CASRAI Dictionary

Tag: open research europe platform

  • Open Research Europe Impact Factor & Indexing

    Open Research Europe has no official Clarivate Journal Impact Factor (JIF), and by explicit policy it never will. The European Commission’s open-access publishing platform for Horizon Europe and Horizon 2020 beneficiaries deliberately rejects journal-level metrics in favour of article-level indicators, aligning itself with the DORA Declaration and the Leiden Manifesto.

    Open Research Europe (ORE) is a no-fee, open-access publishing platform launched in 2021 by the European Commission, built on F1000-derived publishing infrastructure, that carries Horizon Europe and Horizon 2020-funded research through an author-driven, post-publication open peer-review process. That structural choice — publish first, review openly afterwards — is precisely what makes the “impact factor” question harder to answer than a simple yes or no, and it is why ORE’s Scopus listing and its absence from Web of Science are so often confused with each other.

    Does Open Research Europe Have a Journal Impact Factor?

    No. Open Research Europe has never held a Clarivate Journal Impact Factor and has stated it will not pursue one. The COST-ORE webinar Question and Answer document is unambiguous on this point: “Open Research Europe does not have an Impact Factor (IF) and will not have one in the future.” This is a design decision, not a shortfall — ORE is structured around article-level metrics rather than a single journal-wide citation average.

    Some third-party indexing directories nonetheless display a figure they label an “impact score” or “Impact IF” for ORE, often citing a value around 1.4–1.9. These figures are not the Clarivate JIF. They are derived from Scopus citation data by commercial indexing-metrics sites, and they should not be quoted on a CV or grant application as a Journal Impact Factor, because no such official figure exists for ORE.

    What Does Scopus Indexing Mean for ORE Articles?

    Scopus indexing means an ORE article has cleared enough of a quality bar — completed open peer review, stable versioning, sustained publication activity — to be catalogued in Elsevier’s abstract-and-citation database. Per LIBER Europe’s ORE FAQ, articles are included in Google Scholar immediately on publication, but are only picked up by Scopus and Inspec once they pass peer review.

    Scopus coverage delivers three concrete benefits for authors:

    • Discoverability — articles surface in the citation searches institutions and publishers run by default.
    • Evaluator recognition — many national assessment exercises and promotion committees treat Scopus coverage as a baseline quality signal.
    • Citation tracking — Scopus data feeds the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR), the metric ORE actually reports in place of a JIF.

    According to SCImago Journal & Country Rank (data as of March 2026), ORE sits in the Q2 quartile of the Multidisciplinary category for 2023, 2024 and 2025, with an SJR of 0.391 in 2025 — up from 0.280 in 2023.

    Is Open Research Europe Indexed in Web of Science?

    As of mid-2026, Open Research Europe is not indexed in Clarivate’s Web of Science (WoS) core collection, though WoS inclusion is a stated ambition for the platform. This matters directly for the impact-factor question, because Web of Science coverage is the prerequisite Clarivate requires before it will calculate a Journal Impact Factor for any title.

    In practice, this means ORE’s absence from WoS and its absence of a JIF are the same fact stated two ways: no WoS record, no JIF eligibility. Researchers who need WoS-indexed output for a specific funder or national assessment requirement should verify ORE’s current WoS status directly before submitting, since indexing applications are described by ORE itself as ongoing.

    Why Does Post-Publication Peer Review Complicate the Comparison?

    ORE publishes an article before formal peer review begins, then runs an open, invited, named-reviewer process afterwards — authors must nominate at least five potential reviewers and keep sourcing names until two reports are published. Each revision produces its own version with its own DOI, so a single ORE article can exist as multiple citable, indexable records.

    LIBER Europe’s FAQ flags a genuine downstream problem this creates for librarians and indexers: databases that ingest every version risk flagging near-duplicate records for removal, while databases that keep only the latest version may lose citation history from earlier versions. This versioning mechanic — not just the absence of a JIF — is a structural reason why ORE resists being scored on the same axis as a conventional subscription or hybrid journal.

    How ORE’s Citation Data Compares, Year by Year

    Article-level growth is the metric ORE wants evaluated, and the underlying Scopus-sourced data shows a platform still scaling rather than a mature, steady-state journal.

    Year Documents published SJR Total cites Cites per document
    2022 117 — 87 1.554
    2023 151 0.280 247 1.428
    2024 196 0.376 532 1.642
    2025 221 0.391 899 1.938

    Source: SCImago Journal & Country Rank, metrics based on Scopus data as of March 2026.

