Opening up Data Resulted from Publicly-Funded Research Projects (RO0026)
Overview
At-a-Glance
Action Plan: Romania, Second Action Plan, 2014-2016
Action Plan Cycle: 2014
Status:
Institutions
Lead Institution: Ministry of National Education, Minister Delegate for higher education, scientific research and technological development
Support Institution(s): National Council of Rectors, National Trade Union Federation “Alma Mater” CSOs: Open Society Foundation; Transparency International; Kosson Initiative
Policy Areas
Science & TechnologyIRM Review
IRM Report: Romania End-of-Term Report 2014-2016, Romania Progress Report 2014-2015 – Public Comment Version
Early Results: Did Not Change
Design i
Verifiable: Yes
Relevant to OGP Values: Yes
Ambition (see definition): High
Implementation i
Description
The commitment refers to the publishing of studies and results of publicly-funded research, as well as the development of the framework that will allow the adoption on a national level of policies in accordance with the Commission Recommendation on access to and preservation of scientific information C(2012) 4890.
The European Commission has already introduced the Open Access principles in its main funding programmes for education and research (FP7, Erasmus+, Horizon 2020).
Results of publicly-funded research can therefore be disseminated more broadly and faster, to the benefit of researchers, innovative industry and citizens. Open access can also boost the visibility of European research, and in particular offer small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) access to the latest research for utilisation.
This will lead to increased transparency of the impact of public funds use for research purposes and increased collective intelligence of the academic research community.
IRM End of Term Status Summary
Commitment 8. Open Access: Opening Up Data Resulted from Publicly Funded Research Projects
Commitment Text:
1. The responsible institutions will monitor the implementation of open access principles in publicly-funded Romanian scientific research programmes.
2. The responsible institutions will issue recommendations for the development and use under open license of institutional databases and for their integration into a single national gateway.
3. Drawing up proposals for drafting public policies on open access.
Responsible institutions: Ministry of National Education, Minister Delegate for Higher Education, Scientific Research, and Technological Development
Supporting institution(s): National Council of Rectors, National Trade Union Federation “Alma Mater,” Open Society Foundation, Transparency International, Kosson Initiative
Start date: September 2014 End date: June 2016
Commitment Aim:
The main goal of this commitment is to enhance the impact of publicly funded scientific research by disseminating findings and publications under open access rules. This commitment proposes to monitor open access programs and create recommendations for developing and applying open licensing, making publicly funded research accessible through a single national gateway.
Status
Midterm: Limited
Romania has not implemented a European Commission recommendation to provide open access for publicly funded research projects. New legislation for open access to research papers was enacted through the National Strategy for Research, Development, and Innovation 2014–2020. However, the government did not implement the new legislation, and by the end of the midterm period it had published only a few datasets and research papers. The national repository archive for scientific research papers is digitized and should be accessible to the academic community in the future. However this falls short of the intended goal to provide open access to the general public. For more information, please see the 2014–2015 IRM midterm report.
End of term: Limited
The government has made some progress since the midterm evaluation, but completion is still limited. The new legislation requires publicly financed research to provide public access to abstracts online within one year of publication. This falls far short of the EU requirement for free open access to full reports and papers resulting from publicly funded research. The IRM researcher audited several government data portals and found few datasets or research papers. Based on this audit, the progress for this commitment is limited. Furthermore, the government needs to develop public policies to aid commitment implementation. Specifically, the government should put in place a monitoring and evaluation mechanism to compel researchers and institutions to comply with open access rules. This would likely require changes in research funding to cover costs associated with open access publishing, intellectual property rights, and EU regulations.
Did it open government?
Access to information: Did not change
If fully implemented, this commitment could greatly increase public access to academic and scientific research findings and publications. However, as implemented, this commitment fell far short of achieving its goals. The government published recommendations online for creating national research repositories.[Note 26: The recommendations are available at https://portal.anelisplus.ro/content/depozite-institutionale-si-relatia-cu-depozitul-national.] Upon close reading, the recommendations reveal internal miscommunications and disagreements about the interpretation of this commitment. This resulted in two different understandings of the term “open access.” The first defined “open access” as making the results of publicly funded research openly available and free of charge. The second interpretation, which is incorrect, defined “open access” as making privately funded research in fee-charging journals free and open to the public.
Resolving these issues has stalled implementation. As such, access to information has not changed beyond the baseline.
To change publishing practices, the scientific community must first reach consensus on the following issues:
• The type of research that should be published in the open access repositories,
• The rules governing intellectual property,
• The format and the metadata, which vary from discipline to discipline,
• Who should be responsible for maintaining the repositories, and
• Who should pay for the creation and maintenance of the whole system.
These preliminary conditions must be resolved to improve publishing practices beyond the baseline. This commitment could effectively change practice under the following conditions: (1) legally requiring researchers to make the full results of their research freely available to the public (most researchers currently do not) and (2) creating the infrastructure for compelling researchers to comply with such rules. This infrastructure would require legislation, funds, and implementation, and the government has yet to tackle these issues.
Carried forward?
The government did not complete the commitment in the second national action plan. Civil society representatives have proposed including the commitment in the third national action plan, but the Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research Development, and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI) decided that the commitment needs clarification before receiving additional financial and human resources. In particular, the relationship between the commitment’s goals and the EU requirements for publicly funded research needs to be demarcated. Additionally, the researcher recommends addressing legislative issues related to financing the costs of administering and maintaining a national institutional repository.