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Despite the deeply entrenched nature of the current publishing system and the significant challenges of transforming it, universities have a unique opportunity to shape the future of scholarly communication.
Awareness of the system’s flaws and negative impact is increasing, along with growing political support and momentum for change.
As such, this briefing describes the current status of academic publishing, highlighting the main factors shaping the system and the key challenges faced by the academic community. It also identifies opportunities for universities to play a leading role in shaping the future of scholarly communication.
For a scholarly communication system that reflects academic values (e.g. integrity, trust, freedom, equity, quality and diversity) and the broader interests of society, universities are encouraged to reflect on six key considerations, ranging from a critical evaluation of the expenditure on commercial research publishing and information products and services, strengthening institutional publishing services and infrastructures, cooperation and engagement with stakeholders and researchers, and the need to accelerate the reform of research assessment.
Europe needs public funding and inclusive equitable access to infrastructure, data and skills to fully benefit from artificial intelligence in research. ...
University R&I, and its synergies with education and service to society, is the premier gateway to the knowledge and skills needed for scientific progress and sustainable societal development. ...
The European University Association welcomes the adoption by the Council of the European Union of the Conclusions on research assessment and implementation of Open Science. ...
This report presents the detailed results from the EUA 2020-2021 Open Science Survey with a focus on research data practices at universities in Europe. ...
The EUA Open Science Agenda 2025 defines the Association’s priorities in this field and describes the current context, challenges and developments envisaged for the coming years. In addition, it out ...
This report specifically presents the findings on Open Access from EUA’s 2020-2021 Open Science Survey. ...
This report presents a collection of seven case studies describing how FAIR competences are being addressed through education and training programmes. The good practices offer examples of successful i ...
This report analyses the place of Open Science in the academic assessment approaches of universities across Europe. ...
This checklist is a guide for universities that wish to further develop their Open Access activities. In recent years, the scholarly publishing system has become much more complex and dynamic. The Ope ...
This report presents the findings of the 2020-2021 EUA Open Science Survey and provides evidence-based recommendations for institutions, researchers, research funders and policy makers on the transiti ...
This report and the accompanying online repository bring together and analyse case studies in responsible academic career assessment. Gathered by EUA, together with the San Francisco Declaration on Re ...
The process to renew the European Research Area (ERA) is gathering pace and is set to continue in the coming weeks, months and years. Building on previous policy positions, this policy input further e ...
EUA Strategic Plan The need for strong universities has never been greater in addressing societal challenges. The Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, resource scarcity, ageing populations, migration a ...
The European Commission’s Industrial Strategy for Europe and the European Digital Strategy launched in the spring of 2020 offer an opportunity for a broad and holistic approach to fundamental challe ...
Based on the data collected for the 2019 Big Deals Survey Report, this publication aims to deliver additional transparency of the dynamics of the scholarly publishing market by providing insights and ...
This report provides a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the current state of research assessment at European universities, and shows why and how institutions are reviewing their evaluation pra ...
The authors of “Plan S” have published revised implementation guidelines. The initiative aims to boost Open Access in scholarly publishing by 2021. EUA welcomes the guidelines, in particular the a ...
EUA and Science Europe have issued a joint statement on the need for research funders and research performing organisations as well as universities to combine their efforts to develop and implement mo ...
The Second EUA Big Deals Survey Report is an updated mapping of major scholarly publishing contracts in Europe. ...
The fourth edition of the EUA Open Access Survey Report tracks European universities’ progress towards Open Access by looking at the degree to which they have implemented institutional policies and ...
This briefing is the first step towards EUA’s commitment to raise awareness and support universities by providing an overview of the key concepts, issues and actors involved in research assessment. ...
The European University Association (EUA) would like to draw attention to the impact the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market will have on European higher education and research. ...
EUA has presented a comprehensive response to the “Plan S” consultation launched by Science Europe. Plan S is aninitiative for Open Access publishing launched in 2018 by an international g ...
