Finland

Enabling Environment:

The Finnish Council of University Rectors, representing all 21 Finnish universities signed the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities in 2006.

The Ministry of Education adopted the OECD Declaration on Access to Research Data from Public Funding in 2004 and funds the development of a digital infrastructure through University of Helsinki.

FinnOA working group consists of representative members from university faculty and research staff, scholarly publishers and libraries.

They are working towards OA “green” mandating which has been initiated by University of Helsinki and sustained public funding for OA publishing development. 

Potential Barriers:

Finland is small country and initiatives therefore need to be collaborative; lack of public funding; concern that OA might make small scholarly journals publishing in national languages redundant.

Major Projects/Initiatives:

The Ministry of Education is funding a digital infrastructure initiative in the centre campus of the University of Helsinki, with the aim of supporting scholarly open access publishing and building a supportive infrastructure for OA.

National and Institutional Level Policies/Mandates:

The Ministry of Education officially support OA by funding and recommending it to Finnish scientific institutions.

Funding mandates

University of Helsinki specify mandatory deposit of all research material produced by staff and researchers but this is an institutional rather than a funding mandate. However EU funding supports much of Finland’s research and carries mandatory institutional deposit of publications with funding.

Details of Key Organizations:

Academy of Finland
Overview: To finance high-quality scientific research, act as a science and science policy expert, and strengthen the position of science and research. The Academy works to contribute to the renewal, diversification and increasing internationalisation of Finnish scientific research.

OA mandate: None Although the Academy has now developed an OA policy this is part of its research strategy.

Communication address: Academy of Finland, Hakaniemenranta 6, POB 131, FI-00531 Helsinki; e-mail: info(at)aka.fi

Federation of Finnish Learned Societies
Overview:  A national co-operative body for learned societies in Finland. It issues statements, launches initiatives and makes recommendations relating to academic research, especially when it serves to promote the interests of 206 member societies and a major academic publisher.

OA mandate: Collaborative partner in OA-JES project; Open Journal Systems (OJS) provider as an OA publishing platform.

Communication address: Federation of Finnish Learned Societies, Mariankatu 5, 00170 Helsinki, Finland; e-mail: tsv(at)tsv.fi

FinnOA
Overview: FinnOa is constituted by a group of professionals interested in promoting open access to scientific information. These people come mainly from the academia, libraries and data management. Communication address: FinnOA Chair c/o University of Helsinki, Finland; e-mail: marjut.salokannel(at)helsinki.fi.

National Library of Finland
Overview: The oldest and largest scholarly library in Finland and an independent institute at the University of Helsinki. Responsible for the collection, description, preservation and accessibility of Finland’s printed national heritage and the unique collections under its care. The National Library also serves as a national service and development centre for the library sector and promotes national and international cooperation in the field.

OA mandate: Through developing a digital repository Digitalkoot, NLF makes available archival material (newspapers, maps, papers) to the public using innovative global volunteer resourcing (Microtask) to assist in the project.

Communication address: The National Library of Finland, P.O.Box 15, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland; e-mail: nl-service(at)helsinki.fi

University of Helsinki
Overview: The oldest and largest university in Finland and a leading player in OA initiatives.

OA mandate: has an OA policy – a self-archiving open access mandate. The University’s digital depository, HELDA, contains full-text materials produced at the University.

Past and Future OA Related Activities:

The collaborative OA-JES project followed the adoption of OECD Declaration on Access to Research Data from Public Funding in 2004 and resulted in collaboration and the development of D-space as a repository platform, the development of Open Journals System platform for OA publication and the establishment of FinnOA group as a coordinating body.

One of the key OA issues is the basis for publication subsidies for small scholarly publishers, Finnish language publications and their sustainability within an OA publishing environment.

List of Publications

Academy of Finland (2010) Academy of Finland Strategy.
 
Creelman, A and Forsberg, A (2010) Open educational resources – a resource for learning Sciecom Info Vol.6: 3.

Hedlund, T and Montonen, C (2008) Promoting open access in Finland – the OA-JES project ScieCom info Vol 4: 1.

Hedlund, T (2010) A road map for open access to research results Sciecom Info Vol.6: 2.

Kuula, A and Borg, A (2008) Open Access to and Reuse of Research Data – The State of the Art in Finland. FSD: Tampere.

Open Access Working Group (2005) Recommendations for the promotion of open access in scientific publishing in Finland. Ministry of Education, Finland.

Thorsteinsdóttir, S (2010) OA Mandates and the Nordic Countries  Sciecom Info, Vol. 6, 1.