Recommendations from the EUA Working Group on Open Access
In January 2007 EUA established a “Working Group on Open Access” for a one year period as a platform of expert opinion to provide both a voice for, and visibility to European universities as stakeholders in the policy debate.
Its mission was dualfold: to raise awareness of the importance of “open access” issues to the wider university community, both in terms of its impact upon the research process and its financial implications for university libraries, and to develop recommendations for a common strategy for the university sector as key stakeholders in policy development in the field. The decision to set up the Working Group had reflected the general view that the interests of universities were not being heard in the growing policy debate on the issue of the wide implications of rapid development of digital ICT for publishing which tended to be dominated by the commercial interests of the major scientific publishing companies.
