Norwegian researchers get access to free, open access publishing

"Open publication channels make publicly funded research freely available to everyone. This helps to raise confidence in research and means that knowledge is put to use more quickly," says Norwegian Minister of Research and Higher Education Sigrun Aasland.

"Through this platform, it will be both free for everyone to read research articles and free for researchers to publish," says Aasland.

Open Research Europe (ORE) was established by the European Commission in 2021 to provide EU-funded researchers with a free open access publishing platform. The platform has grown steadily, with over 1,200 published articles and more than 6,300 authors from over 3,000 institutions worldwide.

Relaunch in September 2026

The platform is now entering a new phase run by a consortium of research funders and institutions in several European countries, including the Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Slovenia and Norway. Researchers from all participating countries will have equal opportunities to publish openly. This means that Norwegian research communities will now have access to open access publishing, rapid sharing of results and greater visibility internationally.

"Open Research Europe is a joint boost for open science and an important step on the way to solving many of the challenges of the current system for scientific publishing. I am very pleased that we are now part of this European collaboration," says Mari Sundli Tveit, Chief Executive of the Research Council. The European Commission will continue to finance a large share of the ORE, but governance and strategic development will be taken care of by the participating countries.

The European Organisation for Nuclear Research, CERN, has operational responsibility for the platform, which will be relaunched in September.

Diamond model and open peer review

ORE follows the so-called diamond model for open access publishing, where it is free to read and publish research articles.

ORE combines quality and transparency through the "Publish-Review-Curate" model, where articles first undergo a standard check, before they are published and undergo an open peer review.

The assessments are visible to everyone, and finished articles can be presented in subject-specific collections.

The model of open assessment and sharing of research results, including methods, data and zero findings, strengthens verifiability, research integrity and transparency, which are important elements of Norwegian publishing policy.

The ORE initiative responds to the call in the Norwegian strategy for scientific publishing after 2024 that research funders should support alternative publication channels to meet the challenges of the current system.

A strengthened role for the research community

In the time ahead, the research communities themselves will have a clearer role in the development of ORE's publishing practices. The ORE platform will help to further develop mechanisms for ensuring research quality through the use of open peer review. It will support the sharing of different types of research results and contribute to the sharing of research data, software, methods, reproduction studies and "null findings"/negative results.