More Autonomy and Inclusion in Publishing with Platinum Open Access

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Community-driven publishing is on the rise. The PLATO Project is committed to strengthening it in Switzerland.

Platinum Open Access – often also called Diamond Open Access – stands for high quality, community-driven publishing which is free of charge for both authors and readers. Platinum Open Access therefore aims at creating an open, more inclusive and equitable access to knowledge without fee barriers and shifts the control over publication processes from traditional publishers to researchers.

But how many and which Platinum Open Access journals exist in Switzerland? What services are needed and who bears the costs to ensure accessibility for all? What opportunities and challenges is Platinum Open Access publishing presented with, and how can these challenges be met? The project “Platinum Open Access Funding (PLATO)“, launched in early 2022, seeks to answers these questions and develop sustainable funding and collaboration strategies to promote Platinum Open Access in Switzerland.

PLATO is a national effort

PLATO is a collaboration between six Swiss universities: the University of Zurich, University of Bern, Université de Genève, Université de Neuchâtel, Zurich University of the Arts, and ETH Zurich, and is co-financed by swissuniversities. Collaboration is also one of the central principles when it comes to the implementation of Platinum Open Access. This means that, even though the PLATO project primarily focuses on the Swiss platinum publication landscape, international developments and initiatives will also be taken into account. After all, Platinum/Diamond Open Access publishing does not stop at national borders and is sustained by national and international networks of which researchers, scientific organizations, libraries, and funding institutions in Switzerland are equally a part of.

With HOPE, the University Library of Zurich already offers a platform that hosts Platinum Open Access journals and makes them available to the public. How many of these platforms and journals exist in Switzerland, how they are financed, with which institutions they are affiliated, and which subjects and languages they cover are all questions that the PLATO project aims to address. A final report with the results will be published in autumn 2022. Here, too, PLATO is taking its cue from international initiatives such as the 2021 study on «OA Diamond Journals» carried out by Science Europe and the cOAlition S, which has brought greater attention to this form of publishing and has given it a new dynamic.

Together addressing and overcoming challenges of Platinum OA

Following the publication of the report towards the end of 2022, the project will engage with in exchanges and consultations with researchers, editors, service providers and sponsors to seize opportunities and explore the as yet untapped potential of platinum OA in Switzerland. In this process, the concrete challenges – financial, organizational, technical, legal – will have to be addressed in order to be able to overcome them collaboratively.

With this, the PLATO project makes an important contribution to the implementation of the vision of the National Open Access Strategy by swissuniversities to make 100% of scientific publications originating from publicly funded research available Open Access by 2024.