By Lise Bundgaard, Aalborg University Library, VBN Team
Photo: Emilie Bach Pedersen

In the future, it should be easier to gain insight into the approximately 4,400 research articles published annually by researchers at AAU.

This is happening with the adoption of the university's new Open Access policy, which came into effect at the turn of the year. It is a revision of the previous policy from 2017. AAU's Open Access Committee is behind the revised policy.

The new policy aims to create even greater openness and visibility around research results from AAU.

"Knowledge must be freely accessible to everyone to be as beneficial as possible," says Kathrine Bjerg Bennike from AAU OPEN, who has been involved in developing the new policy. She adds: 

"By strengthening the openness of research, we also aim to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity and transparency, thereby promoting trust in research and researchers."

New policy sets new requirements

The new policy brings new requirements for AAU researchers when publishing research journal articles and conference articles published in so-called proceedings, which cover a collection of research articles and presentations from a conference.

"The new requirement means that researchers must add an earlier version of the article, also known as an Accepted Author Manuscript or a post-print, when registering one of these two publication types in Pure, if the final version of the article is not Open Access," says Anna Stegger Gemzøe from AAU OPEN. 

"Then we check if it is possible to provide open access to the manuscript on the VBN portal, according to the rules of the relevant journal. This is also what we in technical terms call Green Open Access or parallel publishing."

New competence unit and publishing platform to pave the way

Researchers are not alone when navigating the possibilities for openness. With the adoption of the new Open Access policy, a new publishing platform and competence unit have been established under the name AAU OPEN. 

The four employees at AAU OPEN, which is part of Aalborg University Library, offer guidance to AAU researchers regarding Open Access. 

"There are many opportunities to publish Open Access, and it doesn't actually have to cost anything. We are here to help researchers find the best publishing channel for their specific research results, so they reach the right audience," says Anna Stegger Gemzøe.

Further Information:

Read the new Open Access policy at Aalborg University here.

Visit AAU OPEN's website, where you can see how to upload an Accepted Author Manuscript in Pure.