By Athina Karolidou
Open Research Europe (ORE), a free scholarly publishing platform provided by the European Commission, is set to expand its reach beyond EU grant recipients.
Initially launched in March 2021, ORE’s primary objective has always been the democratisation of scholarly research and subsequent learning. Contrary to other academic research platforms, where access to content and knowledge comes at a high cost (both to institutions as well as individuals), ORE provides an open-access peer-reviewed platform without fees.
However, up until now, ORE has been available for free exclusively to researchers and authors whose projects were funded by the European Union.
In a recently published scoping document, the European Commission emphasized that ORE “enables scholarly publishing of high scientific quality under a cost-efficient and transparent model.”
A significant proposal though, issued by the European Commission, urges the transformation of the platform into a “collective open access publishing service.” This change would extend ORE's services to a broader range of authors and readers, moving beyond just EU-funded researchers. The goal is to include a wider global community of scholars and provide unrestricted access to knowledge across borders.
This particular proposal first introduced and discussed in 2022, has since gained strong momentum. What was once simply an ambitious idea, presently has the support of approximately twenty national – as well as international – research funding organisations, all of them offering their endorsement and their willingness to participate in future developments.
At its core, this groundbreaking vision seeks to address and overcome the “shortcomings,” of the current research publishing system. According to a European Commission report, “only about 50% of published articles are currently available in open access” causing the journal publishing enterprise to become a practice of “academic prestige.”
The benefits of this collective open-access model are far-reaching:
· Wider dissemination of knowledge:
ORE’s vision immediately signifies the breaking down of financial and institutional barriers when it comes to learning, enabling knowledge to flow freely across disciplines and geographies.
· Increased transparency:
The peer-reviewed system that functions within this platform allows the public, media and other researchers to scrutinise and, with time, improve upon the findings already published. This, in turn, leads to greater accountability and reduces the risk of scientific misconduct, thus fostering greater trust in academic research.
· Reduced information inequality:
Traditional subscription-based journals often exclude those unable to afford access. By adopting a more inclusive open-access model, ORE will help level the playing field, ensuring that research and educational resources are accessible to all, regardless of economic constraints.
Ultimately, broadening ORE would, according to the European Commission, inevitably “enrich scholarly publishing through a publishing model that fosters transparency, reproducibility, integrity, cost-efficiency and equity in scholarly communication.” This shift would not only transform the way academic research is shared but also ensure that the global community benefits from more equitable access to knowledge.
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