A change in the belgian copyright law allows the authors of scientific articles financed by the public sector, to retain the right to make their article available in Open Access even if otherwise stipulated in their contract with the publisher.
Published the 5th September 2018, this law completes and reinforces the recent decree of the fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (FWB) which requires the deposit in open access of scientific articles in institutional directories.
The text specifies that :
- The article must be publicly financed by at least 50%
- The article can be diffused in open access even if the author has already waved his copyright to the editor
- The embargo period is 12 months after publication for the human and social sciences and 6 months after publication for the applied sciences; or less if authorized by the publishing contract
- The source of the first publication must be mentioned
This rules also apply to every article published before the publication of the law.
Text in French and Dutch : http://www.dekamer.be/FLWB/PDF/54/3143/54K3143006.pdf
Source : Le Moniteur Belge/Het Belgisch Staatsblad. 2018-09-05. Art. 29
Open Access Belgium 