Swiss higher education institutions support Open Access. After the first National Open Access Strategy in 2017, a revised version was adopted in 2024. It aims to make all publicly funded scholarly publications openly accessible. The shift towards open access should be completed by 2032 at the latest.
The Swiss National Science Foundation requires its grantees to make their work Open Access since 2020. It also offers grants to cover APCs (Article Processing Charges) for publication in full OA journals. However, it does not cover the costs of publication in "hybrid journals" (subscription journals with an OA option). Since February 2024, it also no longer fund open-access articles in special issues, due to the large increase in these issues and the "inconsistent" publication processes that contribute to the "publish or perish" culture.
As of January 1st, 2023, the SNF has joined Plan S. This means that researchers funded by the SNF must publish their journal articles Open Access immediately, and there is no longer any possibility of an embargo period. The CC BY licence is required for journal articles. The SNF applies the Rights Retention Strategy of Plan S: "on submitting the manuscript, researchers reserve the right to make it freely available with immediate effect under a CC-BY licence, citing their commitment to the SNSF". For books and book chapters, the maximum embargo period is 12 months.
