• Creative Commons Licenses
• Pre-print, post-print, published version: what are they?
• Open access in Switzerland

Choosing a Creative Commons license allows copyright holders to determine how readers can use their work. The basic principle of Creative Commons licenses is that they allow users to print and digitally redistribute work, provided that they name the author and use correct citations. Permission to redistribute a work can have additional specifications attached to it. The following licenses are available:

• CC-BY: Users are free to redistribute the work in any medium or format, provided that they name the author and use correct citations.
• CC-BY-SA: Users are free to redistribute the work in any medium or format, provided that they name the author, use correct citations and distribute the material under the original license (CC-BY-SA).
• CC-BY-NC: The work may be redistributed for non-commercial purposes, provided that users name the author and use correct citations.
• CC-BY-NC-SA: The work may be redistributed for non-commercial purposes, provided that users name the author, use correct citations and distribute the material under the original license (CC-BY-NC-SA).
• CC-BY-ND: Users are free to redistribute the work, provided that they name the author and use correct citations. The work may not be adapted (e.g. translated or shortened into excerpts).
• CC-BY-NC-ND: The work may be redistributed for non-commercial purposes, provided that users name the author and use correct citations. The work may not be adapted (e.g. translated or distributed as excerpts).

The ZHB generally recommends that you use the most open license possible (CC-BY or CC-BY-SA), particularly for publications that form part of a collection (e.g. articles, working papers, book chapters). If your work is also on sale from the publisher in addition to the electronic open access publication (particularly in the case of monographs and anthologies), we recommend using a license that prohibits commercial use by third parties (CC-BY-NC-ND).

It is established practice in many subject areas to distinguish between the different versions of a document during the publishing process. Some publishers may restrict secondary publication to a particular version:

• Pre-print: The version the author submits to the publisher prior to peer review.
• Post-print: The version as it stands after peer review but prior to any layout work done by the publisher and generally without final pagination. This version is identical in content to the final, published version, only without the final formatting.
• Published version: The publisher's final, published version that includes peer-review changes, the publisher's logo and final pagination.

The most ideal arrangement with your publisher is one that allows you to make the published version freely available as a secondary publication on LORY.

Many universities, research sponsors and academic organizations in Switzerland and abroad are calling for and promoting greater open access to academic publications. Swissuniversities, the association of universities, universities of applied sciences, and universities of teacher education in Switzerland, adopted a national Open Access Strategy on January 31, 2017. The strategy aims to make all publicly funded research publications freely available by 2024. This means that all publications affiliated with publicly funded institutions must be made freely available – not just research that has received direct funding. The strategy supports different routes to open access, including immediate open access publication (gold route), secondary publication via a repository (green route) or publishing open access as part of read-and-publish agreements such as those currently being negotiated between Swiss universities and the publishers Springer, Elsevier and Wiley (hybrid route).

Research projects funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation are obliged to make their publications available as open access. The publications can be made available as gold, green or hybrid open access. However, only the gold route will receive direct financial support, whether it be for journals or books.

Research sponsors and university associations abroad have set similar objectives. Plan S, supported by numerous large research funding organizations in Europe, is much more ambitious than the Swiss Open Access Strategy. It aims to make publications based on publicly funded research immediately available in their final version as open access and without embargo from 2021.

Innosuisse has (so far) not established an open access policy. However, research resulting from Innosuisse projects can be published as open access, provided all project participants agree to it.