Promoting the visibility and impact of the academic and scientific community’s intellectual production is a strategic objective of the University of Porto and one it has been pursuing for several years. In addition to providing Open Access to its scientific production, the University supports the reinforcement of social responsibility in scientific activities.
The Open Access Policy of the Univesity of Porto is the main document that presents U.Porto's vision as a promoter of open and free access to the University's scientific production. The free access policy established in this regulation is framed, among other documents, in the declaration “Open Access to scientific publications”, approved and published, in 2006, by the Council of Rectors of Portuguese Universities (CRUP), after subscription of the Berlin Declaration.
The internet and other technological advances have democratised the intellectual production of university communities. The significant increase in the number of institutional repositories has provided free and open access to scientific production, including the conventional publishing of papers in journals, proceedings and other publications, as well as master’s and doctoral theses and dissertations, technical reports, and other documents.
There are already many entities that support and define open access policies, such as the Open Science Policy of the European Union or the FCT Norms for Open Access, which should be taken into account by the scientific community.
In relation to the promotion of and access to science within society, U.Porto offers its research community an up-to-date collection of external resources which allow Open Access to the most recent scientific research, in addition to providing the community with support for publishing Open Access scientific articles.