Open Access Week

At Bocconi, Open Access is driven by the library’s commitment to data transparency and researcher support. In 2024, the library hosted “The Benefits of Open Research Data”, an event that highlighted FAIR data practices and stewardship. Bocconi also participates in national CARE-CRUI transformative agreements, which allow affiliated authors to publish open access in hybrid journals without paying Article Processing Charges.

Bocconi integrates OA into a wider research policy framework shaped by Plan S and the SPARC alliance. 

• During the 2024 Open Access Week, Bocconi Library hosted the online event “The Benefits of Open Research Data,” with speakers highlighting the importance of FAIR data, data stewardship, and discoverability. 

Additionally Bocconi participates in national CARE-CRUI transformative agreements, which enable affiliated authors to publish open access in numerous hybrid journals without bearing Article Processing Charges (APCs).

CEU supports openness through the CEU Open Access Fund, which covers publication costs, particularly benefitting early-career scholars and increasing the reach of CEU scholarships. In 2024, CEU marked Open Access Week with a three-day programme that showcased how open publishing boosts visibility and impact. Its read-and-publish agreements extend these benefits further, ensuring CEU research is widely accessible.

CEU operates a dedicated Open Access Fund, augmenting the impact of CEU scholarship and encouraging broad public access for those researchers, even at other institutions that could otherwise not afford access.

• Its library also maintains a range of read-and-publish agreements that waive or reduce publication fees.
• In 2025, CEU marked OA Week with a three-day programme focused on publishing possibilities, the impact of OA on visibility and citation, and CEU’s internal systems designed to raise the profile of CEU OA researchers.

The Cadmus repository anchors EUI’s open access strategy, hosting around 30,000 publications. In 2023, nearly 70% of all new outputs were made openly available, generating over one million page views that year alone. EUI also brings creativity to its outreach: during OA Week, researchers engage not only in info sessions but also in the Open Access Board Games, designed to make OA principles tangible and interactive.

The Cadmus repository is central to EUI’s OA strategy, with roughly 30,000 records and nearly 70% of 2023 outputs openly accessible. 

• Annual usage exceeds one million page views, hence Cadmus plays a pivotal role in disseminating EU-focused research globally.
• EUI also offers its scholars extensive support through transformative publishing agreements with leading publishers. 

For OA Week, the library not only runs infosessions but also creative engagement activities such as the Open Access Board Games, which allow researchers to explore and learn OA concepts in an interactive way.

The Hertie School Library supports an approach to scholarly communication that values the principles of Open Science aiming at the broadest openness, visibility, and impact of its research. 

The Hertie School Library has an Open Access Policy and Publishing Guidelines. They support Open Access through collaboration and membership in numerous initiatives, such as the Directory of Open Access Books, Directory of Open Access Journals, and through consortia Open Access agreements with publishers like Cambridge University Press, Elsevier, Sage, Taylor & Francis, Wiley, and SpringerNature (“transformative” and “DEAL” agreements). The Hertie School also receives funding from the DFG Open Access Publication Funding programme. 

IE integrates Open Access into a culture of Open Science. Through agreements with publishers, including Cambridge University Press, IE researchers can publish open access without cost. The university also organises community-driven events such as the Open Science Meet & Greet Breakfast Series. In June 2025, the series dedicated a session to the fundamentals of OA, exploring repositories, compliance, and visibility over coffee and conversation.

At IE, Open Access is integrated into broader Open Science community activities. 

• Through read-and-publish deals, affiliated researchers can publish OA without incurring costs, and access is complemented by agreements with major presses such as Cambridge University Press. 

Informal knowledge exchange is also fostered through its Open Science: Meet & Greet Breakfast Series. The second session in June 2025 focused on the fundamentals of OA, the role of repositories in preserving visibility, and the types of institutional support available for compliance with OA mandates.

SPIRE, Sciences Po’s institutional repository, contains nearly 12,000 open full-text documents - about 41% of all publications in the system. The repository is a cornerstone of Sciences Po’s open science policy, which obliges researchers to deposit their work. In addition to infrastructure, Sciences Po fosters debate: in 2023, it co-hosted “Open Access and Textbooks: Is a Completely Open Education Possible?” with Bocconi, a dialogue on the future challenges of open educational resources.

SPIRE, Sciences Po’s institutional repository, currently hosts nearly 12,000 full-text items, representing about 41% of the overall repository. 

• Under Sciences Po’s open science policy, researchers are obliged to deposit and share their publications, reflecting the institution’s alignment with cOAlition S and the FAIR principles.
• Sciences Po also contributes to intellectual debates on openness: in October 2023 it co-organised the event “Open Access and Textbooks: Is a Completely Open Education Possible?” with Bocconi, addressing trends and challenges in the transition toward open educational resources. They also promoted a new open access collaborative project at the University of Milan, which includes open access to Mathematics textbooks.

SSE supports OA through its read-and-publish agreements with publishers such as Oxford University Press and Wiley. These arrangements cover APCs, allowing faculty and doctoral researchers to make their work freely available. 

While SSE has a more limited public communications programme on OA compared to some partners, its agreements ensure practical access routes to openness for its research community.

SNSPA contributes to the open access landscape in Romania through DSpace-based repositories and by publishing open access journals in political science and public affairs. In 2025, SNSPA also hosted the CIVICA Libraries Meeting, reinforcing its role as a hub for OA dialogue in the region. These efforts reinforce Romanian research visibility on the international Academia stage.

SNSPA contributes to OA primarily through its DSpace-based repositories and the publication of open access journals in fields such as political science and public affairs. These platforms make Romanian scholarship more visible internationally. 

SNSPA has also served as a hub for regional OA conversations, hosting the 2025 CIVICA Libraries Meeting in Bucharest and participating in national discussions on Romania’s open science strategy.

SGH advances OA through CORA — the Cyber Open Repository of SGH, which disseminates working papers and publications using an interoperable DSpace platform. By hosting CIVICA events such as the 2023 seminar on institutional repositories, SGH has positioned itself as a facilitator of knowledge sharing across the alliance.

SGH’s CORA repository (Cyber Open Repository of SGH) is the university’s dedicated OA platform for disseminating working papers and academic publications. 

• It is fully OAI-PMH enabled, ensuring interoperability with global repositories.
• In 2023, SGH also hosted a CIVICA Research seminar on institutional OA repositories, helping strengthen cross-campus knowledge sharing within the alliance. 

The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) actively promotes open access to research through its institutional repository, LSE Research Online, showcasing work by LSE staff and students. From journal articles and book chapters to working papers and monographs, the repository supports Green Open Access and ensures visibility via indexing services. LSE also supports Gold Open Access through transformative publishing agreements, dedicated funding for journal articles, a pilot fund to support monographs,  and expert guidance from the LSE Library.  

The LSE Open Access Policy allows researchers to retain the rights to make their publications open access under a Creative Commons licence, meeting all funder requirements and supporting the LSE Research Strategy. LSE Press further enhances global engagement by publishing high quality open access books and journals in social sciences under a diamond open access model, further advancing global access to social science research.