The Open Access movement
Open Access is a movement, born within the academic world, that promotes free access to results from scientific research and favours the sharing and growth of scientific knowledge. The aim is to ensure maximum visibility and use of documents, via open access, starting with the basic idea that the results of publicly funded research must be available to everyone.
Open access literature does not mean without expense. Open access to research results and scientific culture is not free of charge, there are costs to be met, to make research available. Some journals are entirely open access: each article is available, without any restriction. Other journals are hybrid, in the sense that they are magazines with traditional subscriptions, but offer authors the possibility of paying an amount to make their article freely accessible to anyone in the world. The other articles in the journal are only accessible via subscription.
Some publishers offer all their titles under a kind of open access policy, others have different policies for different titles. Other research funding organisations have Open Access policies. To monitor these policies, see:
- Open policy finder;
- BioMed Central's table for funding policies
- the ROARMAP list of the largest funders and university policies
Why do Open Access
Many supporters of OA promote free access as they are convinced that the results of publicly-funded research must be available to all; as citizens have paid for this research, they should be able to access it at no additional cost.
OA has been approved of by several forces. The web offers new publication methods: it makes circulating research easier, broader, faster and often less expensive. The web offers new means and methods for sharing and using research and for supporting teaching, creating a demand for an access model that allows professors and universities to take full advantage of these new media and methods, or new openings for research using institutional or subject repositories. By exploiting the potential offered by the internet, the articles are made accessible free of charge to users, without the restrictions and barriers foreseen by traditional licences. Diffusion of information guarantees a real impact: the easier it is to download an article, the more it is read and the more it is cited. This favours the sharing of knowledge and therefore a faster advance of knowledge, without barriers, worldwide. Lastly many believe that open access will contribute to reducing the problems of high prices and restrictive conditions of use faced by universities who purchase licences and traditional journals in digital format.
Advantages for researchers: greater visibility for research work filed in institutional archives and published in Open Access journals, which translates into greater visibility, more citations (up to 600% depending on the subject), immediate diffusion of research results, greater impact for the author.
Advantages for the institution: an international window for the production of its own professors/researchers and possible economies of scale on subscription costs.
Advantages for the scientific community: research results have greater visibility (greater dissemination), are seen earlier (thanks to self-archiving, there is no need to wait for material to be printed); thanks to greater dissemination, there is a greater impact and higher circulation of ideas; knowledge benefits from an overall increased growth and diffusion, which is also much faster; the free circulation of research results and data sets contributes to reducing the cultural divide.
Politecnico Open Access policy
The Politecnico di Milano promotes open access to scientific literature in compliance with what is established by its own statute and as a signatory of the Messina Declaration. To do this, it has an Open Access policy that applies the EU Commission Recommendations and national law 7 ottobre 2013, n. 112.
The university policy, that has been active since 1st October 2014, states that professors, researchers, and collaborators of the Politecnico di Milano feed the university's institutional open access archive by self-archiving their scientific products in it. An institutional archive is a platform where members of the academic community file electronic documents, the result of university teaching and research activity. The institutional archive can be queried via search engines on the web, and spread and enhances the value of the university's scientific productions. Re-Public@polimi is the name of the Politecnico di Milano's institutional repository, that collects electronic documents coming from professors', researchers' and collaborators' work at the university.
How to publish in Open Access
Versions, copyright, IRIS, catalogue
There are two paths for ensuring open access:
GREEN ROAD: self-archiving in archives open for public consultation that gather together the research work carried out by the authors, in accordance with publishing policies
- GOLD ROAD: publication in open access magazines, that guarantee peer review, that are free for the user.
Publishing policies
The rapid diffusion of University policies in favour of open access and diffusion of institutional archives has brought most publishers to allow the publication of articles published in institutional repositories (Green OA).
To know more about foreign publishers' policies on auto-self-archiving in institutional repositories or on personal websites, please refer to the website Open policy finder
- Green - allows the self-archiving of pre-print and post-prints
Blue - allows the self-archiving of post-prints
- Yellow - allows the self-archiving of pre-prints
- White- does not allow any self-archiving
It is in the author's interest to know his own rights.
he recommendation is to always read the entire publishing contract carefully to see what the terms are about auto-self-archiving and add a clause (addendum) that asks to maintain some exclusive rights for oneself (including, for example, the one regarding self-archiving in open institutional archives).
How Politecnico finances Open Access: Transformative Agreements
HOW THE UNIVERSITY FINANCES OPEN ACCESS
Transformative agreements, also known as Read & Publish contracts, are a new type of agreement between publishers and member institutions of the CRUI consortium which bring about a profound change in the business model adopted so far in academic publishing.
