Since 23 February 2022, Austria has an Open Science Policy (click here to download, in German), as the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) announced in a press release (in German). With this, the country commits to the international open science principles formulated by the Open Science Policy Platform (OSPP). Among other things, FAIR data and the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) play a major role here, but also publishing in open access.
In addition to the use and strengthening of Open Educational Resources (OER), EOSC and FAIR data, the expansion of the Open Access publishing system is emphasised. "Open scientific publishing must become the standard approach as soon as possible" is stated on page 10 of the Open Science Policy Austria. According to the European Commission, open access publishing is one of the key competencies that all researchers in Europe should acquire for the application of open science practices. Furthermore, the document names concrete measures for the expansion of open access: the active support of Plan S, the promotion of common metadata standards in the field of research as well as the recommendation to introduce an open licence for publications and data.
Furthermore, publicly funded scientific publications are to be disseminated via Open Access platforms under open licences. In addition, the evaluation system for researchers and research institutions is to be updated to reflect the principles and practices of open science: The quality of publications should be given more weight in the evaluation process over quantity. "The scientific community needs to regain control over the publishing process in general in line with the principles called for open science and bibliodiversity," it continues: "It needs to direct its efforts towards those stakeholders who are working to develop a less concentrated publishing environment that complies with the principles of open and ethical access."
In Germany, there is currently no uniform national Open Science Policy.
Source: Open Science Policy Austria (bmbwf.gv.at) (in German)