National plan for Open Science
The University of Rennes Open Access policy is part of the broader National Open Science Plan launched on July 4, 2018 by Frédérique Vidal, Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation.
France is committed to ensuring that the results of scientific research are accessible to all, researchers, businesses and citizens, without hindrance, without delay and without payment.
This plan makes Open Access mandatory for publications and data from project-funded research. It includes 3 main axes: generalizing open access to publications, structuring and opening research data, and being part of a sustainable European and international dynamic.
The first National Open Science Plan 2018-2021 has led to significant progress: France has a coherent and dynamic open science policy, and the rate of open access French scientific publications has increased from 41% in 2017 to 56% in 2019.
2nd National plan for Open Science (2021-2024)
A 2nd National Plan for Open Science (2021-2024) aims to generalize open science in France.
This new plan continues the ambitious trajectory initiated by the 2016 Law for a Digital Republic and confirmed by the 2020 Research Programming Law, which includes open science in the missions of researchers and teacher-researchers and aims to have 100% of publications open access by 2030. It builds on the National Policy on Data, Algorithms and Source Codes, promoted by the Prime Minister, which aims to facilitate researchers' access to public data by publishing the Charter of State Commitment to accelerate the processing of researchers' requests.
The 4 axes of the 2nd National Open Science Plan:
- Generalizing Open Access to Publications
- Structuring, sharing and opening research data
- Open and promote research-generated source code
- Transform practices to make open science the default
The ambitions of the 2nd Plan
Research is a common good for all
- Generalization of open science practices in France
- Share research data
- Open the software produced by research
- Make open science a common and daily practice
- Accelerate the circulation of information between researchers in order to increase the efficiency of science and thus the multiplication of discoveries.
- Contribute to the democratization of access to knowledge to bring science closer to society, in the spirit of the Law on Research Programming (LPR).
- Extend the data sharing movement, already widespread in astronomy, seismology or genetics, to other disciplines.
Features of the 2nd Plan
- It extends its scope to include research source codes.
- It structures actions in favor of opening or sharing data through the creation of the "Research Data Gouv" platform.
- It multiplies the levers of transformation to generalize open science practices and presents disciplinary and thematic variations.
- It responds to the European Union's ambition to provide each country with a national plan for open science and is a major contribution to France's commitment to transparency in public action within the framework of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), which involves more than 70 countries worldwide.
Focus on a few actions
- Tripling the budget for open science through the National Fund for Open Science and the Future Investment Program: the budget will increase from €5 million to €15 million per year.
- Create "Recherche Data Gouv", the national platform for research data, to promote the sharing and opening of data produced by French research.
- Generalize the mandate to publish open access articles and books resulting from publicly funded research projects.
- Translate the publications of French researchers to promote the dissemination of scientific knowledge: research on climate, biodiversity and health published in English will be translated to make it accessible to citizens, and research published in French by historians or sociologists will be translated to increase their international impact.
- Promote a policy of open source software.
- Valuing and supporting the dissemination of source codes resulting from publicly funded research under an open source license.
- Highlight the production of source code from higher education, research and innovation.
- Develop and enhance open science skills throughout the careers of students and researchers.
- To value open science and the diversity of scientific production in the evaluation of researchers, projects and research institutions.
Source: Le Plan national pour la science ouverte 2021-2024 : vers une généralisation de la science ouverte en France, MESRI, 6 July 2021 [French]
