The National Research Environment
- 10 cantonal universities (Basel, Bern, Fribourg, Geneva, Lausanne, Lucerne, Neuchâtel, Svizzera italiana, St. Gallen, Zurich)
- 2 Federal Institutes of Technology (EPFL Lausanne, ETH Zurich) and 4 research institutes (ETH Domain)
- Several universities of applied sciences and universities of teacher education
- Rector's Conference of the Swiss Universities (CRUS)
- Conference of the Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences (KFH)
- Swiss Conference of Schools for Teacher Education (SKPH)
- Council of the Swiss Scientific Academies (CASS)
In addition some Swiss research institutions have also signed the Berlin Declaration as single institution:
- University of Zurich, 2004
- Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), 2006
- Paul Scherrer Institut, 2006
- University of St. Gallen, 2006
- University of Basel, 2007
- University of Bern, 2007
- University of Fribourg, 2008
- Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences (FORS), 2010
- Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, 2015
- University of Lucerne, 2015
Research Funding
The academic research institutions of Switzerland receive much of their financial support from the respective cantons and/or from the federal Swiss government.
Besides these sources, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) is Switzerland's leading provider of scientific research funding. With its federal mandate, it supports basic research in all disciplines, from philosophy and biology to the nanosciences and medicine.
The SNSF (also co-signatory of the Berlin Declaration in 2006) requires grantees to provide open access to research results obtained with the help of SNSF grants (Article 44 Funding Regulations). As of 1 October 2013, researchers receiving SNSF funding can cover the costs of publishing articles in pure OA journals via the project budget.
As of July 2014 the SNSF is expanding its OA policy to include monographs and editions. This corresponds to the rules applying to the publication of journal articles. Book publications co-financed by the SNSF must be made accessible in a disciplinary or institutional repository after an embargo period of no more than 24 months. The SNSF will contribute lump sums towards the production costs of a digital book publication. A maximum grant of CHF 10,000 can be requested for a basic digital OA publication. For a more elaborate digital OA publication (enriched e-book) a maximum of CHF 20,000 can be requested. These lump sums also cover editorial costs amounting to a maximum of CHF 3,000.
In doing so, the SNSF is matching the current funding policies of other European research funders For further information see: SNSF Open Access Policy
Among other public research funders of Switzerland, the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (SAGW) supports the implementation of Open Access. The SAGW calls upon its member societies to obtain the necessary rights for their authors from the publishers. Several SAGW-sponsored journals are freely available.
Besides the SNSF, a few Swiss academic research institutions have installed Open Access mandates concerning scholarly publications by their researchers. Such institutional policies have been formulated by the ETH Zurich , University of Bern, the University of Geneva , the University of St. Gallen, the University of Zurich and can be viewed in the Registry of Open Access Repositories Mandatory Archiving Policies (ROARMAP).
Institutional Repositories for scientific publications
Repository Name | Institution | Website | DRIVER | OpenAIRE |
Alexandria | University of St. Gallen | OA-Info | yes | no |
Archive ouvert UNIGE | University of Geneva | OA-Info | yes | yes |
BORIS | University of Bern | OA-Info | yes | no |
LORY | Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, University of Lucerne, University of Teacher Education Lucerne, ZHB Lucerne |
OA-Info | yes | yes |
edoc | University of Basel | OA-Info | yes | no |
ETH E-Collection | ETH Zurich | OA-Info | yes | yes |
Infoscience | EPFL Lausanne | OA-Info | yes | no |
MSF Field Research | Médecins sans Frontières | yes | no | |
RERO DOC | Reseau Romand | OA-Info | yes | no |
Serval | University of Lausanne | OA-Info | yes | yes |
ZORA | University of Zurich | OA-Info | yes | yes |
Open Access in Swiss Law
The University of Zurich commissioned an expert opinion on Open Access in Swiss law. The focus of interest is on questions of law related to what are known as repositories, i.e. internet servers that serve to make scientific publications available. In particular, the question arises of the extent to which publications that have already been published by scientific publishers are permitted to be deposited in repositories.
The expert opinion can be downloaded in English, French & German here. Answers to FAQs based on the expert opinion can be found here.
The results of the expert opinion are particulary useful to authors who have not concluded an agreement on copyright with their publisher upon publishing their work. In this case, according to Swiss Code of Obligations, Art. 382, Par. 3, authors are allowed by law to deposit journal articles, book chapters or conference papers on repositories three months after these works have been published in full. Provided the author has no other copyright agreement with the publisher, this paragraph applies also in the case of foreign publishers if the author’s place of residence and the repository are in Switzerland.
Open Access Journals in Switzerland
Further 352 retroactively digitized journals culturally based in Switzerland are freely accessible, usually with a moving wall, at retro.seals.ch. This project is implemented by the Consortium of the Swiss Academic Libraries. The projects e-codices and E-rara.ch focus on making digital reproductions with free access of old manuscripts and antique prints held by Swiss libraries. They are sponsored by the Swiss universities.
Research Data
The situation changed in 2014 with the development of the program SUC P-2 “Scientific information: access, processing and safeguarding”. It is the second of ten ongoing funding programs operated by the Swiss University Conference (SUC). The program’s objective is to combine and develop the universities’ currently separate efforts to provide and process scientific information. The aim is to establish a reorganized system by the year 2020 that will provide researchers, teachers and students with an extensive basic range of science-related digital content and the ideal tools for processing it.
These services should be stable, flexible, competitive, and available on a national level. Through targeted funding, the program initiates and controls the development of this range of services and ensures their sustainable operation. The Rectors’ Conference of the Swiss Universities (CRUS) has been tasked with carrying out the program.
Useful Links
- http://open-access.net/ch_en/startseite/ (Swiss-View)
- http://www.sagw.ch/de/sagw/laufende-projekte/open-access.html (Open Access Site of SAGW)
- http://www.doi.ethz.ch/ (DOI-Desk & DataCite Contact Switzerland)
- http://www.euresearch.ch/ (Swiss guide to European research)
- http://www.swissuniversities.ch/en/organisation/projekte-und-programme/suk-p-2-wissensch-information-zugang-verarbeitung-speicherung/ (SUC P-2)
Contact for Switzerland
- Christian Fuhrer & André Hoffmann, Main Library of the University of Zurich
- eMail:
- Website: http://www.oai.uzh.ch/