Vilnius Gediminas Technical University has adopted a mandatory open access (OA) and open research data policy.

EIFL welcomes adoption of the policy, which emerged out of the university’s involvement in the PASTEUR4OA project, in which EIFL was a partner. PASTEUR4OA encouraged policymaking and policy alignment across Europe to ensure that all publicly-funded research is OA.

The policy,  adopted on 6 December 2016, is fully aligned with the Guidelines for Open Access to Research Results of the Research Council of Lithuania, the (openaire.eu/h2020openaccess) Horizon 2020 Open Access mandate and Open Research Data Pilot, and the July 2012 European Commission recommendations on access to and preservation of scientific information.

STRONG OA TRADITION IN LITHUANIA

The policy is based on a strong OA tradition in Lithuania and on current good practices in Europe.

Vilnius Gediminas Technical University recognizes the benefits of OA, and the policy maintains a good balance between respecting researchers’ academic freedom, and introducing requirements already common among European institutions, for example, immediate deposit of research outputs in a repository; providing open access after a reasonable embargo period (six months for sciences and 12 months for social sciences and humanities), and ensuring the open availability of research data associated with research publications.

The policy also encourages OA publishing in full OA journals.