The Strategy focuses on providing immediate, machine-readable access to scientific knowledge at no charge and without embargo period. Researchers are encouraged to publish in open-access journals or deposit their works in institutional repositories to ensure broad accessibility. The strategy emphasizes the adoption of the FAIR principles—Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable—to enhance data sharing and reuse. The policy provides a detailed framework for both open access to publications and open research data, with clear guidelines and support mechanisms for researchers. The strategy emphasizes machine-Readable Format that facilitate ease of access and reuse by both humans and machines, and use of open licenses enabling broader distribution and reuse of research outputs.
National Open Access Strategy
Abstract
Country | Switzerland |
Start date | 2024 |
Annual Budget | n/a |
Responsible organisation(s) | Funding institution |
Target group(s) | Research institutions, funding agencies, researchers and academics, libraries and information services (Institutions like the Swiss Library Network for Education and Research -SLiNER), policy makers and government bodies shaping and enforcing policies that facilitate the transition to open access. |
Policy instrument type | Strategies, agendas and plans |
The revised strategy (2024) builds on the 2017 National Open Access Strategy, which aimed to make all publicly funded scholarly publications freely accessible by 2024. The predecessor strategy aimed to align with the European Union's Open Science Agenda and the goals of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). The swissuniversities (Rectors' Conference of Swiss Higher Education Institutions) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) worked in collaboration with relevant stakeholders in the research and innovation ecosystem, including universities, research institutes, data providers, publishers, and policy experts.
To ensure that all publicly funded scholarly publications in Switzerland are freely and immediately accessible to the public.
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