26 February 2009. As a signatory of the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, the University of St.Gallen (HSG) undertook two years ago to publish research results on the Internet. Thus the HSG is one of Switzerland’s first institutions to make its publications freely accessible on the net in the spirit of the Berlin Declaration.

Rulebook on Open Access Policy
Since as early as 2004, academics of the University of St.Gallen have been making use of the online platform Alexandria to publish their results and to distribute them in digital form. Now the HSG has adopted a rulebook on Open Access Policy with the intention of further extending free access to research results and the service provided by the Alexandria research site.

Research as public good
“Research is a public good which we want to make available to everyone on the Internet at all times,” said HSG Vice-President Prof. Dr. Bernhard Ehrenzeller about the adoption of these rules. An extension of free access to publications is also in the HSG academics’ interest: “Those who post their results on the Alexandria platform will be quoted up to three hundred times more often and faster,” added Ehrenzeller.

This does not only increase the scope of the publications but also makes the academic exchange among researchers simpler and more efficient.

HSG among the first in Switzerland
With the implementation of open access, the University of St.Gallen is playing a pioneering role in Switzerland alongside the University of Zurich, the Library Network of Western Switzerland and the CERN in Geneva.

“With the Alexandria research platform, the HSG now satisfies all the formal requirements for open access,” says Bernhard Ehrenzeller. In addition, the rules provide clear-cut instructions for the implementation of the Open Access Policy in the academic operations of the University of St.Gallen.