Moving from a standard type of contract in which the publisher offers access to their online resources in exchange for a fee, there is a gradual transition towards a model in which membership fees include a part for subscription and access to subscription content (reading) and a part for open access publication (publishing). The reading cost decreases during the course of contract whilst the publishing cost increases over the same period.
Transformative agreements have a transitional/evolutionary character: ideally the end goal is to arrive at agreements that entirely shift subscription costs from subscription acquisition to funding the publication of Open Access articles by transforming hybrid OA journals (which include both subscription and open access articles) into Gold OA journals (where all content is open access).
TRANSFORMATIVE AGREEMENTS AND THE POLITECNICO DI MILANO
On behalf of the Politecnico, the Library Services will participate in transformative agreements negotiated by CARE-CRUI (Electronic Resource Access Coordination Group - Conference of Italian University Rectors) as of the second half of 2020, with the following international publishers:
- ACM - Association for Computing Machinery_expired (negotiations on hold)
- ACS - American Chemical Society_2024-2026
- AIP - American Institute of Physics_2022-2026
- APS – American Physical Society_2026-2027
- Elsevier_2023-2027
- Emerald_proroga 2026
- IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers_2025-2027
- IOP - Institute of Physics_2026 (advance notice; renewal to be confirmed)
- OUP - Oxford University Press_2024-2026
- RSC - Royal Society of Chemistry_extension_2026 (advance notice; renewal to be confirmed)
- Springer e Nature Academics_2025-2029
- Wiley_2024-2027
The costs required for open access publication (APC - Article Processing Charge) are entirely borne by the Politecnico’s Library Services. Vouchers or tokens for the publication of open access articles are available on a yearly basis, until they are exhausted and without pre-established distribution among the entities participating in the contract.
The basic cost for publication (APC) is covered: any additional material (extra pages, images with particular resolution, etc.) remains the responsibility of the author(s).
Necessary requirements
An essential condition in order to take advantage of the funding and to publish open access with costs borne by the Politecnico, is that the corresponding author has a formal active role at the Politecnico di Milano upon acceptance of their article.
For the transformative agreements drawn up with the CRUI, the publisher requires a Politecnico’s representative in charge of the contract to verify/approve the affiliation indicated by the corresponding author. In case of articles published by multiple authors only the submitting Corresponding Author who submitted the article may qualify as an Affiliated Author. Affiliation is the element which allows the “publishing” part of each contract to be used to pay the APCs (Article Processing Charge) for open access publication.
Publication procedure
The publication process is handled entirely by the publisher. For the transformative agreements signed by CRUI, the publisher requires verification/validation of the affiliation indicated by the corresponding author. The University cannot handle requests submitted to the publisher to change the corresponding author.
Once the request is validated, the article is published under a Creative Commons license. The author retains copyright and can immediately place the published version (Publisher’s Version/pdf) into the Politecnico’s online catalogue Iris RE.PUBLIC as open access.
Negotiations with other publishers are ongoing. Any new agreement signed by the CRUI to which the Politecnico di Milano will participate will be promptly communicated to those concerned.
For information and support
Write to openaccess@polimi.it
List of Transformative Contracts
- Publisher: Association for Computing Machinery
- Subject area: science and technology
- Contract duration: 2022–2025
- Publication licence: CC BY 4.0. The author retains the rights to the article, which may be deposited in IRIS and made immediately accessible without an embargo in its published version.
- General conditions: affiliated corresponding authors may publish an unlimited number of articles in open access in the hybrid and fully open access (Gold OA) journals of the ACM Digital Library. Publication costs are included in the contract and covered by the University’s Archival and Library Services.
Basic condition: affiliation of the corresponding author at the time of the paper’s acceptance. Eligible authors will be identified by the name of the institution and/or institutional email domain - Types of articles: Research articles, Review articles, Conference or proceedings papers, Short Papers, Technical Note/Note, Tutorial, Case Study, Interview, Survey
- List of eligible journals: ACM Digital Library
- Green OA (self-archiving) clause: Authors affiliated with institutions that have signed the agreement retain the right to deposit the Author’s Accepted Manuscript (AAM) version (post-print) of their articles in the institutional repository and make it freely accessible without an embargo.
Insights: publication workflow
- Publisher: American Chemical Society
- Subject area: chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences
- Contract duration: 2024–2026 (2025–2026 for open access publication)
- Publication licence: CC BY 4.0. The author retains the rights to the article, which may be deposited in IRIS and made immediately accessible without embargo in its published version.
