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:
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'.
Institutional repository Alexandria
Swissuniversities Open Access
SNSF
| ACM 100% | Corresponding authors affiliated with the University of St.Gallen can publish Open Access at no additional cost in participating ACM Journals, Conference Proceedings and Magazines. Important: please use your HSG email address when submitting your article. ACM automatically checks eligibility under this agreement based on the email address. This offer is good for research articles that are accepted for publication between June 1st 2022 and December 31st 2025. | |
| Cambridge University Press 100% | Corresponding authors affiliated with the University of St.Gallen can publish Open Acess at no additional cost in participating Cambridge University Press Journals. | |
| De Gruyter 100% | Corresponding authors affiliated with University of St.Gallen can publish Open Access at no additional cost in participating De Gruyter Journals. Please be aware: participating journals are only the ones listed on the tab UNISG! | |
| Elsevier 100% | Corresponding authors currently actively affiliated with University of St.Gallen can publish Open Access at no additional cost in participating Elsevier Journals. | |
| MDPI 20% | Authors receive a 20% discount on APC. Please take note: the remaining 80% of APC are not financed by the library! Funding for the discounted APC has to be secured by authors. To benefit from this discount, authors must select their affiliation with the University of St.Gallen in the submission process. Once an article is accepted, authors will be invoiced directly from MDPI, with a 20% discount on the current APC. | |
| Nature Research 100% | Corresponding authors currently affiliated with the University of St.Gallen can publish Open Access at no additional cost in participating Nature Research Journals - not eligible are articles published in Nature Reviews, Nature Protocols and Nature Communicates. There is a cap on the annual number of eligible articles from all participating Swiss HEIs* - this cap has been reached for 2025. In 2026, articles accepted after 01.01.2026 will become eligible again. | |
| Oxford University Press 100% | Corresponding authors currently affiliated with the University of St.Gallen can publish Open Access at no additional cost in participating OUP journals. The article must be accepted for publication after 01.01.2025. | |
| SAGE 100% | Corresponding authors affiliated with the University of St.Gallen can publish Open Access in participating SAGE Journals. | |
| Springer 100% | Corresponding authors affiliated with the University of St.Gallen can publish Open Acess at no additional cost in participating Springer Journals. Nature Journals are not covered by this. Additional charges (e.g. colour charges, offprints etc.) are also not covered. There is a cap on the annual number of eligible articles from all participating Swiss HEIs*. Articles that are accepted for publication after 01.01.2025 are eligible. | |
| Taylor & Francis 100% | Corresponding authors currently affiliated with the University of St.Gallen can publish Open Access at no additional cost in participating Taylor & Francis, Dove and F1000 titles. The article must be accepted for publication after 01.01.2025. There is a cap on the annual number of eligible articles from all participating Swiss HEIs. * | |
| Wiley 100% | Corresponding authors affiliated with the University of St.Gallen can publish Open Acess at no additional cost in participating Wiley Journals. There is a cap on the annual number of eligible articles from all participating Swiss HEIs*. Articles that are accepted for publication after 01.01.2025 are eligible. | |
| * Publishers with an annual cap on the number of eligible articles: once the annual cap is reached, you can either provide the funding for the Open Access publication of an article in the journal yourself, or you can opt for Green Open Access publication in the Alexandria repository, according to the rights you retained in your publishing agreement. |
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.
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 openaccess@unisg.ch for this.
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.
Christian Schlumpf
Library
christian.schlumpf@unisg.ch
+41 71 224 22 93
Ruedi Lindegger
OVP Research & Faculty
ruedi.lindegger@unisg.ch
+41 71 224 76 00