In CHIST-ERA, we believe that any research supported by public funds should be immediately available to all the researchers and the public free of charge, not only to improve transparency, reproducibility, visibility and democratisation of research, but also to avoid triplicate payment of the same research (researchers, publications, access to publications). As such, we have recently committed to a pioneering Open Science policy that encompasses national efforts towards Open Science.

This entails achieving more openness in the CHIST-ERA-funded science through Open Access to publications and research data, as well as constantly improving the transparency of the CHIST-ERA research evaluation processes.

At the level of CHIST-ERA, Open Science aspects are positively appreciated already during the evaluation, whose criteria explicitly assess the Open Science practices and activities planned within each project. In addition, we refrain from using wrong proxies (e.g. impact factors) during the assessment of the projects and give higher weight to the scientific content of a paper than to publication metrics, in line with the principles of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment. CHIST-ERA is a signatory of the DORA declaration.

Call 2022 Open Science Policy

Open Access to Research Data

All data underlying a publication funded by CHIST-ERA must be made Findable Accessible Interoperable Re-usable (FAIR) and must be openly published on a repository that enables FAIR data. By research data we understand “the evidence that underpins the answer to the research question, and can be used to validate findings regardless of its form (e.g. print, digital, or physical)”. It is the necessary material that is commonly accepted in the scientific community as necessary to document, validate and reproduce research findings. In the long-term, we expect CHIST-ERA supported projects to aim at 
preserving research data beyond the projects’ lifetimes.

Correspondingly, CHIST-ERA-funded researchers are expected to ensure that the data produced throughout the project is FAIR, to share it with the scientific community and to deposit the data and metadata onto a FAIR-enabling data repository. In addition, the research data must be made available at latest with the publication of the corresponding research outputs and appropriately linked to the latter, with a reference to the CHIST-ERA grant. For data that cannot be shared for a legitimate reason, the specific clause as well as the conditions under which the data could be accessed must be provided. In this case, the metadata must be deposited on a FAIR-enabling data repository.

Open Access to research data costs (data preparation, sharing, etc.) shall be covered through the relevant CHIST-ERA funding organisations and, if relevant, already planned within the requested budget. 

In general, the data management of each project is the subject of a Data Management Plan (DMP) that must be submitted to CHIST-ERA at latest three months after the beginning of the project via the ARGOS online platform. The DMP is a living document and it is the responsibility of the Open Science Coordinator to update the DMP within the same platform (at least once per year). At the end of the project, the DMP must be updated and published on a FAIR-enabling data repository. The main goal is to provide a sustainable overview of the data associated to the project beyond its mere lifetime, ensuring reproducibility and long-term reuse.

Open Access to Publications

All publications funded by CHIST-ERA must be available in OA. This can be achieved via the Green or the Gold Road. Neither embargos nor hybrid journals are allowed in any of the two roads.

  • Green road: publications are deposited in an open archive without any embargo.
  • Gold road: research is published in an Open Access to publications venue. CHIST-ERA recommends using the Diamond road.

Beneficiaries (or authors) must retain sufficient intellectual property rights to comply with the open access requirements. Creative Commons licenses or any other equivalent standard licenses are required whenever open access to publications will be secured via the gold road. Such licenses are also strongly recommended whenever the beneficiaries comply with our open access publications policy via the green road.

Possible publication costs shall be covered through the relevant CHIST-ERA funding organisations and, if relevant, already planned within the requested budget.

Open Science Coordinator

In order to facilitate the planning and the proper implementation of the Open Science policy within each project, every consortium must assign the role of Open Science Coordinator to one of its members (including the coordinator). The Open Science Coordinator is the main contact point for CHIST-ERA for Open Science-related matters and has the following responsibilities:

  • Planning the dissemination activities of the consortium in connection with all scientific deliverables;
  • Adapting the consortium budget to cover for the Open Science costs, given the available opportunities offered by the CHIST-ERA partners;
  • Submit and update the project’s DMP and follow up with Open Science aspects during the lifetime of the project (data sharing, embargos, etc.). In particular, coordinate these aspects with the elaboration of exploitation plans for some of the project deliverables such as those requiring specific intellectual property strategies (e.g. patenting or commercialisation);
  • Liaise with project members with respect to Open Access to publications and research data aspects;
  • Analyse Open Science practices in other projects.
Call 2021 Open Science Policy

Open Access to Research Data

All data underlying a publication funded by CHIST-ERA must be made Findable Accessible Interoperable Re-usable (FAIR) and must be openly published on a repository that enables FAIR data. By research data we understand “the evidence that underpins the answer to the research question, and can be used to validate findings regardless of its form (e.g. print, digital, or physical)”. It is the necessary material (datasets, software, any other research artefact incl. metada) that is commonly accepted in the scientific community as necessary to document, validate and reproduce research findings. In the long-term, we expect CHIST-ERA supported projects to aim at preserving research data beyond the projects’ lifetimes.

Correspondingly, CHIST-ERA-funded researchers are expected to ensure that the data produced throughout the project is FAIR, to share it with the scientific community and to deposit the data and metadata onto a FAIR-enabling data repository (exception is research bound by legal, ethical, copyright, confidentiality or other clauses). In addition, the research data must be made available at latest with the publication of the corresponding research outputs and appropriately linked to the latter, with a reference to the CHIST-ERA grant. For data that cannot be shared for a legitimate reason, the specific clause as well as the conditions under which the data could be accessed must be provided. In this case, the metadata must be deposited on a FAIR-enabling data repository.

Open Access to research data costs (data preparation, sharing, etc.) shall be covered through the relevant CHIST-ERA funding organisations and, if relevant, already planned within the requested budget.

