The SNSF has signed the Open Access 2020 initiative.
The Open Access 2020 international initiative aims to pursue the large-scale implementation of open access. The SNSF supports this endeavour.
The Swiss National Science Foundation has signed the OA2020 international initiative regarding the large-scale implementation of open access to scholarly journals. More than 30 research organisations have already endorsed the OA initiative Expression of Interest. Together they aim at transforming the scientific publication system and demand the large-scale implementation of an open online system of scientific articles as well as unrestricted (re-)use of those articles.
The SNSF has been promoting open access for some time. Since signing the Berlin Open Access initiative in 2006, the SNSF has supported and encouraged the principle of free worldwide access to scientific knowledge (open access) both nationally and internationally. The SNSF requires grantees to provide free and worldwide open access to research funded by the public – not least in the interests of science itself.
A global strategy is needed
For the SNSF, the goal of the OA initiative Expression of Interest – to change the dominant business model of commercially published scientific articles – is one challenge amongst others. The researchers, too, can play a major role in changing the system by choosing alternative forms of publication. The SNSF demand for a global open access policy for all publications is consistent with the stance taken by the European Research Council.
Preparing for systemic change
The SNSF is supporting swissuniversities in developing a national open access strategy based on a mandate it received from the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation in 2015. An OA monitoring report will be published later this year. The SNSF and the SUC 2013-2016 programme "Scientific information: Accessing, processing and saving" (SUC P-2) have furthermore commissioned an external analysis of the financial flows in the scientific publications domain, incl. possible models for the systemic change to open access. The first results should be available by the end of 2016.