FAQ

• The application of Open Science practices maximizes the potential of research outputs by enabling researchers to re-use and repurpose them in new and innovative ways.
• It provides greater accessibility and transparency to the research process.
• It allows for the replication and verification of research results, fostering increased collaboration.
• It opens the academic environment to interested parties from the (expert) public, and their knowledge and insights are invaluable for informing the research process.

• Open Science is becoming an increasingly common component of research projects, both in the preparation and implementation phases.
• Typically, a description of the institutional Open Science strategy is required in the project proposal, along with a commitment to publishing in Open Access and managing research data according to FAIR principles, including the Data Management Plan (DMP).
• In some cases, the evaluation may also include Open Science practices.
• Specific requirements vary depending on the research funder and project type, so it is essential to carefully review the conditions of a particular call and project proposal.

How to proceed?

• The Project Centre (contact person according to the agenda or the Project Centre Head) will help you with orientation in funder documentation and specifications of OS requirements.
• Contacts for expert support on OS, OA and DMP issues in accordance with your project reguirements can be found here.
• Data management is usually handled by an appointed member of the project team (Data Manager) and methodological support is provided by the Data Stewards at UCT Prague.

• The obligation of open access to scientific publications (alongside other aspects of Open Science) is becoming more widespread even among Czech providers of research and development support.
• Specific conditions vary depending on the provider and the call.
• To verify the conditions of your project, contact the Project Center.

• The issue of plagiarism is not specific to publications under Open Access. If someone decides to engage in plagiarism, the publication regime (traditional protection using copyright or Creative Commons licenses) plays no role and provides no preventive defense.
• All variants of Creative Commons licenses include the "BY" condition ("Attribution"), meaning that nobody can reuse parts of an article without attributing the original author - otherwise, they would violate the license (for simplicity, we are overlooking potential violations of other conditions, such as NC - "Non-commercial use only" or ND - "No derivatives"). It is similar to publications protected by copyright.

You can find pure Open Access journals in the DOAJ directory.

If you would like to explore Open Access publishing options in hybrid (but not only there) journals, you can find detailed information in the Tools and Resources section.

If you want to learn more about the societal impact of Open Access, we recommend the Open Science section.

Institutional benefits (UCT Prague): visibility, good reputation, higher citation rates, easier fulfillment of conditions for European and Czech grants.

Benefits for the author - similar to the institution, especially: higher citation rates, faster and easier dissemination of information beyond the academic sphere (e.g., towards industry, hospitals, government, and other professional audiences)

No.

If you publish behind a paywall, you generally do not pay any fees (certainly not OA APC, although some publishers may charge 'color charges' or 'page charges,' but these are exceptions).

Also, there are so-called 'diamond' or 'platinum' OA journals, where the costs of OA publishing are covered by a third party (foundation, sponsor, publisher itself, ...). For example, Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry.

Detailed information is provided in the section dedicated to tokens.

Detailed information is provided in the section dedicated to the Open Access fund.

In simple terms:

• Free Access ≠ Open Access
• Free Access allows only reading without restrictions (possibly only temporarily or with a time embargo). It means that there is no need to pay for the content, but any further handling or usage requires permission.
• Open Access allows, in addition to reading, at least unrestricted dissemination, more lenient Creative Commons licenses, and other forms of use (commercial, derivative works, etc.). Simply citing the source is sufficient, and there is no need to seek explicit permission from the publisher/author.

Detailed explanation on how to identify them can be found in the Manual for Identifying Open Access Journals (NTK) - in Czech only.

It is advisable to start creating a DMP before submitting a grant application, especially if you are not familiar with the required principles. The process will help you uncover some options or hidden costs that will assist you in optimizing expenses.

The basic idea of a DMP is to have a document that summarizes how data is handled during the project but also allows for good orientation in the project long after its completion. Even from the perspective of establishing good documentation for the project, a general DMP is suitable for any project.

Many scientific communities and societies issue recommendations or guides in the form of articles or presentations. Larger organizations like ELIXIR even develop entire web tools (such as RDMToolkit or FAIRsharing, see the Tools tab). For a more detailed overview, we recommend being active in the scientific community or society relevant to your field.

Besides the accessible DocEnhance courses (Support DMP tab), there are numerous available online courses:

• EOSC Synergy (https://learn.eosc-synergy.eu/courses/)
• CODATA-RDA Schools of Research Data Science (https://codata.org/initiatives/data-skills/research-data-science-summer-schools/)

In the future, courses from the Czech environment will also be available.