On 4 September 2018, eleven national research funding organisations in Europe jointly published the so-called “Plan S”. Its aim is to accelerate the transition towards Open Access to resea ...
EUA has published a Roadmap on Research Assessment in the Transition to Open Science. The main objective is to raise awareness and support the EUA membership with the development of research asse ...
The EUA Big Deals Survey Report: The first mapping of major scientific publishing contracts in Europe presents data from 28 negotiating consortia. The data, which was gathered between July 2 ...
EUA Open Access Survey Report 2016-2017 tracks European universities’ progress towards Open Access by looking at the degree to which they have implemented institutional policies and practices i ...
In parallel with the efforts to persuade researchers to practice Open Science, and the need to develop new research assessment methodologies that fairly assess the scientific quality of the ...
This document presents a set of aims and recommendations for university leaders and National Rectors’ Conferences to assist them in facilitating effective research data management (RDM) and tex ...
EUA has been monitoring developments in the area of Open Science, in particular Open Access to research publications, from an institutional perspective, since 2007. The questionnaire ...
The publication and dissemination of scientific outcomes is part of the backbone of scientific activities. In general, the conditions for publishing and publication usage in recent years hav ...
The European University Association (EUA) welcomes the European Commission's (EC) 14 September 2016 proposal for a Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market. EUA views the proposed Directive ...
The European University Association (EUA) welcomes the European Commission's (EC) 14 September proposal for a Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market. EUA views the proposed Directive ...
This paper presents issues which EUA considers important for universities in addressing the impact of digitalisation and thus which we propose to explore over the coming years in collaborati ...
The European University Association (EUA) strongly supports the “Amsterdam Call for Action on Open Science” launched during the conference “Open Science – From Vision to Action ...
The European University Association (EUA) agreed at its Council meeting on 23 October 2015 on the development of a roadmap to assist European universities in the transition to Open Access (OA). This i ...
The European University Association (EUA) welcomes the European Commission’s (EC) 9 December Communication outlining its intentions to move towards a modern, more European copyright framework. T ...
The Open Access checklist is intended as a general guide to key matters that should be considered when institutions plan to develop a policy on Open Access to research publications. It is primari ...
The response to the European Commission public consultation on “Science 2.0: Science in Transition” has been prepared in coordination with the EUA Research Policy Working Group. ...
The present briefing report is another EUA initiative in the field of Open Access (OA) policies, aiming at providing its membership with an informative policy overview. Its overall purpose is&nbs ...
In January 2007 EUA established a “Working Group on Open Access” for a one year period as a platform of expert opinion to provide both a voice for, and visibility to European universities ...
The Diamond Open Access Recommendations and Guidelines aim to support the Diamond Open Access model and help build a more resilient scholarly publication ecosystem. ...
The European University Association (EUA) welcomes the political agreement reached by the Competitiveness Council on 23 May 2025 on the Council Recommendation on the European Research Area (ERA) Polic ...
The European University Association is pleased to announce the appointment of a new Director of Research and Innovation. ...
On 29 January, the European Commission published its Competitiveness Compass, with a strong focus on research, innovation and skills. ...
On 21 November, the European University Association’s first Research & Innovation Forum took place in Brussels. ...
The DIAMAS (Developing Institutional Open Access Publishing Models to Advance Scholarly Communication) project has recently launched a consultation on the first draft of a set of actionable recommenda ...
With the publication of the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information, the European University Association is pleased to see new efforts to support the openness of the entire research process ...
The DIAMAS project recently developed the Diamond OA Standard (DOAS), a new tool to promote quality in Diamond open access (OA) publishing. ...
On 31 January, the DIAMAS project released the results of its Institutional Publishing Landscape Survey. The key findings are presented in a synopsis –available on Zenodo. ...
Too often, European regulations and directives have been proposed with far-reaching consequences for universities, research centres and the people who work there, but with little or no consideration o ...
The DIAMAS project will organise the webinar “Navigating Europe’s Institutional Publishing Landscape” on Wednesday 7 February at 10:00 (CET). During the event, findings from the project’s Inst ...
