A União Europeia acaba de publicar um estudo, Study on the economic and technical evolution of the scientific publication markets in Europe, sobre as condições de acesso e difusão das publicações científicas.
Este estudo inclui uma série de recomendações sobre acções a desenvolver, incluindo:
"Guaranteed public access to publicly-funded research, at the time of publication and also long-term; a “level-playing field” so that different business models in publishing can compete fairly in the market; ranking scientific journals by quality, defined more widely than pure scientific excellence, but also taking into account factors such as management of copyright, search facilities and archiving; developing pricing strategies that promote competition in the journal market; scrutinising major mergers that may take place in this sector in the future; [and] promoting the development of electronic publication, for example by eliminating unfavourable tax treatment of electronic publications and encouraging public funding and public-private partnerships to create digital archives in areas with little commercial investment".