The NWO stimulation fund for open access publications has already been in existence for several years. Conditions however have recently been revised. Funding is no longer available for all open access publications. These journals offer open access to their full content and can therefore be read for free by everyone.

Contrary to practice in recent years articles published in so-called ‘hybrid’ journals will no longer be funded. Hybrid journals are subscription journals in which open access to individual articles may be obtained on payment of a fee. As publishers of hybrid journals gain income from both subscriptions and from payments for individual open access publications, institutions run the risk of having to pay twice for the same publications. To avoid this “double dipping” NWO has decided to terminate payments from its stimulation fund for this type of open access articles.

NWO has not yet made open access obligatory, but has announced it will do so in its 2015-2018 strategy paper. NWO is expected to set open access as condition in new research funding rounds in the near future.

NWO aims to achieve maximum accessibility to results of research funded from public resources. NWO has therefore earmarked an additional sum of  6000 euros for each project having the specific purpose to publish NWO-funded research in open access.

Main applicants for NWO-funded research projects that are either still ongoing or have been approved after 1 January 2010 may request funding for open access publications up to 6000 euros per project. Requests may be filed at any moment within 6 months after final publication, until available resources are depleted. For further information on conditions and the application procedure go to the NWO website.

Do you want to find out more about the NWO stimulation fund for open access publications or do you have questions about open access in general? Then please contact the TU/e open access specialists via openaccess@tue.nl or go to: www.tue.nl/openaccess.