Sparc Europe is organising the webinar “Rights Retention. Be the next mover! How to implement a policy supporting rights retention and open licensing in your institution” in the framework of the R ...
In order to better understand the needs, challenges and gaps in policy-making for open access books, the PALOMERA project is launching a survey to gather your feedback. ...
The DIAMAS project recently published the policy brief “Towards an enhanced and aligned institutional publishing landscape in the ERA”, reflecting on the lessons learned after the first year of th ...
EuroScience has opened the call for bids to host the EuroScience Open Forum edition in 2026. ...
The 33rd EAIE Conference and Exhibition will take place from 26–29 September, at Rotterdam Ahoy convention centre. This year’s conference theme is ‘Connecting currents’, celebrating the mariti ...
GRANteD is a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, investigating the existence and emergence of gender bias in the decision-making processes of resea ...
The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) is offering a new programme to help institutional leaders address the reputational, funding and strategic challenges facing universities tod ...
Applications are invited from suitably qualified candidates for 50 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellows (PFs) (two levels of experienced researchers) (25 positions available in Call 1) at CÚR ...
The Global University Network for innovation (GUNi) is launching a HE Leadership & Management Hub designed to become a permanent platform for reflection, dialogue and professional training among h ...
The European University Association (EUA) and the Latin American and Caribbean Space for Higher Education (ENLACES) have published a joint statement ahead of a summit between the two regions’ leader ...
As part of the build-up to the Swedish Presidency conference on "The Potential of Research Data”, the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) Association, alongside its Swedish members, the Swedish Unive ...
The RM ROADMAP project (Creating Framework Conditions for Research Management to Strengthen the European Research Area) will create a roadmap for the future of research management (RM) in Europe and a ...
For European public research and innovation actors, scholarly knowledge is a public good. Publicly funded research and its results should be immediately and openly available to all without barriers su ...
The Federation of Finnish Learned Societies (TSV) is conducting a survey for the EU-funded GraspOS project. The results of the survey will be published by the end of August 2023 in a landscape report, ...
The European University Association, alongside several fellow associations that represent universities and university libraries, has called for the EU’s co-legislators to ensure that the proposed Da ...
On 16 March, the first meeting of the newly recomposed European University Association Expert Group on Open Science (EGOS) took place in Brussels. ...
Ghent University extends a call to researchers interested in pursuing a Marie Skłodowska Curie (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowship, with a submission deadline of 14 September 2023. ...
The DIAMAS (Developing Institutional Open Access Publishing Models to Advance Scholarly Communication) project has recently launched a survey on Diamond Open Access and the institutional publishing la ...
EUA member Universidade Católica Portuguesa at Porto will host the International Conference “University as an epicentre for social responsibility: commitment to people and the planet”, on 19-21 J ...
SEFI - the European Society for Engineering Education is extending an invitation to the 2023 European Convention for Engineering Deans. The convention will focus on leadership in higher engineering ed ...
The call for submissions is now open for the 51st SEFI Annual Conference, entitled "Engineering Education for Sustainability: Reflecting on the role of engineering education for a sustainable world". ...
The call for proposals is now open for OS FAIR 2023 - the flagship initiative of OpenAIRE – which will take place on 25-27 September in Madrid, Spain. ...
The FAIR-IMPACT project recently launched an open call for EOSC FAIR Champions, aiming to select 12 experts to act as ambassadors for FAIR research data, engage their communities and advocate for the ...
Within its efforts to facilitate the uptake and implementation of Open Science, OpenAIRE recently compiled its services for Research Performing Organisations (RPOs) into one package and developed 6 pr ...
The call for projects is open until 22 February 2023. It benefits from a co-funding from the French National Research Agency on projects that fall under the diamond publishing model. ...
On 1 December 2022, the Constitutive Assembly of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) took place, marking the beginning of a new chapter in which a broad coalition of organisations ...
