All European scientific articles will be in open access by 2020.

If the scientific work was funded by the state or a state-funded fund

Paid access to the results of research that have already been paid from the state budget is nonsense. This hinders the free flow of knowledge and damages everyone. It would seem an obvious thing. But until now the scientific community, despite all the efforts, can do nothing with the mighty publishing lobby. Giants like Elsevier , Taylor & Francis , Springer and Wiley sell subscriptions for as low as $ 2,000 for $ 35,000 for one magazine. Against graduate students from Kazakhstan Alexandra Elbakyan, who launched the free portal of scientific knowledge Sci-Hub, opened a case in America ! The girl is now hiding, probably somewhere in Russia.

Fortunately, the situation will soon change for the better. The good news came today from the EU, where EU ministers responsible for science and innovation came together and unanimously adopted the draft European initiative Innovation Principle , which would finally put an end to the scientific monopoly of journals. According to the new agreements, by 2020, the results of all European scientific research conducted at public expense will be laid out without fail in free access.

“Research and innovation generate economic growth, more jobs and offer solutions for social problems. And that means a stronger Europe, ”said Netherlands State Secretary Sander Dekker, who led a meeting. - To achieve this, Europe must be as open as possible for researchers and start-ups who want to stay here, and for companies that want to invest. This requires the free flow of knowledge. It's time to discuss open access. With these agreements, we are going to put it into practice. ”

Open access means that anyone can freely and freely read any scientific article, if the work was funded by the state or a foundation with state participation. At the moment it is not. Only employees of research teams and universities have free access if the library has paid for a subscription to the corresponding package of the scientific press. Other researchers outside of these institutions do not have access at all. As a result, teachers, doctors and entrepreneurs cannot learn about the latest scientific achievements in their field of activity, and universities have to spend huge sums of money on subscriptions.

In addition to free access, European ministers agreed to introduce a new type of visa for foreign entrepreneurs and startups who want to move to Europe.