Publishing
NCN Open Access Policy for Publications
2025
New NCN Open Access Policy
On 25 June 2025, the National Science Centre (NCN) announced changes to its open access policy.
Under the new rules, reports may also include articles published under the traditional (so-called closed) model. In addition, NCN has agreed to fund publications in hybrid journals, which was previously not permitted. The rules governing the application of open access pathways remain unchanged—if an author chooses to report a publication as open access, it must meet the requirements of the relevant pathway.
The new rules will apply both to future calls for proposals to be announced in September (based on NCN Director’s Ordinance No. 39/2025) and to projects already in progress (based on a letter from the NCN Director dated 26 June 2025). The updated policy applies only to national calls.
The rules concerning open access to research data remain unchanged.
NCN continues to support the idea of open science, in particular the use of so-called green open access, i.e. depositing a version of the manuscript in recognized disciplinary or institutional repositories, in accordance with the publisher’s policy and applicable regulations.
More information is available on the NCN website.
|
We encourage authors affiliated with the University of Warsaw to share their scholarly output in the spirit of openness and to deposit or archive their work in the UW Institutional Repository. ReIn, as a repository registered in the Open Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR), meets all NCN criteria and standards and is a proven tool for the promotion and dissemination of scholarly output. |
2024
At the end of 2024, the NCN Council adopted resolutions (No. 116/2024 and 130/2024) recommending to the NCN Director not to extend the agency’s participation in the “cOAlition S” consortium beyond 31 December 2024. At the same time, the Council continues to recommend open access publishing – taking into account the specificities of the disciplines – but without imposing an obligation to apply Plan S principles. The grantees will not be obliged to take open access into account when accounting for projects. It was indicated that this decision is due to organisational and financial reasons, among others, and not to give up on the idea of open science.
The table below shows the range of extended amendments effective from the end of 2024, adopted for an open-ended period.
An updated version of the NCN Open Access Manual (December 2024) is available here. The manual contains the rules for publishing research results, as announced by letter from the Director of NCN dated 11 October 2023 and 30 September 2024.
| Type of journal | NCN Policy on Open Access to Publications [Polityki NCN dot. otwartego dostępu do publikacji]
from January 1, 2021 |
Changes – Transition period (Letter from NCN – [Letter from NCN]
2023 |
Extension of the change – open-ended period
(Resolutions No. 116/2024 and No. 130/2024 of the NCN Council; Letter from NCN) 2024 |
|
| Period of application | From competitions announced after 16 June 2020. (contracts signed after 1 January 2021) | From 11.10.2023 to 31.12.2025 (for final reports submitted by 31.12.2025) | Fixed duration | |
| Route 1. | Full open access | The NCN requires that publications that contain outputs resulting from the project are available (including those in AAM or VoR versions) as open access, under a Creative Commons Attribution, CC BY licence.
The Centre recommends the default use of the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 4.0 licence. |
For scientific publications covered by the Policy and made available under Route 1, accept all CC 4.0 licences. | Paper published on the journal’s website (VoR).
No embargo possible. The NCN accepts all CC 4.0 licences. |
| Route 2. | Subscription / Hybrid | In subscription (hybrid) journals, as long as the Version of Record (VoR2) or Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM3) is published directly by the publisher or author in an open repository at the time of online publication (without time embargo).
The repository must be registered in the Open Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) and the VoR or AAM must have a unique permanent identifier (e.g. DOI, URN, UUID, Handle or other). If the version deposited in the repository and the published version are separate versions (AAM and VoR), they should have separate identifiers. |
We accept the embargo on condition that:
– the preprint of this work, as soon as it is published on the publisher’s website, will be made available under a CC BY licence in an openDOAR indexed repository; the preprint must be assigned a PID2 number (DOI or equivalent); and – after the embargo, the AAM version will be made available in an indexed repository in openDOAR. |
Depositing papers in acknowledged domain repositories, such as arXiv or PubMed, increases the visibility of research results. Therefore, in order to facilitate publication under Route 2, we allow preprints to be deposited in situations where it is not possible to make the final version of the manuscript (AAM) available. The preprint should be made available under a CC BY 4.0 licence. Once the embargo has expired, the AAM version should be made available. |
| Route 3. | Transformational (until 31.12.2024),
licensed under a transformation contract (until 31.12.2025) |
The Centre recommends the default use of the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 4.0 licence.
Alternatively, papers may be published in journals, under transformative agreements, under a CC-BY-SA licence. In cases agreed with the Centre, it is permissible to publish the work under a CC-BY-ND licence. |
No change, i.e. for Route 3 as defined in the Policy – CC BY 4.0, CC BY-SA 4.0 or CC BY-ND 4.0 (where justified). | CC BY 4.0, CC BY-SA 4.0 or CC BY-ND 4.0. |
| Research data | Made available under a CC0 licence. | In addition to the CC0 licence, we also accept the CC BY 4.0 licence. | Made available under a CC0 or CC BY 4.0 or other licence that provides the same level of openness and reusability of the data. | |
| APC | Costs related to the publication process, so-called Article Processing Charges (APCs), are eligible for Routes 1 and 3.
