Scientific work is funded by public money, but the results are often locked away. Large publishers sell them back to universities. This is morally questionable.
Many want to read science, but have to pay for it. For example, in 2023, 68% of Estonian scientific articles were open access. Compared to 2018, this is more, but there is still room for improvement.
Money is a major obstacle. Publishing all Estonian scientists' articles openly would cost almost 6 million euros per year. There is no such money in the scientific system. Therefore, Estonia has not joined the international initiative Plan S.
The cost of publishing articles is high. On average, it costs 4000 euros. In top journals, it can exceed 10,000 euros. Estonia cannot solve this alone, as science is international.
Libraries are trying to find solutions. They are negotiating with publishers. Estonian scientific libraries are working with the Estonian Library Network and international consortia.
Currently, the University of Tartu does not have a central fund to cover article fees. Scientists have to use their project budgets. Some contracts help save money. For example, scientists saved over 100,000 US dollars with one contract.
Large publishers like Elsevier and Springer Nature are still very expensive. The University of Tartu pays almost half a million euros per year for Elsevier journals. The prices for open access articles are rising every year.
In the future, the University of Tartu may establish a central fund. This would help scientists cover publication fees. The Finnish model shows that this can work.
Scientists choose where to publish themselves. They look at the journal's reputation, readership, and costs. Open access is important, but spending huge amounts of money doesn't make sense.
The accessibility of science is important. At the same time, the prestige and peer review of the journal are also important. Some journals are already open access.
The long-term solution is to change the business model of science. A scientist's success should not be measured by the journal's reputation. The Estonian Research Agency has joined a Europe-wide coalition that promotes such changes.
Open science is important, but even more important is the availability of data and open science infrastructure. This is a bigger challenge than open access journals.