- General conditions: affiliated corresponding authors may publish an unlimited number of articles in open access in the publisher’s hybrid and fully open access (Gold OA) journals. Publication costs are included in the contract and covered by the University’s Archival and Library Services.
- Basic condition: affiliation of the corresponding author at the time of the paper’s acceptance. Eligible authors will be identified by the name of the institution and/or institutional email domain.
- Article types: Original Papers and Review Papers. Brief Communications are excluded
- List of eligible journals: All Pubs
- Retrospective conversion to Open Access: The contract stipulates that authors can choose the Open Access option, changing the license and publication mode of articles already published in the same journals but not in open access. The decision must be made within a year of publication.
Further information:
How to Publish Open Access
- Publisher: AIP
- Subject area: physical sciences
- Contract duration: 2022–2026
- Publication licence: CC BY 4.0. The author retains the rights to the article, which may be deposited in IRIS and made immediately accessible without embargo in its published version.
- General conditions: affiliated corresponding authors may publish articles in open access in the hybrid journals of the collection published by the publisher (29 out of 30 titles). The number of OA publications provided for in the contract is subject to an annual maximum: 279 in 2023, 296 in 2024, 311 in 2025, 323 in 2026. Publication costs are included in the contract and covered by the University’s Archival and Library Services. Fully open-access journals (Gold OA) are excluded from the contract. The costs of publishing in this type of journal remain the responsibility of the authors, who must cover them from their own funds.
- Basic condition: affiliation of the corresponding author at the time of paper acceptance. Eligible authors will be identified via the Ringold ID of their affiliated institution.
- Article types: Article, Conference article, Letter, Research update, Review.
- List of eligible journals: All Pubs
Further information:
Contratto trasformativo CARE CRUI-AIP
Author Guide Read & Publish Workflows
Author guide to submitting under a transformative agreement
- Editore: APS
- Subject area: physical sciences
- Contract duration: 2025–2028 (2026–2028 for open access publication)
- Publication licence: CC BY 4.0. The author retains the rights to the article, which may be deposited in IRIS and made immediately accessible without an embargo in its published version.
- General conditions: affiliated corresponding authors may publish an unlimited number of articles in open access in the publisher’s hybrid journals (9 titles). Publication costs are included in the contract and covered by the University’s Archival and Library Services. Fully open-access journals (Gold OA) are excluded from the contract. The costs of publishing in this type of journal remain the responsibility of the authors, who must cover them from their own funds.
Basic condition: affiliation of the corresponding author at the time of paper acceptance. Eligible authors will be identified via the Ringgold ID of their affiliated institution. - Article types: Regular Articles, Letters, Rapid Communications, Reviews, Perspectives, and Short Papers.
- List of eligible journals: hybrid open access journals
NB: APS’s participation in SCOAP³ is incorporated into this agreement: authors may publish their high-energy physics (HEP) research as open access under the SCOAP³ scheme. The purpose of the transformative licence is to provide centrally funded open access publishing services for authors publishing research not related to high-energy physics.
Information regarding SCOAP3 e ai Physical Review Journals on the APS website. Details of the concessions provided for under the Scoap3 agreement can be found below, in the ‘Contracts with concessions’ section
Approfondimenti:
PLEASE NOTE: the fund allocated for the publication of articles in fully open access (Gold OA) journals was exhausted in May 2024 and has not been replenished. The costs of publishing in these 600 Gold OA journals are to be borne by the authors, who must cover them from their own funds
- Publisher: Elsevier
- Subject area: multidisciplinary
- Contract duration: 2023–2027
Publication licence: CC BY 4.0 (which will be set as the default option in the system) or CC BY NC ND 4.0* upon request. The author retains the rights to the article, which may be deposited in IRIS and made immediately accessible without embargo in its published version.
*NB: the CC BY NC ND licence is not compliant with the Horizon Europe open access mandate. For scientific publications linked to projects funded under the current framework programme, the mandatory licence is CC BY, which offers the widest scope in terms of sharing and use.
- General terms and conditions: Affiliated corresponding authors may publish articles in open access in the hybrid journals within the publisher’s collection (over 1,800 titles). The number of open access publications provided for in the contract is subject to a limit for the first two years, whilst for the remaining three years of the contract (2025–2027) it is unlimited. Publication costs are included in the contract and covered by the University’s Archival and Library Services. Fully open-access (Gold OA) journals are excluded from the contract. The costs of publishing in this type of journal remain the responsibility of the authors, who must cover them from their own funds.
