Category Archives: oa.switzerland

UZH: Project Manager National Platinum Open Access Funding (PLATO). 0.7-0.8 FTE, fixed-term contract. Application deadline: November 25, 2021.

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The Open Science Team promotes an Open Science culture at the University of Zurich. Research should be available to all. Our goal is to make Open Science the default practice in research.
Much progress has been achieved in Switzerland to make all publicly funded scientific publications freely accessible until 2024. Platinum Open Access publications can play an important role in the path towards Open Access.
In order to support Platinum funding in Switzerland a national project is launched by swissuniversities, the University of Zurich, the University of Berne, the University of Geneva, the University of Neuchatel, ETH Zurich and the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). Firstly, we want to gain more insight in the landscape of Platinum journals in Switzerland, and secondly, we wish to develop innovative funding streams for a sustainable Platinum landscape in Switzerland. The project will run until 2024. The successful candidate will be offered a contract until end of 2024.

Your responsibilities
As the project manager of the national project “National Platinum Open Access Funding (PLATO)” you have the following responsibilities:

Management (incl. project finances) and coordination of the national project with all stakeholders
Managing the mandate for a study on the Platinum Open Access landscape in Switzerland
Engaging with research communities for information purposes and needs assessment
Development of a concept to finance the Platinum Publishing in coordination with the project work group

Your profile
The ideal candidate is a self-starter, combines excellent project management skills with an understanding of the research publishing landscape and a passion for Open Science. We would also welcome knowledge of business models and innovative funding streams and the ability to network and communicate.

Academic background
Good social and networking skills
Ability to communicate effectively
Good organizational and planning skills
Passion for Open Science
Excellent knowledge of English
Excellent knowledge of German or French, good working knowledge of the other language
Experience with developing business models and/or an understanding of the Swiss funding landscape
Scholarly publishing experience
First-hand experience with one or more open scholarship practices (e.g., open access publishing, open data, open code)

What we offer
The University of Zurich, Switzerland’s largest university, offers a range of attractive roles in an inspiring environment of cutting-edge research and top-class education. Diversity and inclusion are important to us.
Put your talent and skills to work for us. We look forward to receiving your application.
The UZH Open Science Team is happy to answer any questions you may have.
Please apply only on the job application portal. Applications via email or mail will not be considered.

Place of work
Strickhofstrasse 39, 8057 Zurich and Home Office

Start of employment
Employment start date as soon as possible. Please submit your application by 25/11/2021.

Das scholar-led.network-Manifest | Zenodo

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Fokusgruppe scholar-led.network. (2021). Das scholar-led.network-Manifest. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4925784

English abstract (via deepl.com): We are the scholar-led.network and are working collaboratively for a non-profit publishing culture beyond APCs and BPCs that is independent of major publishers. The scholar-led.network manifesto sums up our central critique of the current scholarly publishing system in the German-speaking world and identifies areas of action for fair, planned, and diverse publishing.

German abstract: Wir sind das scholar-led.network und setzen uns gemeinsam und kollaborativ für eine von Großverlagen unabhängige, nicht profitorientierte Publikationskultur jenseits von APCs und BPCs ein. Das scholar-led.network-Manifest bringt unsere zentrale Kritik am gegenwärtigen wissenschaftlichen Publikationssystem im deutschsprachigen Raum auf den Punkt und benennt Handlungsfelder für faires, planvolles und vielfältiges Publizieren.

Live document: https://preview.graphite.page/scholar-led-manifest/

English version via Google Translate

scholar-led Open Access: Manifesto for fair publishing in German-speaking countries

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Scholar-led.network points out problematic issues in the current publishing system and wants to initiate a debate on the role of scholar-led Open Access

In its scholar-led.network manifesto, the focus group scholar-led.network, which was established within the framework of the open-access.network project, criticises the current scholarly publishing system in the German-speaking world and, at the same time, provides fields of action for the development of a fair, planned and bibliodiverse publishing culture.

The authors of the text identify a journal crisis in the course of the Open Access transformation. This is reflected, among other things, in the monopoly position of major publishers who demand high publication fees from authors – so-called APCs (Article Processing Charges) and BPCs (Book Processing Charges). According to the Manifesto, this leads to new inequalities and exclusions. In order to make the Open Access transformation fairer and more diverse, scholar-led publishing models that do not charge such fees can be strengthened (Diamond Open Access). However, the current situation of scholar-led projects is deficient, partly due to a lack of funding.

Based on its critique, the focus group formulates concrete fields of action in which scholars, research institutions, libraries, research funding institutions, professional societies and other parts of the scholarly community must jointly get involved in to strengthen a diverse, independent and fair publication ecosystem. The fields of action are:

Networking, collaboration and strategic frameworks.
Sustainable funding structures for Diamond Open Access
Promotion of bibliodiversity in academia

You can access the scholar-led.network manifesto via this link: https://graphite.page/scholar-led-manifest/

Open Science | Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences

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Science and research are the building blocks connecting us with knowledge. As these are chiefly financed by the public sector, their results should be accessible to as many people as possible. Open Science describes the various efforts and activities which aim to reach this goal of bringing science to all.

Update Swiss Elsevier R&P Agreement – June 2021 | Open Access Monitoring

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“After a first disillusioning analysis of the Swiss Elsevier Read & Publish Agreement (2020-2023) in August 2020, it is time for another update after 18 months of contract duration….

