open-access.network: Switzerland Sets Itself a New Open Access Target

'“By 2024, all scholarly publication activity in Switzerland should be OA, all scholarly publications funded by public money must be freely available on the internet.”1 With this lofty goal, the Swiss National Strategy on Open Access was adopted in January 2017. The strategy was developed by swissuniversities (the Rectors’ Conference of Swiss Universities) with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF). After eight years of diverse and innovative open access activities, it is now time to look back and ask: Have we been able to reach the overarching goal?

A look at the figures reveals that the answer is a resounding “No!”. For articles published in scholarly journals in 2023, the Swiss Open Access Monitor – a key output of the first strategy phase – shows an open access share of only 71%, compared with 49% in 2017.2 Although this falls short of expectations, a positive trend is visible – especially if one interprets the target of 100% not so much as a realistic benchmark but as a policy instrument for mobilizing resources and activities in this area...'