Italy has a strong open science culture that has grown consistently, with support from community initiatives, the government, and the European Union. A national plan was published in 2021 that sets out the country’s mission to achieve full Open Access in Italy.

We outline the history of Italy’s mandates and current policies for those looking to submit research or read it.

Open Access is the new paradigm

Open Access refers to a publishing model for scholarly research that makes information immediately available to readers at no cost. This research is also free to reuse for scholarly purposes.

The benefits of publishing Open Access include gaining more citations and a greater impact, reaching a wider audience, advancing scientific innovation, retaining copyrights, and increasing the potential for collaboration and recognition. Open Access can also help institutions like universities and research agencies in low- and middle-income countries by removing any price barriers to academic research.

History of Open Access in Italy

Italy has gradually increased the requirements for publishing work as Open Access. Here is a brief history of Open Access in Italy:

• 2004: Delegates from Italian universities convened in Messina to publicly express support for the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities.
• 2006: The Conference of Italian Universities Rectors (CRUI) established a working group on Open Access (OAWG).
• 2007: OAWG published Guidelines on Depositing Doctoral Dissertations in Open Access Repositories, which is implemented by many universities.
• 2013: Parliament passed a law that research results funded at least 50% by public funds must be published Open Access.
• 2014: The Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR) mandated Open Access to publications and datasets arising from funding programmes for young scientists.
• 2015: The Associazione italiana per la promozione della scienza aperta (AISA), a non-profit organisation aiming to advance Open Access to knowledge, was founded.
• 2018: Italy joined Horizon Europe.
• 2019: MIUR published a draft policy including the requirement to publish research outputs in an Open Access format.
• 2021: open-science.it, a portal that offers information and resources for different types of users, is launched.
• 2021: Programma nazionale per la recerca, the Italian National Plan for Open Science, is published by the National Research Programme (PNR).
• 2023: The Italian National Research Council (CNR) approved a roadmap for implementing open science practices and policies within the CNR.

There has been consistent engagement with open science across various Italian governmental and funding bodies since the Berlin Declaration was signed by universities at the Messina conference.

This demonstrates the broad support for Open Access in the Italian academic publishing landscape. Supporting bodies include CRUI, MIUR, PNR, and CNR, among others.

International initiatives

Italy participates in various international initiatives relating to Open Access.

Plan S

As part of the EU, Italy is part of the international initiative cOAlition S, which is built around Plan S.

Plan S mandates “full and immediate Open Access to peer-reviewed scholarly publications from research funded by public and private grants”. This is supported by ten principles that address copyright, transparency, and criteria, among other things.

Additionally, cOAlition S provides guidance for the implementation of Open Access, news about the movement, and two services for scholars, the Journal Comparison Service and the Journal Checker Tool.

European Open Science Cloud

The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) helps users find and access data and services for research and innovation. It focuses on FAIR research outputs and building a network between data repositories and services.

Italy is part of the Cloud’s Tripartite Governance, which involves strategic coordination between the European Commission, EOSC, and its member states. As of 2025, the key strategic aim of developing EOSC is to enable the open sharing and reuse of research outputs.

Italy is involved in dialogue and strategic coordination of policy implementation objectives.

Horizon Europe

Italy joined Horizon Europe in 2018.

Horizon Europe will last until 2027 and has a budget of €95.5 billion. Its aims are to facilitate collaboration and strengthen the impact of research and innovation in developing, supporting, and implementing EU policies whilst tackling global challenges.

Accordingly, Open Access is mandatory for researchers receiving funding. This is so Horizon Europe can support the “creating and better dispersing of excellent knowledge and technologies”. Its aims revolve around tackling climate change, achieving the UN’s SDGs, and boosting growth.

If you want to learn more about the EU’s Open Access policy, we have an article on the topic.

Current Open Access laws in Italy

In 2013, the Italian Parliament passed a law that requires the results of research funded by at least 50% of public funds must be made Open Access.

However, this policy was not monitored nor enforced in a way that ensured publications were made Open Access.

The Conference of Italian University Rectors (CRUI) is an association of state and non-state universities that has a large influence on developing university systems. Their 2007 Open Access Working Group established the widespread practice of depositing doctoral dissertations in open repositories.

