The Swiss research community strengthens its commitment to Open Access through a new national publishing agreement with the Lausanne head-quartered open-access publisher Frontiers.
Starting on 1st March 2022, this one-year pilot supports authors from 18 institutions, including hospitals, who are now able to publish in Frontiers’ broad portfolio of 146 journals, hosted on Frontiers’ award-winning open-science platform. Paid in advance by the institutions through the Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries (CSAL), the arrangement enables the authors to enjoy better research visibility and supports rapid dissemination of their studies across the 1,100 academic disciplines covered by Frontiers’ journals.
Commenting on the agreement, Susanne Aerni, head consortial services at CSAL, says: “The Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries is pleased to sign its third agreement with a pure Gold Open Access publisher. This agreement is another important step towards achieving the goal of 100% Open Access published articles by 2024 in Switzerland as defined by the national Open Access strategy of swissuniversities. We are convinced that the agreement will help decrease costs via the national discount and will streamline the administrative processes for both libraries and researchers.”
At the end of the year, the pilot will be evaluated with a view of establishing a longer-term agreement. “With Frontiers being headquartered in Switzerland, the partnership is of great importance for us, and we are glad to be able to offer significant benefits to the authors at home. Article Processing Charges (APCs) for authors who choose to publish in one of Frontiers’ journals and that are covered by the participating institutes will be granted a 10% partnership discount. We look forward to a successful and long-term collaboration,” says Ronald Buitenhuis, Frontiers’ head of institutional partnerships.
“This agreement with the Gold Open Access publisher is the next logical step in fostering open access at national and international level and will remove further obstacles for Swiss scientists,” echoes the vision Dr. Rafael Ball, ETH-Library director at ETH Zurich and ETH Domain representative.
Dr. Frederick Fenter, chief executive editor at Frontiers, comments, “This agreement is the result of a broad stakeholder discussion held two years ago with our Swiss partners, who understood the benefits of Gold Open Access but lacked the support mechanism to take better advantage of the impact and value we provide. We congratulate them on their successful efforts and for their recognition that supporting publishers like Frontiers – who continue to lead publishing innovation, invest in new tools and provide the most impactful channels for the dissemination of knowledge – provides high-quality services at excellent value.”
For Frontiers, this agreement becomes the seventh national publishing partnership adding to the current cohort of national arrangements with Austria, Luxembourg, Norway, Qatar, Sweden, the UK and 10 additional consortia partnerships, including three with leading funders (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Austrian Science Fund [FWF], and the Luxembourg National Fund), providing seamless and cost-effective access of Frontiers’ services to over 600 individual institutions worldwide. Frontiers’ bold engagement in supporting institutions in building the frameworks and infrastructure necessary for a global transition to Open Access carries on.