In general, the data management of each project is the subject of a Data Management Plan (DMP) that must be submitted to CHIST-ERA at latest three months after the beginning of the project via the ARGOS online platform. The DMP is a living document and it is the responsibility of the Open Science Coordinator to update the DMP within the same platform (at least once per year). At the end of the project, the DMP must be updated and published on a FAIR-enabling data repository. The main goal is to provide a sustainable overview of the data associated to the project beyond its mere lifetime, ensuring reproducibility and long-term reuse.

Open Access to Publications

All publications funded by CHIST-ERA must be available in Open Access. This can be achieved via the Green or the Gold Routes. Neither embargos nor hybrid journals are allowed in any of the two routes.

  • Green Route: Publications are deposited in an open archive without any embargo.
  • Gold Route: Research is published in an Open Access to publications venue (see doaj.org & doabooks.org). CHIST-ERA recommends using the Diamond Route.

Beneficiaries (or authors) must retain sufficient intellectual property rights to comply with the Open Access requirements. Creative Commons licenses or any other equivalent standard licenses are required whenever Open Access to publications will be secured via the Gold Route. Such licenses are also strongly recommended whenever the beneficiaries comply with our Open Access publications policy via the Green Route.

Possible publication costs shall be covered through the relevant CHIST-ERA funding organisations and, if relevant, already planned within the requested budget.

Open Science Coordinator

In order to facilitate the planning and the proper implementation of the Open Science policy within each project, every consortium must assign the role of Open Science Coordinator to one of its members (including the coordinator). The Open Science Coordinator is the main contact point for CHIST-ERA for Open Science-related matters and has the following responsibilities:

  • Planning the dissemination activities of the consortium in connection with all scientific deliverables;
  • Adapting the consortium budget to cover for the Open Science costs, given the available opportunities offered by the CHIST-ERA partners;
  • Submit and update the project’s DMP and follow up with Open Science aspects during the lifetime of the project (data sharing, embargos, etc.). In particular, coordinate these aspects with the elaboration of exploitation plans for some of the project deliverables such as those requiring specific intellectual property strategies (e.g. patenting or commercialisation);
  • Liaise with project members with respect to Open Access to publications and research data aspects;
  • Analyse Open Science practices in other projects.
Call 2020 Open Science Policy

Open Access to Publications

The publications funded by CHIST-ERA must be available in Open Access. This can be achieved via the Green or the Gold Routes.

  • Green Route: Publications are deposited in an open archive without any embargo.
  • Gold Route: Research is published in an Open Access journal. While the website DOAJ lists the peer-reviewed and open access scientific journals, the website DOAB focuses on the monographs.

Possible Open Access costs shall be covered through the relevant CHIST-ERA Parties (funding organisations) and, if relevant, already planned within the requested budget.

Open Access to Research Data

The data underlying a publication funded by CHIST-ERA must be openly available (following the principle "as open as possible, as closed as necessary") on a repository that enables Findable Accessible Interoperable Re-usable (FAIR) data. By research data we understand “the evidence that underpins the answer to the research question, and can be used to validate findings regardless of its form (e.g. print, digital, or physical)” . It is the necessary material that is commonly accepted in the scientific community as necessary to document, validate and reproduce research findings.

Correspondingly, CHIST-ERA-funded researchers are expected to appropriately store the data produced throughout the project, share it with the scientific community and deposit the data and metadata onto a FAIR-enabling data repository. In addition, the research data must be made available at latest with the publication of the corresponding research work in a citeable form and appropriately linked to the latter, with a reference to the CHIST-ERA funding support.

For data that cannot be shared for a legitimate reason (exception is research bound by legal, ethical, copyright, confidentiality constraints, obligation to protect results, security obligations, or other legitimate constraints) and/or by the publication date, the specific clause as well as the conditions under which the data can be accessed must be provided in the Data Management Plan.

Open Access to research data costs (data preparation, sharing, etc.) shall be covered through the relevant CHIST-ERA Parties (funding organisations) and, if relevant, already planned within the requested budget.

To match the objectives of Open Access, data management requires appropriate consideration from the project proposal preparation to the project end and beyond. For this purpose, each project is the subject of a Data Management Plan that must be submitted to CHIST-ERA at latest three months after the beginning of the project via an online platform. The Data Management Plan is a living document and it is the responsibility of the project to update it within the same platform (at least once per year), along with the preparation of the yearly project activity report.

Open Science Coordinator

In order to facilitate the planning and the proper implementation of the Open Science policy within each project, every consortium must assign the role of Open Science Coordinator to one of its members (including the project Coordinator). The Open Science Coordinator is the main contact point for CHIST-ERA for Open Science-related matters and has the following responsibilities:

  1. Planning the dissemination activities of the consortium (publications);
  2. Adapting the consortium budget to cover for the Open Science costs, given the available opportunities offered by the CHIST-ERA partners;
  3. Coordinating the submission and update of the project Data Management Plan.
    Call 2019 Open Science Policy

    The applicants to the call:

    Open access to publications

    • Commit, if they are selected, to deposit the publications (full text) resulting from the project into an open archive
    • Are encouraged to opt for publishing in open access journals

    Open access to research data

    • Must provide, if they are selected, a Data Management Plan together with the yearly project scientific report
    • Are encouraged in that respect to adopt approaches as open as possible

    Information on Open Science policy of CHIST-ERA: chistera@snf.ch

    • Open Access to Publications is, by definition, the fact of making research publications available to third parties free of charge.
    • Open Access to Research Data is defined as the access, free of charge, through sharing on specific data repositories, of research data. The latter consist of the evidence that underpins the answer to the research question, and can be used to validate findings regardless of its form (e.g. print, digital or physical).