The Dutch government is currently in the hot seat - the Netherlands is currently in charge of the European Union council of ministers, a rotating position that changes every six months.
And they're leading what they hope to be a Europe-wide initiative in open-access publishing, making more academic papers free to the public as soon as they're published.
Declan Butler, reporting in Nature News, wrote that the Dutch government is making open-access publishing "one of its top priorities."
The Dutch have already put their money where their mouths are - the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) has negotiated deals to make many Dutch research papers in high-level publishing houses, such as Springer and Elsevier, open-access at no extra charge.
Deals like the ones VSNU has struck could be a valuable counter to the proliferation of "hybrid" open-access journals, which make academic papers available at controversially high prices.
A successful, sustainable push for universal open-access will require global cooperation, and it will be hard to convince most mainstream publishers to put values over profit. But this sounds like a step in a healthy direction for Europe.
Because we believe that income should not be a barrier to accessing scientific information, ecancermedicalscience is an open-access journal that operates a unique "pay what you can afford" model. Read our journal here.
The World Cancer Declaration recognises that to make major reductions in premature deaths, innovative education and training opportunities for healthcare workers in all disciplines of cancer control need to improve significantly.
ecancer plays a critical part in improving access to education for medical professionals.
Every day we help doctors, nurses, patients and their advocates to further their knowledge and improve the quality of care. Please make a donation to support our ongoing work.
Thank you for your support.