ANECA promotes the democratization of knowledge with its policies of open access to research results

It has been two years since the measures adopted by ANECA to promote the use of open access repositories and the result is overwhelming: repositories of research results have increased significantly, facilitating and democratizing access to knowledge.

Since 2011, Spain required university faculty and research staff who had received public funding to deposit their scientific publications in open access repositories. However, progress was not being as desired, despite the fact that since 2022 this requirement was extended to other research results and that university and scientific institutions had already developed the necessary infrastructures.  

To correct this dynamic, in 2023, ANECA took the decision to incorporate the legal obligation to deposit all research results as an assessment criterion in the calls for evaluation of research activity that it carries out annually and to which researchers apply every six years (known as ‘sexenios de investigación’).
The director of ANECA, Pilar Paneque, explains that “this measure is essential to reinforce the transparency and reproducibility of research, also guaranteeing a secure digital preservation of scientific results, through standardized and interoperable metadata, and avoiding dependence on commercial platforms”. 

This strategic decision by ANECA has led to a paradigm shift in the behavior of the research community. The consequences are beginning to be visible in institutions such as the University of Granada, which is already experiencing the results of implementing this new policy.
A letter published on October 7 by the prestigious journal Nature (“Incentives accelerate progress on open access in Spain”) highlights how the measures adopted by ANECA have significantly accelerated the adoption of the new open access model in Spanish universities. The journal points out that the University of Granada has registered historical peaks of deposited publications coinciding with the last two ANECA calls: 16% of all deposits made in the last decade were concentrated in those months, demonstrating the effectiveness of the incentives designed by the National Agency.

The authors of the publication agree in highlighting ANECA's action. Daniel Torres (University of Granada), states that "ANECA has shown a remarkable shrewdness and courage in implementing policies that transform the incentives for scientific evaluation. In a still changing environment, its leadership offers a clear example of how it is possible to move towards a more open, responsible and aligned evaluation with the values of contemporary science“; and, Wenceslao Arroyo (INGENIO) highlights that ”ANECA is implementing innovative evaluation measures in a European context that is still in an early stage of transformation. Its commitment to effectively apply the principles of the international movement for research assessment reform (CoARA) demonstrates a real commitment to open science and places Spain as one of the pioneering countries in this new way of understanding assessment."

This recognition by Nature magazine places ANECA as a catalyst for the transformation of the Spanish scientific ecosystem towards open access. 

In its commitment to improving the quality of the university system and with initiatives such as this one, ANECA not only favors the social impact of research and the conception of knowledge as a common good, but also positions Spain as an international benchmark in open science policies.