Further, in 2013, the majority of Italian universities adopted the Institutional Research Information System, which involved the adoption of open institutional repositories.

According to OpenDOAR, as of 2024, there are 145 Italian open repositories, most of which are institutional.

Alongside this, CRUI primarily focuses on establishing transformative agreements with various scholarly publishers to secure access to research.

Therefore, the practice of Open Access in Italy has largely been driven by the desire for open publication, rather than any strict mandates or requirements.

Italian open science initiatives

In 2015, the Associazione italiana per la promozione della scienza aperta (AISA) was formed. This is a non-profit organisation that aims to advance Open Access to knowledge. Its mission includes spreading open science culture, publishing studies on the implementation of open principles, training, international cooperation, and awareness raising.

In 2021, open-science.it was launched by the Institute of Science and Information Technologies of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR). This serves as a portal offering information and resources for different users, including researchers, research institutions, funding agencies, and citizens.

Italian National Plan for Open Science

In 2021, the Programma nazionale per la recerca 2021–2027 was published by the National Research Programme (PNR).

This aims to fully implement open science in Italy. They argue that

Open science increases the effectiveness of collaborative work and ensures that research results can be reproduced. It increases collaboration possibilities, by ensuring the access to research data and their reuse for new analysis, also in interdisciplinary projects and for training purposes. At the same time, the open science improves the usability of scientific knowledge by making it more transparent, to the benefit of the whole society.

The Plan centred around five key aims, which represent a comprehensive strategy to achieve open science.

1. Open Access to scientific publications.
2. FAIR research data.
3. Update and reform research evaluation.
4. Grow open science community and participate in European open science culture.
5. Build infrastructure for research data on public health.

Each of these aims are supported by various goals and principles, centring around forming an open, transparent, fair, and inclusive research system.

This comprehensive plan focuses not only on the outputs of research, but on infrastructure, incentives, and research assessment. Thus, it aims to support researchers in a sustainable transition to open science.

Italy’s Open Access statistics

Italy has drastically shifted from subscription-only to open publication of its scholarly research. Here are some statistics from Scopus:

• 2013: 66% of articles were subscription-only, 10% were green Open Access, and 13% were gold Open Access.
• 2018: 54% of articles were subscription-only, 14% were green Open Access, and 24% were gold Open Access.
• 2023: 35% of articles were subscription-only, 5% were green Open Access, and 57% were gold Open Access.

The share of subscription-only articles has halved whilst gold Open Access has increased by 44% from 2013 to 2023. This growth has been achieved without any strict mandates or requirements for researchers.

Future trends

Some organisations criticise the state of open science in Italy.

For example, in 2017, the University of Milan described the poor awareness of Open Access in the country. And more recently, in 2024, AISA criticised CRUI’s focus on transformative agreements, stating they are not sustainably spreading Open Access.

Nonetheless, Open Access in Italy is growing gradually and consistently without any significant national mandates.

This shows there is support and belief in open science across the country, and that researchers are actively openly publishing their work.

Ultimately, this strong base of support will likely be furthered by developments in Plan S and Horizon policies alongside Italy’s participation in them. Further, the country’s Recovery and Resilience plan highlights research as a key part of its aims, with a focus on enhancing open science infrastructures.

As such, open science is likely to continue to grow and be consolidated by policies and infrastructure in Italy.

Value of Open Access

All articles published by MDPI are made immediately available worldwide under an Open Access license. This means:

• Everyone has free and unlimited access to the full text of all articles published in MDPI journals;
• Everyone is free to re-use the published material if proper accreditation/citation of the original publication is given;
• Open Access publication is supported by the authors’ institutes or research funding agencies by payment of a comparatively low Article Processing Charge (APC) for accepted articles.

Researchers can satisfy Italy’s developing Open Access policy and pre-empt any stricter legislation by publishing in an MDPI journal. Alternatively, if you want to publish an early version of your article, try Preprints, our service for publishing early versions of research that are not peer-reviewed and report on either ongoing or complete research.

Open Access makes vital information accessible to all readers and researchers and brings together scholars from across the world. Thus, it is ideal for tackling global challenges that require urgent and coordinated attention.

Italy has a strong, growing Open Access community. Click here if you would also like to learn more about Open Access around the world.