In the fourth session of the IP4OS webinar series 2025–2026, Professor Frantzeska Papadopoulou introduced participants to Secondary Publication Rights (SPR) as a legal tool to support Open Access. She explained that SPR allows researchers to republish their work—even if publishers initially hold exclusive rights—after an embargo period. This is especially important for making publicly funded research accessible to a wider audience.

Professor Papadopoulou outlined the legal background of SPR, connecting it to international Open Access efforts like the Budapest and Berlin Declarations, Plan S, and recent UNESCO recommendations. She also discussed a 2024 EU-commissioned legal study that calls for harmonized SPR legislation across Europe.

Using six EU countries as examples, she showed how SPR laws differ nationally and highlighted key challenges: legal uncertainty, lack of awareness among researchers, cross-border conflicts, and limited academic incentives. Despite these obstacles, she emphasized SPR’s strong potential and called for unified EU-wide regulation to make the right both practical and effective.