- Basic condition: affiliation of the corresponding author at the time of paper acceptance. Eligible authors will be identified by the name of their institution.
- Article types: Original Papers, Review Papers and Case Reports. From 1 January 2025, eligible article types will also include Short Communications.
- List of eligible journals: All Pubs
Further information:
Contratto trasformativo CARE CRUI-Elsevier
Informazioni per gli autori
Gold Open Access: Central Funding agreement (publishing journey video)
- Publisher: Emerald
- Subject area: Social sciences (Economics, Business, Management, Finance, Law, Labour), Engineering and Psychology
- Contract duration: 2020–2026 (with extensions for 2025 and 2026)
- Publication licence: CC BY 4.0. The author retains the rights to the article, which may be deposited in IRIS and made immediately accessible without embargo in its published version.
- General conditions: affiliated corresponding authors may publish an unlimited number of articles in open access in the hybrid and fully open access (Gold OA) journals published by the publisher. Publication costs are included in the contract and covered by the University’s Archival and Library Services.
- Basic condition: affiliation of the corresponding author at the time of the paper’s acceptance. Eligible authors will be identified by the name of the institution and/or institutional email domain.
- Types of articles: Original papers and review papers. ‘Brief communications’ are excluded.
- List of eligible journals: Emerald journal list
- Publisher: IEEE
- Subject area: science and technology (electrical and computer engineering)
- Contract duration: 2025–2027
- Publication licence: CC BY 4.0 preferred; CC BY-NC-ND permitted upon specific request. The author retains the rights to the article, which may be deposited in IRIS and made immediately accessible without an embargo in its published version.
- General conditions: affiliated corresponding authors may publish open-access articles in the hybrid journals within the collection published by the publisher. Publication costs are included in the contract and covered by the University’s Archival and Library Services. Full open-access (Gold OA) journals are excluded from the contract. The costs of publishing in this type of journal remain the responsibility of the authors, who must cover them from their own funds.
- Basic condition: affiliation of the corresponding author at the time of the paper’s acceptance. Eligible authors will be identified via the institution’s institutional email domain and/or Ringgold ID
- Article types: regular paper, review paper, brief, invited, survey
- List of eligible journals: https://open.ieee.org/publishing-options/hybrid-journals/
- Retrospective conversion to Open Access: the new 2025–2027 contract does not provide for retrospective conversion
Further information:
Information about journals
Website with all the information needed for submission
Publisher: IOPScience
Disciplinary field: Physical sciences, as well as Chemistry, Geology, and other scientific fields
- Contract duration: 2026 (publishing service active in advance)
- Publication license: CC BY 4.0. The author retains the rights to the article, which may be deposited in IRIS and made immediately accessible without an embargo in its published version.
- General conditions: Affiliated corresponding authors may publish an unlimited number of articles in open access in the hybrid and fully open access (Gold OA) journals published by the publisher. Journals of the American Astronomical Society are not included in the contract; while the Society adopted the Gold model in 2022, it does not accept participation in transformative agreements. Publication costs are included in the contract and covered by the University’s Archival and Library Services.
- Basic condition: affiliation of the corresponding author at the time of the paper’s acceptance. Eligible authors will be identified by the name of the institution and/or institutional email domain.
- Article types: papers, special issue papers, reviews, and/or letters
- List of eligible journals:
Consult the list of hybrid journals on the IOP Journal List - Workflow: there is no prior validation of affiliation. Open access is activated upon the corresponding author’s consent; institutions conduct a retrospective review, with eligible articles potentially being converted to open access at a later date.
Approfondimenti:
IOP_Eligible TA Journals list_publish
IOP_Journals not included in TA_publish
Author Guide
IOP_Transformative Agreement
- Publisher: OUP
- Disciplinary field: multidisciplinary
- Contract duration: 2024–2026
- Publication license: CC BY 4.0 (subject to any restrictions imposed by the journal itself). The author retains the rights to the article, which may be deposited in IRIS and made immediately accessible without an embargo in its published version.
- General conditions: Affiliated corresponding authors may publish open-access articles in eligible hybrid journals (see list in the information below). Publication costs are included in the contract and covered by the University’s Archival and Library Services.
- Basic condition: Affiliation of the corresponding author at the time of the paper’s acceptance. Eligible authors will be identified via their institutional email domain.
- Article types: Research article, review article, case report, brief report.
- List of eligible journals
- Note: You can take advantage of a 15% discount for publication in Gold OA journals
Further information:
Author Guide Publish Workflows
- Publisher: RSC
- Subject area: science and technology
- Contract duration: 2026 (publishing service active in advance of the contract*)
- Publication license: CC BY 4.0. The author retains the rights to the article, which may be deposited in IRIS and made immediately accessible without an embargo in its published version.
