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Open Access

Open Access refers to the free access to scientific publications via the internet. Open Access is supported by scientific organisations, universities and libraries around the world. The aims of these efforts are:

  • fast, worldwide dissemination of scientific information
  • free access to the results of publicly funded research
  • increased visibility and citation frequency of documents
  • simplified reusage for further research
  • promotion of interdisciplinary and international cooperation
  • long-term availability of documents

Are you conducting research at the University of St.Gallen and want to make your research results more visible?
We provide various services to support you in publishing your work Open Access.

What ist Open Access exactly? Here you find a video explaining the term.

There are currently two major paths to Open Access:

Green Open Access: Authors self-archive or re-publis conventionally published articles on subject-specific or institutional repostories, such as the University of St.Gallen's Alexandria repository. 

Gold Open Access: Authors publish their articles directly in peer-reviewed Open Access journals.


In 2006, major Swiss scientific organisations, including the University of St.Gallen, signed the Berlin Declaration. Starting in 2007, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) required grant recipients to publish their research results Open Access. That same year the University of St.Gallen implemented its own Open Access Policy.

In 2017 and 2018, swissuniversities and the SNSF launched a national Open Access strategy for Switzerland and a corresponding action plan with the goal that by 2024, 'all publicly funded scientific publications must be freely accessible online'.

 

Additional information

Institutional repository Alexandria
Swissuniversities Open Access
SNSF

 

Below, you can find detailed informations about our Publish & Read Agreements.

If you want to publish in a journal that requests a submission fee upon the initial submission of your article: the corresponding costs are not covered by our agreements. Such fees must be covered by you. Our agreements only cover the Open Access publication costs.

ACM 
Cambridge University Press
De Gruyter
Elsevier
MDPI
Nature Research
Oxford University Press
Sage
Springer
Taylor & Francis
Wiley

If your article isn’t covered by one of the current Publish & Read Agreements, you will need to find funding from other sources if you plan to publish Open Access.

Please check if you are eligible for support by the HSG Publication Fund. If eligible, the fund not only can cover Open Access fees for articles, but also for Open Access books.

For further funding options, please refer to the Grants Office.

When publishing Open Access, you will commonly use the Creative Commons licensing system. You can choose from a selection of options, depending on the choices your publisher is offering.

We strongly recommend the use of a CC BY license! This license lets others distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon your work, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered, recommended for maximum dissemination, and use of licensed materials.

As an alternative, you can choose a CC BY-NC license. Please be aware: the «non commercial» clause is also binding for authors. With this license, you can’t share the publisher’s PDF version on platforms like ResearchGate, Academia.edu or LinkedIn, as they qualify as commercial platforms. Your personal profile page on these platforms is considered as commercial.
If possible, do not pick the highly restrictive CC BY-NC-ND license. Additionally, the Non-Derivative clause will severely limit reusing your content, e.g. no remixes or adaptations are allowed, also, in some countries, using this content for Text- & Data-Mining TDM is not possible.

If an immediate Open Access publication isn’t possible (Gold OA), there may still be the option of Self-Archiving or Green OA. You can choose from a selection of options, depending on the choices your publisher is offering: self-archiving your article on your personal website or in an institutional repository like Alexandria.

As an author, you will retain certain rights. Therefore, it is recommended that you check a journal’s policy regarding the rights you will keep, e.g., personal reuse, scholarly sharing, self-archiving rights, embargoes etc. You can also check the relevant policies with Sherpa/Romeo. Additionally, this information should also be a part of the Copyright Transfer Agreement that you sign with your publisher, make sure to read it before you sign.

Please take note: if you are planning to self-archive in Alexandria: depending on the deposited version (preprint, postprint, published version), different embargo periods may apply.

The institutional repository of the University of St.Gallen is part of the Alexandria research platform. In addition to publications, Alexandria contains personal profiles and information on research projects at HSG. All this research information is freely accessible worldwide and can also be found via various search engines (Google Scholar, BASE, Unpaywall).

Alexandria is run by Research Services whithin the Office of the Vice-President for Research & Faculty. It has been part of the implementation of the University’s Open Access Policy since its creation in 2005.

Publications in Alexandria:

  • Articles from academic journals
  • Contributions from conference proceedings
  • Book chapters
  • Monographs
  • Other scientific contributions: Working papers, research reports, newspaper articles, radio or TV features

Researchers can enter information on their publications and projects directly in Alexandria and upload full texts. The information becomes accessible online to everyone immediately after it has been entered.

If you have any questions, please contact alexandriaunisg.ch

 

In case you are uncertain if you are allowed to make an article freely accessible in Alexandria, we can check the rights for you. We will check if the used version is compliant with the legal requirements of a publisher.

Simply contact openaccessunisg.ch for this.

What are your options if your requested full-text article is behind a paywall on a publisher’s platform?

The Library of the University of St.Gallen recommends the following

  • Academic search engines
  • Open access browser extensions / plug-ins
  • Scholarly Sharing: contact the author

You can find additional information on our dedicated Search & Find page covering these options.

Open Access journals cover the same range of subjects and can provide quality as conventional publications. Special features are:

  • The digital publication has priority over the printed form.
  • The articles are freely accessible on the Internet from the time of their publication (no embargo period for the latest issues).
  • The publication costs are covered by alternative financing models instead of subscription or license fees.
  • Around a quarter of OA journals require the payment of publication fees (pre-financing model).

 

Additional information

Directory of Open Access Journals DOAJ

 

When selecting a suitable journal or publisher for Open Access publication, authors should exercise a certain degree of caution. Predatory publishers or journals pretend to be reputable publishers bz promising that they will offer services such as peer review, marketing or indexing in relevant databases or indices in return for an Article Processing Charge. However, these services are either offered in inferior quality or not at all. These unethical business practices not only damage the scientific publication landscape but can also have an impact on the reputation of authors who publish in such predatory journals.

Potential warning signs that may indicate a predatory journal:

  • The website of the journal looks unprofessional, e.g. bad layout, advertising etc.
  • Journal has no ISSN (International Standard Serial Number, unique identifier, equivalent to ISBN for books) or the given ISSN can’t be verified
  • No access to archives of previous published content
  • Editorial Board is not listed
  • Editorial Board is listed, but members can’t be found online
  • Missing information on author’s rights
  • Missing or very short peer review: immediate publication, lacking quality control etc.

When in doubt, these resources may be useful when selecting a journal for an Open Access publication:

Should you have any questions, please contact us at openaccessunisg.ch.

The Senate of the University of St.Gallen adopted an Open Access Policy in 2007. This Policy is further substantiated in the Open Access Policy Regulations.

  • Open Policy Finder (was SHERPA/RoMEO): online service collecting the policies of more than 22,000 academic journals on copyright and self-archiving.
  • Creative Commons: information on the Creative Commons license system.
  • SPARC: global initiative for the advancement of Open Science (Open Access, Open Data, Open Education) with in-depth information on author rights.

Contact

openaccessunisg.ch

Christian Schlumpf
Library
christian.schlumpfunisg.ch
+41 71 224 22 93

Ruedi Lindegger
OVP Research & Faculty
ruedi.lindeggerunisg.ch
+41 71 224 76 00

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