Leiden University Open Access Policy

The Executive Board has decided that Leiden University will endorse Open Access.

Our 2017 Open Access policy requires researchers at Leiden University to make all their Leiden affiliated peer-reviewed articles available via LUCRIS and Scholarly Publications (‘green open access’).

Based on Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, The Executive Board expects that as of December 2020 all scholarly and professional articles, book chapters in edited collections, and conference papers that are published by staff members of Leiden University will be made Open Access available in the Leiden Repository after a six-month embargo.

If you do not wish a publication to be made Open Access available, you can send a reasoned request to us by email: openaccess@library.leidenuniv.nl.

This policy came into effect on 3 November 2020. It applies to publications by researchers and also concerns older publications, as Article 25fa has retroactive effect.

Article 25fa specifically does not apply to monographs, dissertations and (master)theses.

Background information

In 2018, the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) and the Minister of Education, Culture and Science concluded a sector agreement aiming to achieve Open Access for all peer reviewed academic articles reporting on research paid for by Dutch public funds.

In 2019 the Dutch Universities launched the national ‘Taverne amendment’ pilot project to speed up the transition to Open Access: on the basis of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act (the Taverne amendment), the universities agreed to allow the published version of an article, book chapter in an edited collection, or conference paper reporting on research that was paid for in whole or in part by Dutch public funds, to become available as open access after a six-month embargo. The pilot project has now been successfully completed.

More information

You can read more on how to proceed on our webpage 'Publish Open Access in Scholarly Publications'.

If you have any questions on this policy, Open Access, embargoes, funding, deals with publishers, or copyright, we will be happy to answer those at: openaccess@library.leidenuniv.nl.