Open access in Norway: Political foundation and negotiation principles

The political foundation for open access in Norway is based on

• The Norwegian government's national guidelines for open access to scientific articles (2017)
• The European Research Funds 'Plan S', which the Research Council of Norway has joined (2018)
• Universities Norway (UHR) and Abelia (the business association of Norwegian knowledge and technology based enterprises): Expression of support for a common negotiating strategy for open access to research articles (2021)

Sikt (from 2022, formerly Unit) is the coordinator for negotiations with publishers,  through the team Sikt Licence agreements and open access.

The Negotiating Council recommends that the following principles apply to negotiations with journal publishers from 2021:

• Publications with a corresponding author from Norway shall be openly available at the time of publication.
• No agreements shall be entered into that increase the total costs
• All agreements shall include unlimited publishing
• Agreements must include both hybrid and fully open access journals
• Non-open access articles in subscription journals must be made openly available in an institutional repository without embargo.
• Full transparency in license conditions, costs, and business models.
• Perpetual access to all purchased content.

UHR and Abelia support the following strategies for Sikt's' negotiations with publishers:

• Sikt shall negotiate agreements that ensure open access to research results, and the negotiations shall follow the principles above.
• Rectors / research leaders should continue to be involved in the negotiations with the largest publishers, and UHR will cooperate with Sikt to appoint representatives
• UHR and Abelia will recommend reviewing the renewal of agreements that do not meet their requirements