It's beginning!
EU journal replacement set to start this fall. Free OA publishing for all authors from 11 supporting countries. This is Germany's DFG press release:
"New Publishing Opportunities for Researchers: Germany Joins Open Research Europe"
https://www.dfg.de/en/news/news-topics/announcements-proposals/2026/ifr-26-21
Now, if only the funders mandated publication in these journals. Not suggested or supported or funded, but mandated: that all reports funded by the grant are to be published there. May they find the strength to do the right thing.
This would be nice, but there are problems that some funders like to use to defend their inaction. For instance, in Germany, the DFG claims that academic freedom includes the choice of publishing venue. So if they mandated ORE, they would violate the German constitution.
In fact, a slightly related case has been in front of the Germany constitutional court for some years now (but nobody knows when they will take it up).
So this may work in some countries but not everywhere.
What could work everywhere is
1. audit offices (GAOs) checking if Big Deals with commercial publshers is still god use of public money, now that we have the ORE alternative
2. Funders mandating that institutions have to participate in ORE for their members to be eligible for funding.
These two steps should work everywhere. They should also be in the interest of the entitities required to implement them. And they would lead to a huge push in the right direction.
Björn Brembs
Albert Cardona