    One further data point exposes a common misreading. SCImago’s Journal Value tool models an “estimated APC” for ORE of roughly $2,742 for 2025, calculated purely from its SJR and output volume. That figure is a statistical estimate, not a real charge: under LIBER Europe’s FAQ, ORE authors pay nothing, because the European Commission covers all publication costs directly for eligible Horizon Europe and Horizon 2020 beneficiaries. Treating the modelled APC as an actual fee is a documented source of confusion worth correcting explicitly.

    Common Questions About ORE’s Impact Factor and Indexing

    Does Open Research Europe Have an Official Impact Factor?

    No. Open Research Europe has confirmed it does not have, and will not seek, a Clarivate Journal Impact Factor. It reports article-level indicators — citations, views, downloads and reviewer reports — instead, consistent with the DORA Declaration and the Leiden Manifesto on responsible research assessment.

    What Is Open Research Europe?

    Open Research Europe is the European Commission’s open-access publishing platform for research funded under Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe and Euratom. It offers rapid, no-fee publication across 14 article types and six discipline areas, with an open, post-publication peer-review process.

    Is It Good to Publish in Open Access Platforms Like ORE?

    For eligible Horizon Europe and Horizon 2020 beneficiaries, ORE satisfies open-access and data-sharing mandates at no author cost while granting Scopus and Google Scholar discoverability. Researchers needing Web of Science-indexed output for a specific funder requirement should confirm current coverage before submitting.

    Implications for Authors, Institutions and Evaluators

    Research offices and evaluators should treat ORE’s metrics profile as a feature of the platform’s design, not a data gap to be filled in with an unofficial number. Institutional guidance to authors should explicitly state that quoting a scraped “impact score” for ORE on a grant application or CV is inaccurate, since no Clarivate JIF exists.

    Research administration teams responsible for tracking funder compliance and output reporting are better served citing ORE’s Scopus indexing status, SJR quartile and article-level citation counts — the same figures ORE itself publishes on every article’s dedicated metrics page.

    Outlook: What Happens Next

    The European Commission confirmed in a 26 March 2026 announcement that it is entering “a new era for Open Research Europe,” committing to continued funding for the platform and exploring its expansion to serve funders beyond the EU research programmes, potentially under a broader diamond open-access model with no author-facing fees. Whether that expansion brings a change to ORE’s metrics philosophy remains an open question, but nothing in the Commission’s public statements to date signals a reversal of the no-JIF policy. Institutions tracking ORE for compliance or assessment purposes should monitor the platform’s own indexing page directly, since Web of Science status and any future database applications are updated there as they are achieved.

  • Open Research Europe: 2026 Grantee Guide

    Open Research Europe (ORE) is the European Commission’s no-fee, open-access publishing platform for researchers funded under Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe and Euratom. It publishes articles first and peer-reviews them openly afterwards, which lets grantees satisfy the Horizon Europe open access mandate immediately, without an embargo or an article processing charge. From autumn 2026, operation of the platform moves to CERN and eligibility widens beyond European Commission-funded authors for the first time.

    Open Research Europe is an open-access publishing platform established in 2021 by the European Commission, built on a publish-review-curate model in which articles are made public before formal peer review begins.

    What is Open Research Europe?

    Open Research Europe is a dedicated, fee-free publishing venue for the outputs of EU-funded research. Articles go live shortly after an editorial pre-check for integrity and compliance, then undergo open, invited peer review — reviewer names, affiliations and reports are published alongside the work rather than kept confidential.

    The platform accepts 14 article types across six discipline areas, including research articles, data notes, method articles, software tool articles, and — distinctively — null and negative results, which conventional journals routinely decline. Each review round produces a separate, individually citable version with its own DOI.

    More than 1,200 articles from over 6,300 authors at more than 3,000 institutions worldwide had been published on ORE by March 2026, according to the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD).

    How does ORE satisfy the Horizon Europe open access mandate?

    Horizon Europe grant terms require beneficiaries to make peer-reviewed publications immediately open access, with no embargo period, under a CC-BY licence, and to manage underlying research data in line with FAIR principles. ORE is designed to meet all three requirements without extra administrative work by the author.

    • Immediate access: articles publish before peer review completes, so there is no embargo window to manage.
    • No cost barrier: the European Commission covers publication costs for eligible beneficiaries, removing the article processing charge (APC) that many gold open access journals require.
    • CC-BY licensing: published articles carry a Creative Commons Attribution licence by default, satisfying Horizon Europe’s reuse requirements.
    • FAIR data alignment: authors are expected to deposit supporting data in a trusted repository, and ORE’s open data policy is built around the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles.

