Swiss National Science Foundation adopts Green OA self-archiving mandate Stevan Harnad 10 Aug 2007 14:59 UTC
** Cross-Posted ** Peter Suber's OA News http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2007_08_05_fosblogarchive.html#929895517527601458 has just announced yet another very welcome and timely Green OA Self-Archiving Mandate, this time from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) (Switzerland's second OA mandate: U. Zuerich was the first). http://www.snf.ch/D/NewsPool/Seiten/news_070809_OpenAccess.aspx That makes 14 University Mandates and 15 Funder Mandates adopted, and more on the way. http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/policysignup/ The SNF mandate has only one (very easily remediable) bug: It allows publisher embargoes, which is OK, but it should make it clear that the embargo is only allowed for the date of setting access to the deposit as Open Access, not for the date of the *deposit* itself, which should be immediately upon acceptance for publication, with access, in case of embargo, set as Closed Access. That way, each SNF author's Institutional Repository's "Fair Use" Button can take care of all would-be users' access needs during any Closed Access embargo period via semi-automated email eprint requests to the author: http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/71-guid.html http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/274-guid.html From Peter Suber's Open Access News (Thanks to Susanne Goetker.) http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2007_08_05_fosblogarchive.html#929895517527601458 Swiss National Science Foundation adopts an OA mandate Yesterday the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) announced an OA mandate to take effect on September 1, Open Access: Der SNF erlaesst Weisung fuer die Umsetzung. http://www.snf.ch/D/NewsPool/Seiten/news_070809_OpenAccess.aspx The policy requires OA archiving for the results of SNF-funded research. Grantees may deposit their work in institutional or disciplinary repositories, and must apparently respect any embargo imposed by their publisher. The SNF does not have its own repository and does not apparently plan to launch one. The SNF encourages without requiring publication in an OA journal, and at least sometimes will pay the publication fees at fee-based OA journals. Comment. Kudos to the SNF. This will be a boon to Swiss research-authors and to all research-users. It also comes at a good time, when both the US and the EU are considering OA mandates, and adds to the growing momentum for public funding agencies to mandate open access for publicly-funded research. From Peter Suber's Open Access News http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2007_08_05_fosblogarchive.html#929895517527601458