On 21-22 November, members of the European University Association’s Expert Group on Science 2.0/Open Science (EGOS) met in Braga, Portugal, and online for the final meeting of the group in its curre ...
The European University Association is pleased to announce that the Association will sign the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment and join the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA ...
An extensive co-creation exercise throughout the first half of 2022 that gathered the interests and perspectives of 350+ organisations from over 40 countries led to the publication of an Agreement on ...
The European scholarly communication landscape has reached a tipping point in the last decade and is now in rapid transition towards the full-scale adoption of Open Access (OA) as a default practice f ...
Launched in January 2022 as a co-creation exercise, the process of drafting an agreement for reforming research assessment has reached an important milestone. On 8 July, the final version of the agree ...
The EuroScience Open Forum 2022 (ESOF2022) will take place from 13 to 16 July 2022 in Leiden, the Netherlands. Several EUA colleagues will organise and contribute to various sessions during the confer ...
EUA and other associations representing European universities, research performing organisations, research funding organisations, research libraries, and repositories in Europe have released a joint s ...
EUA, together with Science Europe, Dr. Karen Stroobants (in her individual capacity as researcher with expertise in research on research) and the European Commission, is leading the drafting of an agr ...
EUA has signed up to the “Action Plan for Diamond Open Access” which aims to promote a sustainable, community-driven Diamond Open Access (OA) scholarly communication ecosystem. Published on 2 Marc ...
EUA welcomes the approval of the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science and recognises its importance in providing a shared set of standards and actions for the further implementation of Open Science p ...
The EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) 2022 will take place in Leiden (The Netherlands), between 13-16 of July. ...
EUA joined CESAER and Science Europe to call on all publishers to fully respect researchers’ rights and to end the use of restrictions and embargoes. In a joint statement published on 25 May, the th ...
Open science requires a sustainable, trustworthy and comprehensive network of repositories that can support researchers around the world in managing, sharing and preserving their data. Strengthening a ...
Ghent University’s Research Department organises a MSCA Master Class for incoming postdocs on 20 – 21 May 2021. Applications are open until 19 April. ...
EUA joins the global coalition of organisations that endorses the concerns raised by the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) about the report “Data Repository Selection: Criteria that M ...
The FAIRsFAIR project - Fostering Fair Data Practices in Europe – has prepared a series of recommendations for policy enhancement to support the realisation of a FAIR ecosystem and invite policy mak ...
EUA has joined the UNESCO Global Open Science Partnership. The purpose of this partnership is to work towards a global consensus on the transition to Open Science and the adoption of a UNESCO Recommen ...
The EUA Council adopted a statement on 26 October 2018 expressing its concern about the lack of transparency and competition in the scholarly publishing business sector in Europe. The statement, addre ...
During October, the DIAMAS project has been collecting feedback from stakeholders on a set of actionable recommendations for Diamond OA for institutional leaders, funders, sponsors and donor ...
Overall, Open Access is advancing well, but too often, institutional open access policies focus on journal publications, leaving out long-form publications, which are central in certain disciplines. ...
How can universities help their researchers to retain their intellectual property rights and share their work in open access? This upcoming webinar will focus on institutional approaches towards right ...
As the EU embarks on a new push for competitiveness, the role of Open Science is uncertain. While scientific outputs should remain ‘as open as possible, as closed as necessary’, the Open Science c ...
Citizen science has not yet fulfilled its significant potential for research being carried out at European universities. Egle Butkeviciene asks why, and discusses some novel strategies to forge a tran ...
FAIR data is an essential component of the open research ecosystem. In this article, Alexander Refsum Jensenius argues that "FAIRification" can also benefit research-based and research-led education, ...
Open Science and gender equality are two movements with much in common, so why is a feminist perspective on Open Science yet to emerge? Pastora Martínez Samper tackles the question. "Feminism is the ...
Despite a proliferation of initiatives to promote Open Science, many obstacles persist. Here, Jean-Pierre Finance examines the progress that this movement has made and looks to the next steps, includi ...
