Monitor

In the period 2016-2017 VSNU – together with a number of experts working at universities – formulated definitions concerning the monitoring of open access publications. With the aid of these definitions, the universities conducted an official study of open access performance in 2016, the results of which were presented to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science at the end of 2017. This study found that 42% of articles in the Netherlands in 2016 were open access publications. Mid-2018 the percentage of articles published in open access for the year 2017 were published and increased to 50%. 

These percentages should be regarded as an initial monitoring of open access publications. There are still some inconsistencies in terms of validity and reliability amongst the measurements used.

Table 1: Percentages OA publications 2016 and 2017 Dutch universities by category 

Publications per year
Publications per publisher