Perspectives on Secondary Publication Rights and challenges related to the regulation of open access

When publishing scientific papers, authors usually assign their exclusive rights regarding their works to publishers. This limits the possibilities of parallel publications in practice – be it with publishers or on repositories. Therefore a secondary publication of authored works is generally difficult.

As universities and research funders have recently started to oppose the assignment of exclusive copyrights, the pressure on publishers to allow secondary publications is growing. At the same time, authors are lacking legal certainty regarding their options for parallel publications and open access. From a legal point of view and also in comparison to other legal systems, the issue of whether and how Switzerland should introduce a Secondary Publication Right is becoming increasingly urgent. The research project will address this issue and will also examine other regulatory challenges that arise in connection with open access.

The research project commissioned by swissuniversities is a collaboration between the Center for Information Technology, Society, and Law (ITSL) of the University of Zurich, the University of Basel, the University of Geneva, the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), the Bern University of Applied Sciences, as well as the School of Management Fribourg (HSW-FR), the Zurich University Library and SWITCH. The University of Basel, represented by Prof. Dr. Alfred Früh, is involved in the development of a proposed solution for a Secondary Publication Right and examines the challenges of Open Access Regulation in the areas of procurement law, antitrust law and data protection law.

On October 9,2023 swissuniversities published the final report in German language. Klick to read it here.