    Because the European Commission operates the eligibility and compliance checks centrally, a grantee publishing on ORE does not need to separately verify licence terms or embargo settings the way they would with a mixed portfolio of subscription and hybrid journals.

    Who can publish on ORE after the 2026 CERN transition?

    Today, ORE eligibility is tied strictly to funding: at least one contributing author must be part of a running or completed Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe or Euratom-funded project. That restriction is changing. In December 2025, the CERN Council approved CERN as the new hosting and operating organisation for ORE, and CERN will run the platform’s technical and administrative infrastructure from autumn 2026 onward.

    The new phase turns ORE from a single-funder platform into a consortium effort. A funding consortium of national research funders and organisations from Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland joins the European Commission, which continues as a permanent observer and financial contributor. Governance sits with a Funders’ Group, supported by an Executive Committee and a Scientific Advisory Board (nominations for which opened 10 June 2026).

    Two operational details matter for grant administrators tracking this shift:

    • Since its 2021 launch, ORE has run on F1000’s open-research publishing infrastructure (part of Taylor & Francis); from autumn 2026 the platform moves to CERN-hosted infrastructure built on the open-source Open Journal Systems (OJS) software.
    • Publishing remains completely free of author-facing fees both for European Commission-funded researchers and for authors affiliated with institutions in the consortium’s participating countries — the current platform stays operational until autumn 2026 for ongoing submissions.

    ORE vs a traditional journal: when should grantees use which?

    ORE is the fastest, cheapest route to Horizon Europe open access compliance, but it is not a universal substitute for every publication decision. The table below sets out the practical differences a grantee should weigh before choosing a venue.

    Factor Open Research Europe Typical gold/hybrid journal
    Cost to author Free — covered by the EC or consortium funder APC often £1,500–£4,000+, or subscription paywall
    Peer review timing Open, after publication Closed, before publication
    Eligibility Horizon 2020/Europe/Euratom beneficiaries; widening to 11 consortium countries from autumn 2026 Open to any author who pays or has a qualifying subscription
    Article types accepted 14 types, incl. null/negative results, data notes, software tools Usually limited to research articles and reviews
    Indexing status Google Scholar on publication; Scopus and Inspec after peer review passes Varies by title; established journals often carry longer indexing history
    Impact metric No Journal Impact Factor; article-level metrics, DORA/Leiden Manifesto-aligned Journal Impact Factor commonly available

    Grantees should favour ORE when the priority is fast, mandate-compliant, no-cost open access — particularly for data notes, methods papers, or negative results that a conventional journal would reject. A traditional journal route remains preferable where a field’s tenure or promotion norms still weight Journal Impact Factor heavily, or where a non-Horizon co-funder specifies a different compliant venue.

    Answer-first Q&A

    What is Open Research Europe?

    Open Research Europe is the European Commission’s open-access publishing platform for researchers funded by EU programmes, launched in 2021. It uses open, post-publication peer review and, from autumn 2026, is jointly operated by CERN and a consortium of national research funders.

    Is Open Research Europe indexed in Scopus?

    Yes, conditionally. Every ORE article appears in Google Scholar immediately on publication. Once an article passes open peer review, it becomes discoverable in Scopus and Inspec as well, per LIBER Europe’s published FAQ on the platform.

    Can UK-funded researchers publish on Open Research Europe?

    Yes. Since the UK re-associated to Horizon Europe in 2024, UK-based researchers named on an eligible Horizon Europe, Horizon 2020 or Euratom grant retain the same fee-free publishing eligibility on ORE as researchers anywhere else in the programme.

    What this means for research offices

    Research administration teams should note one operational wrinkle: ORE’s open peer-review process generates multiple article versions, each with its own DOI. LIBER Europe’s guidance warns that repositories harvesting all versions — rather than just the latest — risk having duplicate-detection systems mistakenly flag or remove legitimate records.

    Institutions should update repository ingestion rules and internal open access guidance to reflect the 2026 eligibility expansion, and confirm with their research administration teams which national funders now sit inside the ORE consortium before advising grantees on venue choice.

    The CERN-hosted, multi-funder version of ORE launching in autumn 2026 is a concrete step toward the diamond open access model set out in Science Europe’s 2022 Action Plan for Diamond Open Access — a model likely to shape how Horizon Europe’s successor programme frames open access requirements after 2027.