Open Access Scholarly Publishing in Italy and the role of Casalini Libri in the aggregation and dissemination of OA content

The landscape of scholarly publishing has undergone significant transformations over the past two decades, with Open Access (OA) emerging as a central pillar in the dissemination of scientific knowledge. Driven by the need for transparency, accessibility, and efficiency in research communication, OA has evolved into a global movement supported by governments, institutions, and researchers alike.

This is a guest post from LIBER sponsor Casalini Libri, written by Andrea Ferro, Global Account Development.

In Europe, the push for OA has been particularly strong, especially with the advent of initiatives such as Plan S and the European Open Science Cloud. Within this context, Italy has shown an increasing engagement with OA principles but still faces considerable structural, financial, and cultural challenges in consolidating its OA landscape.

The Policy Framework for Open Access in Italy

Italy’s engagement with OA has been shaped significantly by its alignment with European Union directives and policies. A pivotal moment came in 2013 with the introduction of law 112/2013, which rules that open access must be provided for publications associated with research projects when at least 50% of the funding comes from public entities. Publications must be made available through OA journals or institutional repositories within 18 months for science, technology, and medicine (STM) disciplines, and within 24 months for the humanities and social sciences (HSS).

The Italian National Research Programme (PNR) emphasizes OA and open science as strategic priorities, while the Ministry of University and Research (MUR) has integrated OA principles into research assessment exercises, incentivizing institutions and scholars to comply with OA regulations. Despite these efforts, OA implementation in Italy remains uneven across regions and disciplines. There is no national funding body to support APCs (Article Processing Charges), and institutional support varies widely, resulting in disparate levels of compliance and awareness.

Institutional Repositories and Infrastructure

Italy has developed a decentralized but steadily expanding network of institutional repositories. Individual universities and research institutions maintain repositories using platforms like DSpace, EPrints, and IRIS – Institutional Research Information System (CNR), but usage overall is inconsistent. While top-tier universities and research centers maintain active and well-curated repositories, many smaller institutions lack technical expertise or resources. The absence of a centralized national repository or standard metadata schema complicates interoperability and hinders the discoverability of Italian OA content on international platforms like OpenAIRE or BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine).

Green, Gold, and Hybrid OA Models in Italy

The Italian OA ecosystem is predominantly characterized by Green OA, where researchers deposit preprints or postprints in repositories. The model aligns well with Law 112/2013 and does not require authors to pay APCs but poses limitations in terms of embargo periods and licensing restrictions.

Gold OA, which involves publishing directly in OA journals, is less widespread due to limited funding for APCs. Italian universities and the CNR (National Research Council) do not systematically cover these costs, although some consortia have begun to negotiate transformative agreements with publishers.

Hybrid OA, where authors pay to make their articles open in subscription-based journals, is often criticized for leading to “double-dipping” and is not uniformly supported by Italian institutions.

Transformative Agreements and Consortial Negotiations

Several European countries offer models for OA advancement: the Netherlands leads with unified policies and broad transformative agreements; Germany’s consortia have secured major deals for OA publishing; the UK enforces compliance through mandates and central funding; and France emphasizes Green OA and national infrastructure, supported by the Ministry of Higher Education.

Transformative agreements are crucial mechanisms for scaling OA publishing. Italy has made progress in this area through CARE (Coordinamento per l’Accesso alle Risorse Elettroniche), a consortium that negotiates with major publishers. CARE has signed transformative agreements that allow authors at member institutions to publish OA without paying APCs directly. These agreements, however, cover only a subset of Italian universities and research institutions, and awareness among researchers remains limited. Compared with countries where national-level transformative deals are widespread and deeply integrated into institutional workflows, Italy’s adoption remains fragmented and relatively recent.

Disciplinary and Cultural Variability

Disciplinary differences significantly influence OA uptake in Italy. STM fields exhibit higher compliance due to earlier exposure to OA and the prevalence of preprint culture. Conversely, the humanities and social sciences (HSS) lag behind, partly due to the slower pace of publication, smaller journal ecosystems, and skepticism about the quality of OA.

Cultural attitudes toward OA also vary. While early-career researchers and younger faculty members often view OA positively, more senior scholars sometimes resist OA due to concerns about prestige, impact factors, and intellectual property.

Casalini Libri and the TorrossaOpen Platform

TorrossaOpen, part of the Torrossa Digital Library, is dedicated exclusively to hosting research content in open access. Developed by Casalini Libri specifically to support the dissemination of academic publishing in open access from some of Europe’s principal research bodies, TorrossaOpen is rooted in Casalini Libri’s mission to simplify and widen access to academic research and cultural content for scholars worldwide and currently hosts OA content from over 100 scholarly publishers from a wide geographical area.

TorrossaOpen aims to support the entire scholarly communication community by facilitating the publication, diffusion and visibility of research in open access. Its commitment to bibliodiversity is manifest in the variety of content hosted, as it not only represents the work of traditional and recognized publishers, but also strives to provide a platform and repository for culturally significant projects, publications and institutions that are less represented internationally.

Through fostering collaboration and championing OA across the full spectrum of the scholarly information chain, with TorrossaOpen Casalini Libri aspires to make OA content available, discoverable and accessible for all. As a community-driven initiative, oa.torrossa.com is a resource offered to libraries with a “sustaining partner” structure: for an annual contribution, libraries get access to a rich and constantly growing catalogue of OA publications along with all the advanced features of the Torrossa Digital Library ecosystem, including quality metadata, ISNI and DOI identifiers, integration with Discovery Services, COUNTER statistics and collaboration with long-term archives such as CLOCKSS and Portico.

Future Directions

Italy stands at a critical point in its OA journey. While it has made important legislative and infrastructural advances, its OA system remains fragmented and under-resourced compared to leading European and international counterparts.

By learning from successful models in other countries, Italy can develop and refine a national OA strategy, invest in centralized funding mechanisms, enhance training and outreach and encourage disciplinary diversity to foster a more inclusive, sustainable, and globally visible research environment. Aligning national priorities with the broader Open Science agenda will be key to ensuring that Italian scholarship is accessible, impactful, and future-ready.

To find out more about Casalini Libri’s efforts and become a sustaining member of the TorrossaOpen Platform, visit info.torrossa.com/open-access.