The goal of open access is to benefit both research and a knowledge-intensive society. Through open access to scientific information, the results can be used by many actors, both within and outside the research community.
Open access
When research results are made openly available, researchers can validate and further develop previous results. This way, science may progress faster. The purpose of open access is not only to make scientific results more accessible, but to make the entire scientific process more transparent, open and inclusive. The Knowledge Foundation wants to contribute to this process and has therefore signed DORA and CoARA.
Publication with open access
For projects that have been granted funds by the Knowledge Foundation and that are contracted after 1 February 2023, all forms of publications must be published with open access. In other words, the results from the research that is fully or partially funded by the Knowledge Foundation must be published with immediate open access. This means that all types of publications, for example articles, chapters and scientific books, must be freely available in digital form without delay.
Approved open access publishing methods
The Knowledge Foundation approves the following types of publication:
Publishing in a journal or on an open access platform – there are a large number of journals that publish in open access, as well as several so-called publishing platforms.
Hybrid publishing – a hybrid journal is a traditional subscription-based journal that offers open access publishing for a fee. Many international book publishers offer a corresponding service for books.
Parallel publication in a freely accessible archive – basically all Swedish universities have an open digital archive. When an article or book is published in a journal or by a publisher, the researcher can save a copy in the university’s open archive. It must be a content-identical copy of the original publication that is published. However, the Knowledge Foundation does not require that the parallel published copy has the magazine’s or publisher’s layout.
Open access to research data
The projects financed by the Knowledge Foundation are recommended in accordance with CoARA’s principles to make data and metadata available in openly accessible databases, nationally or internationally. As long as it does not conflict with national legislation on personal data. However, the Knowledge Foundation does not currently do any systematic follow-up of the projects’ availability of data.