Research and Publishing

• Access to electronic and printed specialist materials via swisscovery.li
• Databases, e-journals and e-books from all relevant subject areas
• Courier, interlibrary loan and document delivery for items not available locally
• Research support and subject database training

Open access enables free access to scholarly publications via the internet and is supported worldwide by universities, libraries and research organisations. The aim is to make research results available more quickly and widely, especially publicly funded studies. This increases visibility, promotes collaboration and facilitates scholarly use. The University of Liechtenstein Library actively supports researchers in making their publications openly accessible.

In practice, there are two routes to open access:

• Green route: Conventionally published works are republished in institutional or subject-specific repositories.
• Gold route: Scholarly articles are published directly in quality-assured open access journals that follow a peer-review process.

• OA Journals via DOAJ: https://doaj.org/
• Journal Checker Tool: https://journalcheckertool.org/
• OA.finder: https://finder.open-access.network/

We are happy to advise you on questions about contract terms with content providers, legal uncertainties and the publication requirements for your articles or thesis.

We maintain Read & Publish agreements with numerous academic publishers. These agreements enable researchers at the university to publish open access articles in the journals of these publishers free of charge.

The article fees are covered by the library as part of the agreements. In addition to open access publication, the agreements also ensure reading rights to the publishers’ existing journal collections for the university.

Please note that with some publishers, the option for open access publication is limited by an annual quota, and free OA publication is not possible in all of their journals.

Our researchers can

• read articles from many academic journals free of charge
• publish open access free of charge, with no personal publication fees
• easily meet the requirements of funding organisations (e.g. SNSF)
• benefit from streamlined publication processes

• With certain publishers, only a limited number of publications can be published Open Access—until the article quota is reached.
• As soon as a manuscript has been accepted by the publisher, it counts toward the article quota.
• Once this quota has reached its maximum, our members can no longer publish Open Access free of charge.
• We will inform our members when the quota for the respective publisher has been used up.
• The quota resets every year.

Criteria

• Current term: 2024–2028
• Access: ScienceDirect
• Included journals: Title list
• Publication types
• Publication quota: No
• Gold open access: Yes
• Relevant date for article eligibility: Acceptance date
• Contract information

AI Use Regulations

The agreement explicitly regulates the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in connection with licensed content. It guarantees members of the University of Liechtenstein maximum flexibility when utilizing AI tools to analyze Elsevier publications for research, teaching, and innovation. The use of machine learning tools and the development of institutional AI applications are permitted, provided they are hosted locally at the university or operated by third parties exclusively for the institution. The submission of data to public, commercial language models as well as its disclosure to unauthorized third parties is strictly prohibited.

Read & Publish Agreement 2026–2028: Update on the Negotiations

Negotiations with SAGE Publishing on the SAGE Read & Publish Agreement 2026–2028 began in early 2025 and have so far not resulted in a mutually acceptable agreement. As the current agreement expires on 31 December 2025, preparations have been made for a no-deal scenario from 2026 onwards.

Such a no-deal situation would affect both reading access and publishing within the SAGE portfolios. This overview outlines the consequences for reading and publishing and answers frequently asked questions.

The swissuniversities factsheet “How to get the article?” provides an overview of how to find full-text versions of research articles that are not accessible via a campus licence.

Criteria in a No-Deal Situation

• Reading access to the SAGE Journals Collection: the publisher has decided to disable access to content published from 1 January 2026 onwards for the duration of the no-deal period.
• Researchers can continue to publish in hybrid journals without charges; however, the articles will not be made Open Access by the publisher.
• The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) will no longer cover Article Processing Charges (APCs) for Gold Open Access journals published by SAGE. The SNSF recommends avoiding publication in SAGE journals and considering alternative publication venues.
• When publishing in hybrid journals, authors can still comply with the SNSF’s Open Access requirements by applying the Rights Retention Strategy and depositing their accepted manuscripts in a repository (Green Open Access). In any case, the SNSF monitors compliance to its OA regulations sensibly and will account for a no-deal scenario accordingly.

Factsheet SAGE

Criteria

• Current Term: 2026–2029 (retroactively effective as of January 1, 2026)
• Access: SpringerLink (including the Nature Portfolio)
• Included Journals: Around 2,700 hybrid and Gold Open Access journals from the Springer, Palgrave, Adis, and Nature Portfolio brands; only a few individual Nature Reviews titles are excluded
• Publication Types: Primarily original scientific articles (such as Research Articles, Review Articles, Brief Communications)
• Publication Quota: Unlimited for hybrid journals; a large national quota has been agreed upon for pure Gold Open Access journals
• Gold Open Access: Yes
• Key Date for Article Approval: Acceptance Date
• Agreement Information: Available on the product pages of the Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries and on the central overview page of Springer Nature.
• Author Workflow
• Pre-Submission Support: If you are unsure whether a planned publication is covered by the transformative agreements, please contact the library by email before completing the submission process.

AI Use Regulations

In addition, the contract includes up-to-date regulations regarding the use of artificial intelligence in research and teaching. Licensed content may be analyzed using any AI tools, provided it is not used to train commercial models or shared with third parties.

Criteria

• Current term: 2025-2027
• Access: Reading Access remains available via Wiley Online Library
• Included journals: Open Access in ca. 1.900 Journals (hybrid + gold journals) at no additional Cost.
• Publication types: The agreement covers primary research and review articles.
• Publication quota: There is no specific quota for publishing in Gold Open Access journals; however, there is an annual publication quota for articles published in hybrid journals.
• Gold open access: Access the entire Wiley Journal Portfolio.
• Relevant date for article eligibility:
• Contract information
• Wiley Author Services

AI Use Regulations

The agreement now also explicitly regulates the use of artificial intelligence (AI) with licensed content and offers members of University Lechtenstein the greatest possible freedom in the use of AI tools to analyse Wiley publications in research, teaching and innovation.