About Open Access

Open Access means making scientific findings, information and data freely accessible as quickly as possible, free of charge. In this way, research results can be disseminated and checked and further research can be advanced. This means that scientific findings are also available to the public who financed the research.

Ideally, a publication should be freely accessible immediately. There are several ways to publish Open Access.

Diamond or Platinum Open Access

Diamond or Platinum OA means that a scientific text is first published in an open access journal, as an open access book or as a contribution to an open access collection. Diamond or Platinum OA is free for the author, as the publisher is funded in different ways.

Gold Open Access

Gold Open Access also refers to the publication of a scientific text in an open access journal, as an open access book or as a contribution to an open access collection. In contrast to diamond Open Access, the author usually pays a fee (article-processing charges, APCs).

The University Library can support you financially with Gold Open Access publishing: Funding for Open Access publishing

Green Open Access

Green OA means manuscripts are published in conventional subscription-based journals and also made freely accessible through secondary publication in institutional or subject-specific repositories (also called self-archiving). When publishing in conventional journals, the publisher’s open access policy should be checked, so that not just the accepted version, but also the published version of the article can be deposited in a repository. The Open Policy Finder database provides good information on this topic.

Self-archiving in UZH’s institutional repository ZORA

Publishing green Open Access with ZORA (PDF, 235 KB)

Difference between the accepted manuscript and the publisher’s PDF (PDF, 441 KB)

Many publishers now also offer the option of publishing a single article in a conventional journal Open Access. This means that the published version of the manuscript is freely accessible, but also entails publication fees (APCs) for authors. This route is also known as the hybrid route and is not supported by publication funds. It is, however, often recognized as fulfilling the open access requirements of funding agencies (e.g. SNSF).

Whichever route to Open Access is chosen, Open Access publications reach a larger audience and are also cited more frequently.

Further information: Where to publish Open Access? (University Library)

Many research sponsors such as the Swiss National Science Foundation or the EU Horizon program are already requiring that researchers publish Open Access. Since 2008, UZH researchers have also been obliged to make their publications at least accessible in the Zurich Open Repository and Archive (ZORA). The most common argument against Open Access publications is that they do not have the same prestige and impact factor as publications in traditional journals and are therefore not beneficial for an academic career. By signing the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), UZH and many other universities have committed to changing their evaluation culture and undertaking a holistic assessment of academic work.

It is important to ensure that the open access journals practice some form of quality control such as peer review. Platforms that support researchers in choosing trustworthy open access journals are helpful. This also prevents publishing in predatory journals. 

Where to publish Open Access? (University Library)
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Directory of Open Access Journals

Anyone who publishes in a classic, not freely accessible journal does not have to pay anything for the publication, but usually hands over the rights to their own article to the publishers. Universities and researchers then have to pay high subscription prices to get access to these articles. In addition, not everyone can afford this, and research is unnecessarily hindered.