OpenAIRE and OpenAIREplus: paving the way to Open Access scientific scholarly information

Abstract

Access to scientific information is an essential element of a thriving European Research Area. OpenAIRE (Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe) supports the Commission’s Open Access policy by providing the infrastructure to support researchers in complying with the EU Open Access mandates. Funded by the EC, it is a highly collaborative pan-European venture, which operates a European Helpdesk System, with Liaison Offices in 27 countries. OpenAIRE, now in its third year, has established a service based on the self-archiving of peer-reviewed articles, where authors deposit a copy of their peer-reviewed manuscript into an Open Access repository at the time of publication. The OpenAIRE portal provides free access to FP7 publications, offers depositing services, and various types of statistics used to measure the impact of the research funds. Recently launched, the OpenAIREplus project extends the service to facilitate access to the entire Open Access scientific production of the European Research Area. Opening up the infrastructure to data sources from subject-specific communities, OpenAIREplus will provide cross-links from publications to data and funding schemes, contributing to Open Linked Data initiatives. It will also link up to research data management systems (CRISs) and will study how it can streamline its data model to the CERIF standard. It is envisioned that publication and project information could be retrievable from OpenAIRE for use in CRIS systems.