Practicalities for the USI community

Open Access publishing

Following the Open Access Policy Guidelines of Università della Svizzera italiana (attached), the results of research financed by public funds should be published electronically so that they are freely and immediately available without charge and can thus be reused by third parties, since they are considered as a public good.
Researchers may publish in Gold-road Open Access journals or deposit a publication in an institutional or discipline-specific repository after its publication (Green-road). Moreover, specific read&publish agreements regarding the price of APCs have been reached with some publishers, allowing USI researchers to publish hybrid open access articles free of charge.

What is gold, green and hybrid open access?

  • Gold open access: author makes the final version of an article freely and permanently accessible for everyone in a gold open access journal. In some cases, the author pays an Article Processing Charge, while there is no subscription to access to the journal.
  • Hybrid open access: publication of an article in a subscription-based journal which offers an open access option that authors can chose if they wish, by paying additional fees. This option is accepted but not funded neither by the SNSF nor by USI. Thanks to read&publish agreements reached with some publishers, USI researchers can publish hybrid open access articles free of charge in selected journals (see details below).
  • Green open access: self-archiving of a version of an article into a repository making it freely accessible for everyone. The version that can be deposited into a repository is dependent on the funder or publisher, which might also set an embargo period.

The attached diagram shows how to proceed to publish your research results in a journal, with detailed information on cost coverage and compliance with funders requirments in terms of Open Access.

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  • SNSF Funding of Open Access publications

    The SNSF awards grants towards the costs and fees for:

    1. Publications in Open Access journals: Article Processing Charges (APCs) of articles related to SNSF-funded research.
    2. Publication of Open Access books (monographs and anthologies): Book Processing Charges (BPCs) up to CHF 15'000 + supplementary costs. Printing costs are excluded.
    3. Publication of Open Access book chapters: Book chapter processing charges (BCPCs) of chapters related to SNSF-funded research.

    APCs and BCPs are only granted for publishing research results obtained in research projects funded by the SNSF.

    Please refer to the relevant SNSF regulations and in case of any doupt contact the Research and Transfer Service in advance.

  • Open Access expenses covered by USI

    Some other costs related to Open Access publications are covered by the Università della Svizzera italiana.

    In particular, two types of costs are covered by USI:

    • Costs for publication of articles in pure, high-level peer reviewed open access journals when not related to an SNSF project;
    • Other mandatory additional fees for publication of articles in pure open access journals.

    USI does not cover printing costs, optional costs for colour printing and extra costs for open access publications in closed access journals (hybrid approach). If a traditional journal offers you the possibility to pay an extra for open access do not accept! Unless this is included in a specific read & publish agreement (see below).

    In case of any doubt, please contact the Research and Transfer Service in advance.

     

  • Read and publish agreements

    Specific agreements regarding the price of APCs have been reached with some publishers. This gives to researchers affiliated at USI the opportunity to publish gold or hybrid open access articles for free in several journals.
    To this purpose, the email address of USI or of an associated institute shall be used during the article submission process.

    The list of active agreements, with related details, is available here. For further information, please contact: [email protected].

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Updated on: 21 February 2023