EU-Funded Researchers: Deposit Books in OAPEN for Open Access Compliance

The European Union requires all peer-reviewed scientific publications—including books and book chapters—resulting from publicly funded research to be made openly accessible. This policy applies to major research programmes including Horizon Europe, Horizon 2020, 7th Framework Programme (FP7), European Research Council (ERC) grants, and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA).

To support compliance, the EU has partnered with OAPEN, a non-profit platform dedicated to open access books. Researchers and publishers can use the OAPEN Library to deposit books and chapters funded by EU programmes in line with the EU’s Open Science and Open Access mandates.

EU Open Access Requirements

Under the EU Open Science policy, researchers must meet five key requirements:

• Immediate Open Access: Books and chapters must be available in open access at the time of publication. Embargoes are not allowed.
• Trusted Repository: Publications must be deposited in a repository that supports open access, persistent identifiers (e.g., DOI), and long-term preservation. OAPEN qualifies as such a repository.
• Open Licensing: A Creative Commons licence (preferably CC BY) must be used, enabling reuse and compliance with FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles.
• Funding Acknowledgement: The publication must clearly state the EU funding source, including the project acronym, grant number, and funding programme.
• Metadata: Standardized, machine-readable metadata must accompany the deposit to enable discoverability and reuse.

These requirements are detailed in Grant Agreement Article 17 (Horizon 2020) and Article 17 of the Model Grant Agreement (Horizon Europe), which outlines beneficiaries’ responsibilities for dissemination and open access.

How to Deposit Your EU-Funded Publication

The deposit process is straightforward and can be completed in three steps:

1. First, go to the OAPEN deposit form to begin your submission.
2. Next, fill out the form with essential information including title, authors, publisher, DOI or ISBN, licensing information (e.g., CC BY), acknowledgement of EU funding (e.g., “This work was funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme under grant agreement No. [XXXXX]”), and upload the open access version of your book or chapter in PDF or EPUB format.
3. Finally, confirm your submission. The OAPEN team will process the deposit and ensure it’s included in the dedicated EU Collection, increasing visibility and ensuring compliance.

Who Can Submit

Authors of EU-funded books or chapters, project coordinators or managers, and publishers acting on behalf of the authors are all eligible to submit. Publishers are encouraged to routinely deposit EU-funded titles to ensure compliance and streamline the process for researchers.

Why Choose OAPEN

OAPEN offers several advantages for EU-funded researchers. It complies fully with EU Open Access mandates, provides long-term hosting and discoverability, and is indexed by major platforms including DOAB and Google Scholar. The OAPEN Library includes a dedicated EU Collection (formerly ERC Collection) and is free for researchers to use, making it an ideal solution for meeting EU compliance requirements while maximizing the impact of your research.

Further Information and Resources

The following resources are available to support you with you OA book publishing journey:

• Read more about the EU’s support for open access.
• View the EU’s open science policy.
• Use the OAPEN OA Books Toolkit to find out more about self-archiving, choosing an appropriate publisher, and what to look for in your publishing agreement.
• Think.Check.Submit. provides a checklist to help you discover what you need to know when assessing whether or not a publisher is suitable for your research.

Please contact us if you have any questions.