The European Union is set to throw the weight of its £64 billion ($102 billion) research funding program behind open-access publishing, Times Higher Education has learned.
An official at the European Commission, which is drafting proposals for the Horizon 2020 program, said that for researchers receiving funding from its program between 2014 and 2020, open-access publishing "will be the norm." A pilot under way in seven areas of its current funding program will be extended to become a mandate across all peer-reviewed research in the new scheme, which will cover fields ranging from physics to social science. ...