Geoghegan-Quinn: 'Open Access Is The Default'

European Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn tells DW why Open Access to new scientific research is vital for the public, and why traditional publishers know it's time to change.

DW: Open access, as you have said, is a major initiative by the European Commission. This year, we've had scientists threatening to boycott the traditional publishers of scientific research, the journals. And you now want scientists to make their research publically and freely available. Why is that?

Máire Geoghegan-Quinn: Well, we would like to see a situation where the information and research that is publically funded by the taxpayers of Europe in each of the member states, and taxpayers generally for funding that they give to the European Commission, that the results of that would be available as quickly as possible and we've proposed two aspects. One aspect is Green Open Access, as it's called, and the other is Gold Open access. [Gold Open Access: immediate public access to new research articles, with the European Commission reimbursing any upfront publication fees carried by scientists. Green Open Access: articles made available within six to 12 months, depending on the area of research.]