Barriers and Enablers for Open Science in Copyright Law

Open Data and Intellectual Property Institute ODIPI, together with its research partners, conducted the study “Barriers and Enablers for Open Science in Copyright Law”. The study lays the groundwork for discussions on the need to align copyright law with Open Science objectives. It highlights that even the efforts and activities of Open Science, which legally depend on private licences and contracts, are potentially severely hindered by copyright regimes today. Copyright regimes should be better framed to support research and science and rapidly reformed not to hinder Open Science.

Copyright law is a system of legal rules primarily aimed at encouraging the creation of literary and artistic works while achieving a delicate balance between various societal interests.

Open Science represents a modern approach to the scientific process, emphasising collaboration and innovative methods for disseminating knowledge. It enhances access to and promotes the reuse of research results by leveraging digital technologies and other modern tools for collaboration.

The European Union and its Member States have been actively adopting various strategies, policies, action plans, and legal measures to incentivise the development of Open Science.

Despite all these efforts, significant barriers still remain which limit the development of Open Science’s full potential. Those that may provide the most significant obstacle are the ones created by copyright law.

The study analyses the copyright law of three jurisdictions. Firstly, the provisions of the Slovenian Copyright and Related Rights Act are examined, with a focus on identifying legal barriers to Open Science, as well as possible enablers within the copyright framework. The study then expands its scope to Italy and Croatia. This was done with the help of a comprehensive questionnaire that served as guidance to Italian and Croatian researchers. The questionnaire prepared by ODIPI could serve as a foundation for future analyses of copyright legislation across other European countries. It offers a framework for expanding the scope of the study to a wide range of European jurisdictions.

The study “Barriers and Enablers for Open Science in Copyright Law” was conducted by ODIPI together with its research partners. It is authored by Dr. Maja Bogataj Jančič, Deborah De Angelis (avvocato cassazionista), Prof. Dr. Tihomir Katulić, Mark Bauer and Laura Pipan. The study is issued as part of the Knowledge Rights 21 (KR21) project, funded by Arcadia – a family charitable foundation, through the Knowledge Rights 21 programme managed by IFLA, in partnership with LIBER and SPARC Europe.

ODIPI's comprehensive blog post about the study is available on ODIPI's website here.