Open Access: An Analysis of Publisher Copyright and Licensing Policies in Europe, 2020 | Chris Morrison et al. | SPARC Europe, September 2020
Conducted in 2020, this study explores copyright and licensing practices among the industry-leading journal publishers in Europe, while focusing on copyright retention policies, self-archiving policies, open licensing policies and compliance with Plan S requirements related to copyright.
Published
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It is fascinating to note that, for European journals listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), in 40% of cases their authors do not hold copyright to their articles without any restrictions. Similarly, in this group of journals, 54.8% of these outlets do not have provisions in their policies that would allow their authors to retain publishing rights without restrictions, such as when researchers retain only copyright, rather than publishing right as well. This corresponds to the finding of this report that solely 40% of European, DOAJ-listed journals are Plan S compliant.