The low degree of exploitation is not due to the fact that Swiss authors publish less with Elsevier. Rather, many publications that could/should actually be Open Access by agreement remain Closed Access. My monitoring now shows 560 such Swiss Corresponding Author Papers, whose total APC list price amounts to €1.5 million. Publications for which Elsevier does not publish the submission date and therefore the eligibility cannot be determined with certainty are not even included in this number. Example: 10.1016/j.cagd.2021.102003

Why so many papers are closed access seems to have several reasons. I have received feedback from two authors that the option to OA was not displayed in the submission process, leading to suspicion that the affiliation identification at Elsevier is not working reliably.

 

Other authors apparently deliberately chose not to use the OA option because they feared hybrid costs. Since the Swiss OA community (and the SNSF) has been making researchers aware of hybrid and double-dipping for the past 15 years, this is actually good news….

An increase to 61% OA is without doubt a clear improvement over subscription-only. But the cost of this step is extremely high. Currently, the PAR fee for 2020 is over 6000€. If the quota is fully utilised, the PAR fee will come to 4500€ EUR….

Unfortunately, my conclusion from last year does not change much. Those responsible for this deal have quite unnecessarily embarked on something half-baked that no one can really be satisfied with (except Elsevier). It is true that the increase to 61% OA is positive, but only as long as one does not know the price. When I also learn that Swiss OA responsibles now have to chase authors when the submission did not work out with OA, we are actually at the point where we could have reached the 61% via Green Road OA without embargo with the same effort, but much less money. The millions could have been put into more worthwhile alternatives….”

#GLAMhack 2021 – Swiss Open Cultural Data Hackathon – Working Groups / Open GLAM – Open Knowledge Forums

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“The yearly Swiss Open Cultural Data Hackathon is a fun, collaborative and innovative event dedicated to our digital heritage. This year, we are being hosted by the ETH Library in Zurich and will meet online on April 16 & 17. New data sets are being made available as is custom for this event, such as an exciting new compilation of historical photographs of Zürich by the photographer Friedrich Ruef-Hirt (via @OpenDataZurich)….”

9500 euros pour publier dans «Nature», le séisme du plan S – Le Temps

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From Google’s English:  “And in Switzerland? “The National Scientific Fund supports plan S but our strategy towards open access was decided before, in 2017, it’s a bit unfortunate,” explains Angelika Kalt, director of the SNSF. Our goal was to get 100% open access to the publications we funded by the end of 2020, we’ll probably get to 80%. The national objective is 100% free access by 2024. Where Switzerland differs from plan S is on the issue of immediate access; this big step did not seem possible to us, we accept a period of six months ”. The SNSF has been relaunched several times to join plan S, “this year we will position ourselves in consultation with SwissUniversities and researchers”….

In fact, like Germany in 2019, Switzerland in transition to open access signed “transformative” agreements in 2020 with two of the three largest publishers, Elsevier (up to 15 million francs) and  Springer (13 million francs). ) ; negotiations (led by SwissUniversities) continue with Wiley (the three publishers represent 60% of the articles consulted in Switzerland). These Read and Publish  agreements  allow unlimited access to journals and the possibility for researchers to publish in open access at no additional cost. That they include 80 to 100 pages of conditions clearly shows how complex and sensitive the subject is . Four others entered into force in early 2021 , adds Marie Fuselier, the director of the scientific information division at the University of Geneva.

But the devil is in the details: “We must not be naive, publishing houses know very well what is more and less read, recalls Angelika Kalt, they do not include their entire portfolio of newspapers in the Read agreements. and Publish, and the duration of agreements is often longer than desired. ” The contract with Elsevier, for example, runs for four years. Will the colossal sums of Read and Publish, which correspond to fixed prices, be amortized by a significant number of publications?”

 

9500 euros pour publier dans «Nature», le séisme du plan S – Le Temps

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From Google’s English:  “And in Switzerland? “The National Scientific Fund supports plan S but our strategy towards open access was decided before, in 2017, it’s a bit unfortunate,” explains Angelika Kalt, director of the SNSF. Our goal was to get 100% open access to the publications we funded by the end of 2020, we’ll probably get to 80%. The national objective is 100% free access by 2024. Where Switzerland differs from plan S is on the issue of immediate access; this big step did not seem possible to us, we accept a period of six months ”. The SNSF has been relaunched several times to join plan S, “this year we will position ourselves in consultation with SwissUniversities and researchers”….

In fact, like Germany in 2019, Switzerland in transition to open access signed “transformative” agreements in 2020 with two of the three largest publishers, Elsevier (up to 15 million francs) and  Springer (13 million francs). ) ; negotiations (led by SwissUniversities) continue with Wiley (the three publishers represent 60% of the articles consulted in Switzerland). These Read and Publish  agreements  allow unlimited access to journals and the possibility for researchers to publish in open access at no additional cost. That they include 80 to 100 pages of conditions clearly shows how complex and sensitive the subject is . Four others entered into force in early 2021 , adds Marie Fuselier, the director of the scientific information division at the University of Geneva.

But the devil is in the details: “We must not be naive, publishing houses know very well what is more and less read, recalls Angelika Kalt, they do not include their entire portfolio of newspapers in the Read agreements. and Publish, and the duration of agreements is often longer than desired. ” The contract with Elsevier, for example, runs for four years. Will the colossal sums of Read and Publish, which correspond to fixed prices, be amortized by a significant number of publications?”