Open Access has a long tradition at CERN. Already since the 1950s particle physicists at CERN shared their results with fellow scientists across the world by distributing pre-prints. With the introduction of arXiv in the 1990s electronic distribution of pre-prints became the norm and since 2014, the Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics (SCOAP3), hosted at CERN, has made around 90% of all HEP journal articles available Open Access. In addition, CERN has entered into Tranformative Agreements with all major publishers to allow easy Open Access publishing for all remaining CERN articles. Thanks to these efforts, more than 90% of the CERN articles are made immediately available in Open Access.
Open Access Statement in the CERN Open Science Policy
All CERN scientific publications are to be made immediately publicly available and reusable. The Open Access Policy for CERN Publications (2014, updated 2017 & 2021) requires that all original research publications by CERN authors are published open access, centrally supported by the CERN Open Access fund. CERN users and visiting scientists are also encouraged to publish their work under similar terms, according to the CERN General Conditions applicable to the Execution of Experiments.
CERN research publications, including submissions to trusted repositories (such as arXiv) should be released under an open licence, with CC-BY as the default standard. Publication-related metadata are made available for reuse under the CC0 waiver in line with FAIR principles. Open access publishing support is also provided for monographs related to CERN experiments or accelerators, applied research processes or technologies, and other areas of relevance.
Key contacts at CERN
- Anne Gentil-Beccot (CERN Open Access Coordinator)
- Kamran Naim (SCOAP3 Operations Manager)