Publication fees spent on publishing a paper in a hybrid journal, under Route 2, are ineligible costs for the project and are not eligible for funding from the National Science Centre. |
APC cost eligibility matter – No change (only eligible for Route 1 and Route 3). | APC cost eligibility matter:
Route 1 – APC costs are eligible if the work is published under a CC BY 4.0 or CC BY-ND 4.0 licence. Route 2 – costs are not eligible for NCN funding. Route 3 – APC costs are eligible for transformational journals (publication by 31.12.2024) or covered by a transformational agreement, papers licensed under CC BY 4.0, CC BY-SA 4.0 or CC BY-ND 4.0 (acceptance into print or publication by 31.12.2025). |
|
| Notes | EXCLUDED! The above position applies with the exception of international competitions such as POLONEZ BIS, competitions announced by the CHANSE, CHIST-ERA, ForestValue2, Biodiversa+ networks, as well as GRIEG, IdeaLab and POLS competitions, which are funded by the Norwegian Funds under the Basic Research programme. | EXCLUDED! Projects in the following international competitions cannot benefit from the relaxed rules: POLONEZ BIS, in the competitions announced by the CHANSE, CHIST-ERA and ForestValue2 and Biodiversa+ networks, and in the GRIEG, IdeaLab and POLS competitions funded by the Norwegian Funds under the Basic Research programme. |
Transformative journals – subscription/hybrid journals that have committed to becoming open access journals (for more see: link).
Transformative agreements – agreements between publishers and specific institutions (e.g. national or regional consortia, libraries) whereby a portion of subscription funds are redirected to provide support for open access publishing by authors affiliated with the institutions covered by the agreement.
You can find out more about the Creative Commons licence here.
Information on the UW Office of Research Administration website (link).
2023
In October 2023, the National Science Centre (NCN) published a letter concerning the “NCN Open Access Policy for Publications” (document dated 27 May 2020). It states that the agency is introducing a transitional period and a relaxation of the requirements for making scientific publications available in open access. This decision results from an analysis of information received by NCN from the academic community, including, among other things, the tightening of publishers’ policies, which prevent project beneficiaries from publishing in open access under the terms set out in the Policy.
Information on the website of the UW Research Support Office.
Open Access Publishing Programs under the Virtual Library of Science (Wirtualna Biblioteka Nauki WBN) License
The Virtual Library of Science (WBN) is a program for the acquisition and provision of global knowledge resources in electronic form—journals, books, and databases—for Polish academic and research institutions. The program is co-funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and is implemented largely by ICM. Under WBN, access to resources hosted on publishers’ servers is purchased through annually renewed licenses; however, a significant portion of the resources is continuously archived on the Infona server at ICM, which ensures perpetual access to the archives in the event of temporary or permanent loss of access to publishers’ servers, in particular if a license is not renewed.
Under the national license of the Virtual Library of Science, the Ministry of Education and Science has launched an open access publishing program and covers the costs of publishing articles in the Open Access model in selected journals. A full list of agreements is available in the section Menu -> Informator -> Publikowanie otwarte.
Contact for the University of Warsaw community regarding publishing programs
mgr Karolina Minch
Administrator / Approval Manager for UW regarding agreements with publishers: Elsevier, Springer-Nature, Taylor & Francis
Email: oa.buw@uw.edu.pl
Phone: +48 22 55 25 285
Copyright Law
Websites
Ministry of Culture and National Heritage
World Intellectual Property Organization
Directives
Books
- Copyright law in an age of limitations and exceptions, New York 2017 – BUW Wolny Dostęp K1420.5 .C67 2017
- Copyright law in the digital world : challenges and opportunities, Singapore 2017 – call number: BUW Wolny Dostęp K1420.5 .C677 2017
- Sara Bannerman: International copyright and access to knowledge, Cambridge 2016 – call number: BUW Wolny Dostęp K1420.5 .B36 2016
- Paul Goldstein, P. Bernt Hugenholtz: International copyright : principles, law, and practice – call number: BUW Wolny Dostęp K1420.5 .G65 2013
- Copyright and piracy : an interdisciplinary critique, Cambridge 2010 – call number: BUW Wolny Dostęp K1485 .C67 2010
E-Books
Szczepańska Barbara, New copyright law of Poland. Analysis of library related provisions, 2016
Law
Free distribution of knowledge and Creative Commons licenses
Creative Commons licenses are an international project that offers free legal solutions for authors to manage copyright. The idea appeared in the United States in 2001. Model CC allows you to replace the traditional legal solution “all rights reserved” (copyright) with the solution “some rights reserved”. The author retains their personal rights, but allows others to use their works for free, that is to copy and distribute them. They only need to decide if they want derivative works (e.g. translation, adaptation) to be made on the basis of their work and if they allow the commercial use of their work and derivative works.
There are four basic conditions of a CC license:
- (BY) Attribution – it is allowed to copy, distribute, display and perform the work or derivative works and remixes based on it if they give the author or licensor the credits (attribution),
- (NC) Non-commercial – it is allowed to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work or derivative works and remixes based on it only for non-commercial purposes,
- (ND) No Derivative Works – it is allowed to copy, distribute, display and perform only verbatim copies of the work. It is not allowed to make derivative works.
- (SA) Share-alike – it is allowed to distribute derivative works only under a license identical (“not more restrictive”) to the license that governs the original work.
On the basis of these four conditions six Creative Commons licenses have been created:
- CC-BY – Attribution 4.0
- CC-BY-SA – Attribution – Share-alike 4.0
- CC-BY-NC – Attribution – Non-commercial 4.0
- CC-BY-ND – Attribution – No Derivative Works 3.0 Poland
- CC-BY-NC-SA – Attribution – Non-commercial – Share-alike 4.0
- CC-BY-NC-ND – Attribution – Non-commercial -No Derivative Works 3.0 Poland
Their detailed description can be found on the Creative Commons website.
There is also the so called CC zero license. It indicates works which are in the public domain. These are works not covered by copyright restrictions. This occurs when the work has never been subject to the copyright law or when the author’s economic rights have expired (70 years after the author’s or the last co-author’s death, from the date of the distribution or fixation of the work). A work from the public domain may be used and distributed also for commercial purposes without permission of the author. However, you must be aware of the need to respect the moral rights (i.e. to give, if possible, the names of the creators).