NWO and Open Access

Why Open Access?

NWO shares the conviction that research results obtained with public funds should be made freely accessible wherever possible. Open and straightforward access to research results facilitates the research having as big an impact as possible and other people throughout the world being able to benefit from the research results. Read more

What is Open Access?

Publications that are the fruit of scientific research can appear in Open Access journals or Open Access books. They are published online and are available to everyone in the world free of charge, irrespective of where a person works. The authors and/or their funding bodies pay for the costs of their Open Access publications. Read more

The Open Access policy of NWO

In 2005, NWO signed the Berlin Declaration on open access to knowledge in the sciences and humanities. NWO deploys a wide range of initiatives to facilitate Open Access and in Europe it is leading the way in this field. In NWO's strategy free access to research results, Open Access, is an action point within the priority 'Encouraging and facilitating knowledge utilisation'. NWO will increase the scope of its Open Access policy and encourage researchers to make the results of their publicly funded research freely available to everyone. Read more

What can you do as a researcher?

By publishing your research through Open Access you give it a greater potential audience. This can increase the visibility of the research and enhance its impact. There are several ways in which you can do this. Read more

How can you gain access yourself?

A good portal to publications and data that are freely accessible is provided by the KNAW's database: NARCIS. See for further details the Links page.