For Research Europe, EUA’s Vinciane Gaillard and Stephane Berghmans weigh in on recent efforts to rebalance research assessment and look at how it could bring about a much-needed transformation of p ...
Can, and should, quality assurance play a greater role in ensuring that common academic values are respected? EUA’s Maria Kelo examines recent debates on the scope of QA in higher education. Qualit ...
As places of teaching and learning, how can universities tangibly create a culture of togetherness and well-being? Here, Jochen Schellinger explains Bern University of Applied Sciences’ efforts to d ...
Reforming research assessment is a hot topic, as community-driven momentum now meets national and transnational political support. Here, EUA experts that have been closely involved in drafting a landm ...
The European University Association’s Institutional Evaluation Programme (IEP) has outstanding experience in conducting institutional evaluations. Here, our quality assurance experts Elena Cirlan an ...
Education’s digital transition has allowed students to study and researchers to work remotely throughout the pandemic, however we need to ensure technology is not abused and access is open to all. ...
Micro-credentials are expected to widen participation in higher education by supporting inclusion and facilitating access to education. They are also expected to close the skills gaps in the labour ma ...
How can universities address digital and academic sovereignty through jointly coordinated actions in education, research and research assessment? VSNU’s Darco Jansen outlines the Dutch example, prov ...
EU policy makers often fail to consider the specific nature of higher education, research and innovation in legislation aimed to shape Europe’s digital transformation. EUA expert Bregt Saenen explai ...
The quality-led rationale of digitalisation in learning and teaching slowly moves back onto the agenda of higher education institutions – accelerated and enriched by experiences resulting from the C ...
The Covid-19 crisis has led to a widening of the scope and role of internal quality assurance at universities and a shifting of the focus of evaluation practices. With the challenge of ensuring the qu ...
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the European University Association, Andrée Sursock analyses two decades of transformation and renewal in Europe’s higher education landscape, and charts ...
Gathering feedback is a key element in internal quality assurance. However, “closing the feedback loop” requires acting on the data gathered and informing respondents about the subsequent actions ...
UNESCO’s Global Open Science Partnership is well-timed in promoting a much-needed global dialogue on Open Science. EUA expert Bregt Saenen discusses the initiative, its evolving backdrop and why it ...
The Covid-19 crisis led to major push towards Open Access, which is now well on its way to becoming a global reality. EUA Board member Patrick Lévy looks at this key moment in the movement’s histor ...
Learning outcomes are increasingly used in qualifications frameworks and quality assurance processes. As such, they aim to secure and foster public trust among education providers. Yet, against the ba ...
Micro-credentials are growing exponentially in popularity, attracting the interest of various stakeholders due to their flexibility and ability to meet the demands of a rapidly changing labour market. ...
The Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) have led to major developments, however there are now proposals for revisions. EUA expert Tia Loukkola lo ...
As universities across Europe move to online learning and teaching amid the coronavirus crisis, questions might arise about what steps may be needed to ensure quality. EUA expert Tia Loukkola explains ...
EUA President Michael Murphy assesses the challenges and opportunities brought by the coronavirus pandemic to Europe’s universities, in particular in relation to funding, digital tools, Open Science ...
What would be the most effective way forward for universities to promote social dimension in their respective contexts? EUA expert Tia Loukkola discusses the role that quality assurance can play and i ...
Research assessment practices are becoming more accurate, transparent and responsible. This is partly due to the sharp increase in external evaluations of universities that lead to internal evaluation ...
The Swedish Bibsam Consortium is taking a leading role in the transition to Open Access and aims to switch from “read-and-publish” agreements to “pure publish” deals after 2024. This next gene ...
Learning is the core of education, and curriculum design is the key to learning. It combines all dimensions of university education and contributes significantly to its quality. This is, however, easi ...
While Europe discusses its data strategy, the digital transformation must be on the radar of universities. Digital skills, the infrastructure and support for “FAIR” research data management, and t ...
