News & insights

Context

Open Access scientific publishing refers to the free to access and use provision of scientific research content to readers while supporting operations by financial models that permit this free electronic distribution. Given the significant contribution of public funding to published research and the wider benefits from increasing access, there is a strong demand for OA within academia. 

How we did it

In Switzerland, SNSF’s role is to provide financial support for research projects across all academic disciplines. To recommend a funding model that allows for a complete transition to an OA publication system in the early 2020's, the CEPA team did the following: 

• First, we mapped the current state of financial (funding and expenditure) and publishing (consumption and production) flows in Switzerland.
• Then we established a shortlist of OA financial models that would be compatible with the Swiss context.
• Finally, we tested the financial implications of the shortlisted model. Financial implications included total cost of transition for public funders and the distributional impact on stakeholders; i.e. libraries and universities.