A journal or other publication that presents itself as scientific but neglects the responsibility of a scientific publisher, for example for peer review, and relies on aggressive marketing and charging fees to authors (The Helsinki Term Bank For the Arts and Sciences).

see Opening a thesis

Med öppnande av utbildning eller öppen utbildning (Open Education) avses att öka tillträdet till och medverkan i lärande för en bredare allmänhet och olika målgrupper genom att sänka hindren för lärande och öka dess tillgänglighet, utbud och fokus på inlärare. Detta gör undervisning, lärande, informationsproduktion, medskapande och spridningsmöjligheter mera mångsidiga och kombinerar formellt och informellt lärande. Även om öppen utbildning ofta sker med hjälp av digital teknologi är det inte samma sak som utbildning där man använder digitala verktyg eller digitalisering av undervisning eller lärresurser.