AAU OPEN’s mission is to contribute to the development of open scholarly publishing and publishing formats, and to provide researchers at AAU with a clear and free or cost-effective pathway to making their work freely accessible to a global audience.

The mission is guided by an Open Science agenda, with alternative publishing models and the assurance of free access to research at its core.

AAU OPEN has an ambition to make as much of AAU’s research and knowledge as possible accessible across society and thereby contribute to greater societal impact. This is to be realised by offering Open Access guidance and by publishing high-quality publications on topics relevant to AAU’s research areas. At the same time, this meets the increasing Open Access requirements from funding bodies and grant providers.

AAU’s researchers are the primary focus, and through dialogue and collaboration with researchers, research groups, and management, we ensure that AAU OPEN’s services are tailored to researchers’ needs for publishing and Open Access guidance. Within AAU OPEN, we therefore also explore new forms of scholarly communication and provide a home for, among other things, open journals, books, and textbooks.

Since March 2023, Aalborg University has been a member of the EU initiative Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) and is also a signatory to the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment (ARRA). AAU thus actively works on developing research assessment practices that align with the principles of CoARA, where responsible metrics, diversity in research outputs, openness, collaboration, visibility, and societal impact are key elements. For this reason, it forms part of AAU OPEN’s vision to offer accessible Open Access guidance and to publish open, peer-reviewed publications as well as science communication publications.

The Open Access Committee at Aalborg University sets the overall strategic framework for Open Access for the university’s research publications. The committee is responsible for the university’s Open Access policy and its ongoing development. Any major strategic changes to the scope of AAU OPEN will be discussed with the Open Access Committee.

Read more about the Open Access Committee at AAU here.

The main task of the Publishing Committee is to advise the AAU OPEN team on the scholarly contribution of submitted publication proposals to AAU Open Publishing. This includes an overall academic assessment of theory, methods, data, and subject area. In addition to reviewing and advising on the scholarly quality of submitted manuscripts, the Publishing Committee provides guidance on general matters and may propose changes to the overall purpose and scope of AAU OPEN.

The Publishing Committee holds two annual meetings with the AAU OPEN team. In addition, the committee is consulted on an ongoing basis to assess incoming manuscript proposals.

If you are interested in joining the Publishing Committee, you are welcome to contact aauopen@aau.dk.