Introduction to Open Access

Addenda to agreements

According to the Open Access Directory (OAD) an author's addendum is a proposal to modify a publisher's standard copyrights. If agreed, it allows the author to retain the key rights, specifically the right to publish in Open Access.

This tool helps the author who does not feel at ease in negotiating the terms of contracts with publishers or who is not familiar enough with copyright laws or does not know the best terms to support Open Access. Carefull, because of its nature (an amendment proposal), a publisher may or may not accept the addendum.

SPARC organization offers an addendum in a version for the United States and for Canada which can be an inspiration if the below proposal by the SNSF does not fit your needs.

For the articles published by UNIGE, authors shoud add systematically an Addenda Creative Commons to the publishing conditions in order to benefit from the withholding of their rights.

Email proposal by the SNSF

Dear Sir or Madam,

The article “TITLE” is the result of research funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). Researchers who were awarded an SNSF grant are required to provide open access to publications containing the results of their research. Accordingly, at least the ‘author’s accepted manuscript’ of an article needs to be made available within 6 months of initial publication in an institutional or discipline-specific repository.

In order to satisfy the SNSF requirement and be able to continue publishing in “Name of journal” in the future, I kindly ask you for permission to publish the ‘author’s accepted manuscript’ of my article after 6 months in a not-for-profit repository.

Legal advice on the Rights of Authors in Switzerland

On the main Library's initiative, the University of Zurich asked the professor Reto Hilty and Mr.  Matthias Seemann to draw up an expert opinion on the Open Access in relation to Swiss legislation. The legal advice was translated in French and in English.