Open Access publishing needs new business models for universities and disciplines that want to support Open Access but are short on resources. Martin Paul Eve explains how the Open Library of Humaniti ...
Scholarly publishing is at a crossroads between commercial vendors and community-driven services. Eloy Rodrigues from the University of Minho makes the case that more research-centric, dissemination-o ...
Why should universities collect formative data at the course level if they aim to make evidence-based improvements in learning and teaching? Murat Sözer and Zuhal Zeybekoğlu from the Koç University ...
This year, EUA’s Institutional Evaluation Programme (IEP) marks 25 years since its foundation. Tatjana Volkova, Chair of IEP Steering Committee, and EUA expert Anna Gover reflect on the benefits tha ...
The quality of student assessment is one of the major concerns in Europe’s universities. Emmanuel Sylvestre from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland discusses the issues related to student ass ...
Will quality assurance as we know it remain relevant amid the changing higher education landscape? What changes are needed? EUA’s Tia Loukkola gives an overview of the diverse questions to be addres ...
The Open University of Catalonia is a signatory to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). The university’s DORA Working Group explains how by becoming a signatory, the universi ...
The transition to Open Science and Open Access is gaining momentum in Europe, making it a shared responsibility for universities and their main partners to review how they incentivise and reward resea ...
How can universities frame their internal quality assurance and shake up the image of the bureaucratic burden? EUA’s Tia Loukkola gives us three approaches and tells us why the most effective proces ...
A recent EUA study stresses that contributing to innovation in society is a central mission of today’s higher education institutions. EUA’s Tia Loukkola examines the role of quality assurance in t ...
New approaches to quality assurance in different regions of the world are contributing to a global dimension in the field. EUA’s Tia Loukkola takes note of frameworks in Africa, Asia and Europe, exa ...
The continuous development of teaching competences needs commitment at all levels. It is a systematic process that requires a framework for teaching performance, a professionalisation body, preferably ...
The EUA Thematic Peer Group on the evaluation of learning and teaching has enhanced a student partnership project at Queen’s University, Belfast. Claire Dewhirst, chair of the Thematic Peer Group, e ...
By Tia Loukkola, Director of Institutional Development and senior quality assurance expert at the European University Association. In Europe, quality assurance has made major strides since the beginn ...
It is at the apex of higher education, research and innovation, but issues around integrity and employability must be addressed for doctoral education to continue to thrive, says Luke Georghiou. Ambi ...
Since the beginning of time scientific research has been based on exchanges between peers: personal letters, books, articles in specialised journals. But the last 70 years have seen a burst in this se ...
The European University Association (EUA) and its Expert Group on ‘Science 2.0/Open Science’ are supporting universities in Europe in the transition to Open Science. Here, Lidia Borrell-Damián, D ...
To address the challenges that the transition of institutional publishing activities towards full Open Access (OA) and Open Science (OS) still faces, DIAMAS will deliver an aligned, high-quality, and ...
EUA has developed its vision for Europe’s universities in 2030. After intensive consultations with more than 100 experts and visionaries from the EUA membership and a wide range of external partners ...
EUA and a coalition of 25 organisations representing national rectors' conferences, national negotiating consortia and libraries supported a study investigating the implications of so-called “Read & ...
Making data FAIR – findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable – is becoming more and more the standard expectation for European research projects. ...
The European Research Area (ERA) reflects the European Commission and EU member states’ ambition to create a single, borderless market for research, innovation and technology across the EU. It was f ...
To shape the future that universities want, we must proactively engage with possible futures. The world is changing rapidly. And with it, universities and their contexts are changing. Among the major ...
Open Science is a shared responsibility, and a successful transition will require a concerted effort from key stakeholders. EUA takes a comprehensive view of the transition to Open Science and works t ...
The EUA-CDE Annual Meeting in 2018 included perspectives from outside Europe. Speakers from Asia, Africa and North America presented our European community with the global dimension of doctoral educat ...
