Norway is a leader in establishing incremental but comprehensive Open Access policy. As a participator in Plan S, funded research in Norway must be made openly available immediately upon publication.

We outline the history of Norway’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 often free to reuse for scholarly purposes.

The benefits of publishing Open Access include gaining more citations with 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 Norway

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

• 2004: The Current Research Information System in Norway (CRISTIN) is launched, serving as the national information system.
• 2005: A White Paper is published highlighting increasing subscription fees and calls for depositing research in open repositories.
• 2009: The Research Council of Norway (RCN) signs the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities.
• 2014: The RCN start paying article processing charges (APCs) for scholars publishing in Open Access journals.
• 2016: The Norwegian government appoint a working group to draft national guidelines for Open Access.
• 2017: The National Guidelines for Open Access are published. These set the goal of making all publicly funded research openly available by 2024 and shift to priortising gold OA.
• 2017: The RCN publish their data policy, which states data should be “as open as possible, as closed as necessary” and adhere to FAIR principles.
• 2018: The RCN sign and support Plan S and the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA).
• 2020: The RCN align their policies with Plan S, mandating full and immediate access to funded scientific publications.
• 2022: Sikt is established as a merger between the Norwegian Center for Research Data, Uninett AS, and Unit.

Norway is an early adopter of Open Access policy, with the government recognising the impact of rising subscription fees in 2005. They have consistently and cautiously introduced OA policies that are comprehensive and support researchers through funding and infrastructure.

International initiatives

Norway participates in various international initiatives relating to Open Access.

Plan S

The RCN was one of the original signatories 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 (Findable, Accessible, Interoperability, Reusability) research outputs and building a network between data repositories and services.

In 2021, the Ministry of Education and Research appointed the RCN to be formally admitted as a member of the EOSC Association. The RCN has a statutory role representing the interests of Norwegian research system.

As of 2025, the key strategic aim of developing EOSC is to enable the open sharing and reuse of research outputs.

Horizon Europe

Norway 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 Norway

In line with Plan S, the Research Council of Norway requires full and immediate Open Access to all scientific publications from projects that they fund.

Openness can be achieved in three ways:

1. Publish in a fully OA journal or platform.
2. Publish in a subscription journal and share the work in an open repository.
3. Publish OA in a subscription journal under a transformative agreement.

The RCN covers costs for OA publication, including APCs, as part of the indirect costs to the institution where the researcher is employed.

The RCN support their policy by explaining

Open access to scientific publications promotes research and society’s use of its results. It ensures researchers, business, the public sector and the wider society access to the latest and most updated research.

RCN policy on books

Again, the RCN align their books policy with Plan S.

There is no uniform policy but a set of recommendations in line with other Plan S principles. This states that all funded books must be made OA, with a maximum of 12 months embargo after publication. The work requires a CC license.

The costs of publishing without an embargo period can be covered by the RCN.

RCN data policy

Since 2014, the RCN have set requirements for the secure storage and accessibility of research data.

This was updated in 2018 with the requirement that researchers produce and submit data management plans.

A 2023 White Paper outlined the need for Norway to make better use of data and ensure they are openly accessible. This also includes developing up-to-date data infrastructure to encourage sustainable and ethically responsible data-driven research.

It is likely that the RCN will further refine and create stricter data guidelines and requirements going forward.

RCN open science policy

The RCN’s policies include broader aspects that address open science. The Council

seeks to lead the way in making research as open as possible and as closed as necessary.

They outline key focus areas of open science:

• Participation, involvement, and citizen science.
• Reforming research assessment.
• Making research data FAIR.
• Data infrastructure and European Open Science Cloud.
• Open Access to publications and Plan S.

This reflects Norway’s comprehensive commitment to opening science, which involves considerations for scientists’ careers, the public, and international cooperation.

Sikt

Sikt, the Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research, is the national coordinator for work with Open Access and lead negotiator of consortia agreements.

Its main goals are:

• Increasing the share of open publications.
• Improving access to research data.
• Strengthening research collaborations on a national and international level.

The organisation supports research institutions by providing data management plan tools, research data archives, and publication repositories.

openscience.no

Sikt hosts the website openscience.no, which provides information and services relating to open science.

The website is a hub for researchers, research administrative communities, academic libraries, academic publishers, and the press.

It focuses on monitoring the growth of OA and provides access to the Open Science Toolbox and FAIR services.

CRISTIN and NORA

Sikt hosts both CRISTIN and NORA, which are the leading aggregators for research in Norway.

CRISTIN, launched in 2004, documents all scholarly publications by Norwegian researchers.

The platform will be integrating with the National Research Archive (NVA) to establish a combined research information and knowledge archive in one system. The service will provide an overview of Norwegian research, make publications openly available, and facilitate the reuse of metadata.

NORA, also known as the Norwegian Aggregator, harvests around 70 Norwegian institutional repositories. This includes the many university repositories that are hosted in Norway, including the University of Bergen Open Research Archive and the University of Oslo DUO Research Archive.

Norway’s Open Access statistics

Norway has drastically shifted from subscription-only to open publication of its scholarly research. According to InCites data (Clarivate) extracted in February 2025:

• 2013: 56% of articles and reviews were subscription-only and 44% were Open Access.
• 2018: 34% of articles and reviews were subscription-only and 66% were Open Access.
• 2023: 16% of articles and reviews were subscription-only and 84% were Open Access.

As you can see, even before the Open Access guidelines were published in 2017, nearly half of Norway’s scholarly publications were OA. Since then, as the RCN has refined its policies and more infrastructure has been developed, OA has become the primary form of publication in Norway.

Future trends

Norway has been described as a “cautious forerunner” in its approach to Open Access policy. There has been an incremental but ultimately comprehensive implementation of a strategy which aims at achieving full Open Access.

This approach has expanded into various areas of open science and included alignment with European initiatives, especially Plan S.

Therefore, Norway will likely continue to align with European policy and support researchers with funding and infrastructure.

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 Norway’s developing Open Access policy and pre-empt any stricter legislation by publishing with 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.

Norway has a strong, comprehensive Open Access infrastructure and policy. Click here if you would also like to learn more about Open Access around the world.