Research findings funded with public money belong to the public. Everyone should be able to access them electronically and free of charge, and to make use of them if they so wish. The researchers themselves stand to benefit the most from open access: their results will be seen by more people. And they will have unrestricted access to the publications of their colleagues. This will be a big step forward for science. Industry and society will also benefit from gaining swift access to the latest scientific knowledge.
How do researchers meet the open access requirements? Either they publish their results in OA journals or OA books that are immediately freely accessible. This is the gold road.
Or they publish their results in a journal with a paywall first, then place them in a public database after six months. Books are subject to an embargo period of 12 months. This is the green road.
In the case of gold-road publications, the authors often contribute to the production costs. The SNSF offers grants to cover these costs. There is a straightforward process to apply for these grants on the online platform mySNF.
The SNSF open access policy goes hand in hand with the national strategy pursued by the Swiss higher education institutions. They decided that all publicly funded publications must be freely accessible as of 2024. Open access will soon be the standard mode of publication, in Switzerland and the world over.
You will find detailed information on publishing grants and open access in general on the dedicated website.
News
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31.03.2021
After a pilot phase, the SNSF is introducing the drawing of lots as a potential tie-breaker in all funding schemes. It may be used in cases where equally good proposals cannot be further differentiated objectively.
Drawing lots as a tie-breaker: Details
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19.10.2020
Scientific publications should be openly accessible. To mark Open Access Week 2020, researchers and senior academic administrators talk about the challenges and opportunities they face in a series of short videos.
Eight times YES to knowledge for all: Details
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15.07.2020
Publish an open access article in "Clinical Immunology" or "Journal of Materials Science"? Thanks to new agreements between universities and publishers, this is now free of charge for Swiss researchers.
Open access: breakthrough in negotiations: Details
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02.06.2020
Which of my scientific publications are openly accessible? As of now, researchers in Switzerland can find the answer to this question by using the "SNSF Open Access Check" web application. This prototype searches articles that have been published since 2015.
Personal open access report: Details
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29.04.2020
For years, the SNSF and other organisations have been demanding open science as the new normal. The corona crisis drastically confirms the validity of this demand.
Open science – not only in a crisis: Details
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26.03.2020
Since April 2018, the SNSF has covered the costs of the immediate open-access publication of books. This makes researchers more visible and their research results easily reusable.
235 funded open-access books: Details
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24.03.2020
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, swissuniversities, the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries appeal to all publishing houses to make their publications freely accessible.
"Remove paywalls on publications!": Details
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11.12.2019
By 2020, all SNSF-funded publications should be freely accessible after six months at the latest. In an open letter, the SNSF has asked leading publishers to shorten their embargo periods.
Embargo periods: open letter: Details
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13.06.2019
Researchers who receive SNSF funding should make their results freely available. But to date only around 50% of publications have been set to open access. From now on, the SNSF will systematically verify whether researchers are meeting the requirement.
Stronger effort needed for open access: Details
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10.10.2018
It has never been so easy to obtain grants for open access publications from the SNSF. Researchers can now apply for them on the mySNF online platform – even after the project has ended.
Making open access the new normal: Details