- General conditions: Affiliated corresponding authors may publish an unlimited number of articles in open access in the hybrid journals published by the publisher. Publication costs are included in the contract and covered by the University’s Archival and Library Services.
*Note: This contract is effective in advance starting January 1, continuing the terms of the previous contract: Unlimited access to hybrid journals. The new contract will also include fully open-access (Gold OA) journals. Reimbursement will be provided for articles published in Gold OA journals until the new terms take effect, which is expected in June/July. Further details will follow. For more information, please contact the email address openaccess@polimi.it
- Basic requirement: The corresponding author must be affiliated with the journal at the time of the paper’s acceptance. Eligible authors will be identified by their institutional email address.
- Article types: among those listed here;
Further information:
- Publisher: Springer
- Disciplinary field: multidisciplinary
- Contract duration: 2025–2029, effective July 1, 2025
- Publication license: The only publication license permitted under the contract is CC BY 4.0. The author retains the rights to the article, which may be deposited in IRIS and made immediately accessible without embargo in its published version.
- General conditions: Affiliated corresponding authors may publish open-access articles in the platform’s hybrid journals Springer Link and Nature Academics (o Academic Journals) hybrid journals. TThis also includes hybrid journals that become fully open access during the term of the contract (flipped journals). Excluded from the contract are “gold open access” journals (also known as “fully open access,” such as those published by BioMed Central (BMC) or SpringerOpen) and other Nature journals. Publication costs are included in the contract and covered by the University’s Archival and Library Services.
Basic requirement: the corresponding author must be affiliated with the University at the time of the paper’s acceptance, provided they use their institutional email address for submission and declare the Politecnico di Milano as their primary or sole affiliation. - Article types: Original papers and Review papers. Brief Communications and Reports are excluded.
- List of eligible journals: The list of eligible Springer journals is available on the publisher’s website at Open access journals (download the Eligible Journals file found under Publishing Open Access in a Hybrid Journal); the list of Nature Academics journals can be downloaded HERE.
Further information
Publisher's page dedicated to the CARE-CRUI transformative contract.
How to publish: SPRINGER NATURE OPEN ACCESS AGREEMENTS. A guide for authors
- Publisher: Wiley
- Disciplinary field: multidisciplinary
- Contract duration: 2024–2027, effective January 1, 2024.
- Publication license: CC-BY 4.0. The author retains the rights to the article, which may be deposited in IRIS and made immediately accessible without an embargo in its published version.
- General conditions: Affiliated corresponding authors may publish open-access articles in hybrid journals (1,300 hybrid journals) and open-access journals (500 fully Gold open-access journals) published by the publisher. Publication costs are included in the contract and covered by the University’s Archival and Library Services.
Basic requirement: Affiliation of the corresponding author at the time of the paper’s acceptance. Eligible authors will be identified through their institutional email domain. - Article types: Primary research and review papers; Case studies; Reviews; Short Communications
- List of eligible journals:
*fully gold open access journal
*hybrid journal
Further information:
Open Access Agreement CRUI-CARE for Italian authors
How to publish in a fully open access journal
How to publish in a hybrid open access journal
How to get support on Open Access issues
A University scientific literature open access work group has been established with archiving and intellectual property management technical tasks. The group can be contacted at the email address openaccess@polimi.it.
Websites of interest:
- DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals
Updated list of OA Journals - Open Access Journals with IF
List of journals with Impact Factor - OpenDOAR: Directory of Open Access Repositories
List of institutional and subject repositories - ROAR (Registry of Open Access Repositories)
Database that indexes the creation, location and growth of open access institutional archives and their content - Wiki on Open Access in Italy
Website on Open Access that registers news and information about the national and international movement - CRUI guidelines
Guidelines issued by CRUI (Conference of Italian University Rectors) and developed by the national work group on Open Access
Materials and useful references for publication and/or auto-self-archiving in open access:
- List of publishers taken from Open policy finder (currently being drawn up)
- Beall's List - List of unreliable OA publishers
- Addenda
- Addendum Polimi
- SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition)
Association of university and research libraries that cooperate to create a more open scientific communication system - Addendum SPARC
- H2020 Addendum
- Scholar's Copyright Addendum Engine - Software that allows personalisation of own Addendum
- Communication Letter to publishers
- Exemption letter from Politecnico Open Access Policy
- Inserting attachments in IRIS RE.PUBLIC@POLIMI