The Open Access Policy at the NCN was established in Order no 38/2020 with regard to publications resulting from the research projects, scholarships and fellowships as well as research activities funded or co-funded by the National Science Centre, which were recommended for funding starting from the calls for proposals announced on 15 June 2020, with respect to which agreements will be signed after 1 January 2021.
On 26 June 2025 the policy was updated by Order no 39/2025, which removed the requirement to publish in open access in calls announced from September 2025. From then on, project managers can report both open access and closed model articles in projects without any formal, financial or substantive consequences. For publication pathways for open access articles, researchers have been allowed to use any Creative Commons licence, as well as fund the cost of APCs in hybrid journals. For both the open and closed model, research data associated with published articles must be made available in an open repository, where possible under the terms of a CC 0 or CC BY licence. The NCN Director's letter of 26 June also extended the new rules to current scientific projects and activities.
The abovementioned changes do not apply to projects selected in the following international calls: POLONEZ BIS programme and calls announced by the CHANSE and CHIST-ERA networks (for which the original NCN policy still applies), as well as calls announced by the Biodiversa+ network (for which Horizon Europe rules apply). The new policy does not apply to international calls, where its application would be contrary to the agreements entered into by NCN when organising them.