SCOAP3 has released the results of its 2026 Open Science Elements evaluation, marking the second assessment conducted under Phase 4 of the initiative. The annual evaluation measures how participating publishers perform across a range of open science practices, including integration of persistent identifiers such as ORCiD and ROR, metadata quality, availability of data and software, accessibility, and transparency regarding community values.
The 2026 edition introduced new scoring elements related to dataset and software linking within articles. Results indicate a positive overall trend, with the average score across SCOAP3 publishers increasing from 15.41 in 2025 to 18.68 in 2026. This improvement reflects continued progress in adopting open science practices.
SCOAP3 centrally funds publishers through a common pool managed at CERN, with contributions from libraries, consortia, research institutions, and funding agencies. To maintain cost control, SCOAP3 and publishers agree on a fixed maximum yearly payment for relevant journal content, based on estimated article volumes.
The full evaluation results, including publisher‑specific scores and detailed descriptions of each element, are available on the SCOAP3 website.
Click here to read the original press release.
