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Swiss National Open Access Strategy

In 2015, the State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation (SERI) tasked swissuniversities, in collaboration with the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), with the elaboration of a strategy for implementing open access (OA) to scholarly publications. The two partner organisations, namely swissuniversities and the SNSF, adopted the Swiss National Strategy on Open Access in 2017.

Its vision is that by 2024, all scholarly publication activity in Switzerland should be OA, all scholarly publications funded by public money must be freely accessible on the internet. Free access to publicly funded research results improves the supply of information to the public, increases the visibility of publications and supports interdisciplinary collaboration worldwide.

The corresponding action plan to the national strategy was adopted in 2018.

Open Access Strategy Review

The Open Access Strategy is due to expire at the end of 2024, so the Open Access Strategy Review aims to evaluate the strategic parameters of the current strategy and update them beyond 2024.

In the process of evaluating and revising the strategic parameters, the revision addresses current developments as of 2023/2024 as well as experiences made thus far, with the overarching aim of ensuring the long-term development of OA in the higher education landscape as set out in the 2017 OA Strategy. Moreover, the review is instrumental for planning implementation activities in the scope of the federal project contributions (PgB) Programme Open Science II for the 2025–2028 period.

The Strategy Review is in the responsibility of the Delegation Open Science, which ensures coordination with the SNSF as its partner of the Open Access Strategy.

Timeline of the Open Access Strategy Review

  • June 2023: the Delegation Open Science approves the planning and elects an advisory committee for the development of the Open Access Strategy Review
  • November 2023: As part of an internal consultation process, specific swissuniversities bodies (Chamber of Universities, Chamber of Universities of applied sciences, Chamber of Universities of teacher education, Delegation Research, SLiNER, OA Alliance) were consulted on the first draft of the revised OA Strategy.
  • December 2023: Publication of a "Background Report" on the Open Access Strategy Review. The report analyses the current open access landscape.
  • Until January 2024: Consultation of universities, ERI partners and other stakeholders.
  • Early summer 2024: Adoption of the updated, revised OA Strategy