The European Union is set to miss its target of having all scientific research freely available by 2020, as progress towards open access hits a ¡°plateau¡± because of deeper problems in how research is assessed.

Sixty to 70 per cent of universities reported that less than a fifth of their researchers¡¯ peer-reviewed publications are freely available, depending on the type of open access, according to a survey of more than 300 members of the European University Association.

Only one in 10 universities said that more than 40 per cent of their research was published as ¡°gold¡± open access, where there is no delay making it public.

In 2016, EU member states¡¯ science and industry ministers, supported by the European Commission, backed a move to full open access in just four years.

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This??asks members about papers published in 2013, 2014 and 2015, so may not capture all progress made to date.?But?it still concludes that to hit the 2020?target ¡°will require greater engagement by all of the relevant stakeholders¡±.

This chimes with an?EU??released at the end of February?which concludes that?¡°100 per cent full open access in 2020 is realistically not achievable in the majority of European countries participating in this exercise in the foreseeable future¡±.

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Lidia Borrell-Damian, the EUA¡¯s director for research and innovation, said that ¡°unfortunately [full open access] is very difficult to achieve¡± and that ¡°we have reached a plateau in which it¡¯s very difficult to move forward¡±.

Open access had taken off in some subjects ¨C like physics, where the?open access?arXiv?pre-print?platform is widely used ¨C?in which?¡°traditional indicators¡± of journal prestige such as impact factors and other measures of citations were ¡°less relevant¡±, she?explained.

But in most disciplines, these measures were still crucial for burnishing researchers¡¯ career prospects, she added, making it difficult for authors to switch to less prestigious, lower impact factor open access journals. ¡°As long as it [research assessment] is based on these proxy indicators, it¡¯s impossible to change the game,¡± Dr Borrell-Damian said.

This is backed up by the survey findings. The biggest barrier to publishing in an open access repository was the ¡°high priority given to publishing in conventional journals¡±, a hindrance cited by more than eight in 10 universities. ¡°Concerns about the quality of open access publications¡± were also mentioned by nearly 70 per cent of respondents.

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In some disciplines, to publish open access, ¡°you have to be a believer or activist¡± and it comes ¡°at the risk of damaging your own career¡±, Dr Borrell-Damian said.

Echoing a long-standing concern in science, she argued that ¡°we need a whole new system¡± of research assessment that does not rely so heavily on citations and impact factors.

The EU¡¯s flagship Horizon 2020 funding scheme requires grant recipients to publish their findings openly, but this was a far from universal policy for national funding bodies, she added.

A spokesman for the EU Council acknowledged that ¡°more efforts will be needed overall to accelerate progress towards full open access for all scientific publications¡±.

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david.matthews@timeshighereducation.com