Research performance measurement under various mandates on Open Access

Open Access is becoming more and more accepted, both in the academic community and in science governance. In this study we compare two studies of Open Access publishing, under two different mandates. The data collection in both studies differed, while the methodology to calculate indicators for three relatively small countries in Europe was similar. The indicators relate to output and impact measures, for Denmark, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. The choice for these three countries is made on the basis of the similarities between the science systems, the organization of the local university system, the funding structures, and the fact that these three countries are, after the US, the three countries that have dominated global rankings on the national level for almost 20 years.

The data for the study stem from two different studies. The first was a study commissioned by the Dutch government, in order to monitor the development of Open Access publishing by the Dutch academic community, after the declaration of the Dutch Open Access mandate in 2014. The second set of data stems from a recent study measuring the impact of publications registered in the OpenAIRE system, and forthcoming from European FP-7 funding. Results between the two studies differ, mainly due to the differences in the level of analysis and the definition and operationalization of Open Access in both studies.