Strengthening authors’ rights for the Open Access transformation

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Significant progress has been made in the transformation to Open Access in recent years, for example through Read&Publish contracts or financial support for researchers with APC costs. These measures have proven to be effective – but they do lead to considerable additional costs. In the European context, the focus is therefore now on strengthening authors’ rights, and the possibility of a secondary publication right has also been clarified in Switzerland. Here is an overview and information on the current status.

The national OA strategy until 2024: An update

In 2017, swissuniversities stated in its national OA strategy that all academic publications should be open access by 2024. This goal will not be reached. Nevertheless, significant progress has been made in recent years. With the increased promotion of the APC model and thanks to the conclusion of Read&Publish agreements, a significant increase in the open access share from around 55% to 70% was achieved for Switzerland between 2019 and 2022. However, this increase is also associated with a considerable increase in costs for higher educational institutions and their libraries. An experience that Switzerland shares with other European countries.

Increasing focus on strengthening authors’ rights

Against this backdrop, the strengthening of the legal framework for authors has increasingly become the focus of possible open access measures in recent years. Between 2011 and 2022, six countries introduced a secondary publication right, namely Spain, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Austria and Belgium. Rights retention mechanisms have been known since 2004. In 2005, the Wellcome Trust was the first funding institution to introduce a provision for the retention of certain authors’ rights. Three years later, in 2008, Harvard University launched an institutional open access policy under which faculties and departments grant their university non-exclusive rights that allow the institution to make scholarly articles available through its institutional repository. Many other universities around the world have introduced similar policies over the last 15 years.

Project on secondary publication rights in Switzerland completed

As part of swissuniversities’ Open Science program a project for a comprehensive legal analysis was put out to tender in March 2022 (see our blog post on this); the aim was to clarify the possibilities for a secondary publication right in Switzerland. A consortium of seven partners led by UZH submitted a project proposal, which was approved. The report was published at the beginning of November 2023: Based on a comprehensive, comparative study of secondary publication law at the European level, a possible introduction of a comparable law in Switzerland is considered possible. Anchoring it in the Swiss Code of Obligations is recommended. For the entire 107-page report, see the Final report (swissuniversities.ch)

Presentations on author rights in 2023

In 2023, various events were held at the University of Zurich on the topic of authors’ rights and publishing contracts. These included two Lunch & Learn Open Science events and workshops by CCdigitallaw, one of which was held at the University of Zurich.

• On April 5, Sally Rumsey from cOAlition S gave insights into the Rights Retention Strategy of cOAlition S and emphasized the importance of academic authors retaining their rights and not handing them over to publishers. [Download presentation]
  
• On August 24, Suzanna Marazza from CCdigitallaw informed about the Open Access requirements of research funders (e.g. the SNSF) and how publishers’ conditions can be met despite potential discrepancies. Knowledge about authors’ rights and self-archiving rights is particularly important in this context. [Download presentation]
  
• In addition, CCdigitallaw organized three workshops in Switzerland to raise authors’ awareness of secondary publication rights and the situation in Switzerland. The documents can be found on the website of CCdigitallaw.

The University Library provides information on the legal aspects of self-archiving

An introduction to the topic can also be found on the University Library’s website including a handout on the legal aspects of self-archiving.

What rights do authors have for self-archiving? What rights authors have for self-archiving depend on the agreement with the publisher. With their publishing agreement, authors may transfer comprehensive or only simple rights of reuse to the publisher. If the publishing agreement includes comprehensive rights, authors also often give up the right to make the publication available online at another location, e.g. on a repository or academic network. Instead, authors must then adhere to the provisions of the contract. However, if authors grant only simple rights, they generally keep the right to self-archive.

For more information, in particular on the status of legal measures for secondary publication rights in Europe, see also

• Ignasi Labastida i Juan, Iva Melinščak Zlodi, Vanessa Proudman, & Jon Treadway. (2023). Opening Knowledge: Retaining Rights and Open Licensing in Europe. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8084051 
  
• Tsakonas, G., Zoutsou, K., & Perivolari, M. (2023). Secondary Publishing Rights in Europe: status, challenges & opportunities. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8428315 

Andrea Malits & Melanie Röthlisberger, Open Science Services