The best Open Access policies put researchers in charge, and recent EU Horizon 2020 and COST policies support this.

COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) – an intergovernmental framework supporting cooperation among scientists and researchers across Europe – recently supported an independent Strategic Initiative to better understand issues pertaining to open access publishing across a range of disciplines. Here COST Domain Committee members Marc Caball, Soulla Louca and Roland Pochet, Policy Officer for Open Access at the European Commission, Daniel Spichtinger, and Chair of the COST Strategic Initiative on Open Access, Barbara Prainsack emphasise here that the best pathways to the goal of open access vary across disciplines and across countries and institutions. The individuals best placed to decide what is right for them are the researchers themselves. The European Commission also encourages this position through the adoption of the Horizon 2020 open access regulation which will present researchers with a range of OA options, rather than prescribing one narrow format.