Open-access mechanisms

Open Access (OA) Policy compliance is facilitated by the CERN Open Science Office in Scientific Information Service (SIS) which provides central support for all CERN departments and experiments and maintains the CERN Open Access Fund. 

In accordance with the CERN Open Access Policy and the General Conditions applicable to the Execution of CERN Experiments, CERN authors are required to publish all of their peer-reviewed primary research articles with open access (by default under the Creative Commons attribution licence, i.e. CC-BY-4.0). 

In order to facilitate compliance with this policy, the CERN Open Science Office will continue to support authors in publishing OA with the aim to further reduce to 0 the share of closed publications and monitor the related costs. This support includes: 

• 1. Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics (SCOAP³)
• 2. Other collective models (Subscribe to Open, Sponsorship models…)
• 3. Agreements with  publishers relevant for the CERN community 
• 4. Individual article support, under certain conditions (Threshold at 4,000 CHF)

Beyond these mechanisms, submission to arXiv is a long-standing practice at CERN and a crucial part of the scholarly communication process. To support the interoperability of arXiv with CERN processes and tools, and to contribute to the sustainable funding of the arXiv initiative, CERN (through SIS) collaborates with the arXiv operating entity.

The CERN Open Science Office also provides proactive support to CERN authors relating to open-access compliance. This will include the further development of focused communication materials and training resources to continue to increase awareness and knowledge among the community around open access and publishing best practices.

CERN, through the central Open Access Fund managed by the CERN Open Science Office in SIS, provides CERN authors support for the publication of open-access books and monographs. Such support includes the coverage of book publishing charges if the title is deemed of importance for the CERN community, under the scrutiny of the CERN Reports Editorial Board (CREB), as well as advice on licensing and copyright questions. 

SCOAP³

SCOAP3 continues to serve as the primary open-access mechanism for CERN publications, covering approximately half of all CERN research outputs and providing authors with a transparent open-access option beyond CERN’s immediate scope. In 2024, SCOAP³ celebrated its 10th anniversary with various events hosted by national partners representing the global diversity of the collaboration. During 2023-2024, preparations were made for Phase 4 (commencing in 2025), including the development of an innovative new contract structure with participating publishers. These updated contracts now incentivize Open Science practice, including data/software availability requirements and enriched metadata provision. 

Other collective models

CERN prioritizes collectively funded and equitable models for the dissemination of scientific research. The Organization currently provides financial support to several initiatives, including:

• Physical Review Accelerators and Beams (Sponsorship model)
• Annual Reviews (Subscribe2Open)
• SciPost (Sponsorship model)

While these outlets do not cover a large portion of CERN publications, the Organization remains committed to supporting similarly equitable and cost effective open-access models for content relevant to the CERN community. CERN also supports an equivalent model for books, through its participation in the Direct to Open progamme by MIT press.

CERN open-access agreements

As of 2024, CERN maintains twelve Read & Publish agreements with publishers. The cost of these agreements combines a Read” component (access to paywalled content), and the “Publish” component, which ensures that CERN authored papers are published with open access. These agreements are negotiated by the SIS and CERN procurement team and are made publicly available on the ESAC registry.

Tailored to CERN’s specific needs in terms of volume and subject area, these agreements facilitate semi-automatic open-access publication for CERN-affiliated authors, though SIS must verify author eligibility. 

Individual payments of article processing charges (APC)

In accordance with policy, if an author submits a paper to a journal not covered by an agreement, the central Open Access Fund managed by CERN SIS can cover the costs. While the number of such articles varies annually, it remains relatively small. Though this mechanism is administratively time-consuming, it is essential for maintaining a wide selection of publication options for authors. APCs above CHF 4000 are not covered.

• The article is not already covered through an agreement of any of the co-author affiliated institutions, or via an EC grant.
• Authors must contact the Scientific Information Service in advance of submission to confirm the eligibility for central payment from the CERN Open Access fund.
• Articles submitted to journals with exceptionally high APCs (i.e. in excess of CHF 4000) will not be funded by CERN. For articles submitted to journals with an APC above the threshold, the authors have to identify another source of funding. 
• For special issues coordinated or authored by CERN resulting in high publishing costs for CERN, editors of such special issues should submit a specific justification and request to open-access-questions@cern.ch for approval before organising such issues.  

Green Open Access

A small percentage of articles are available only through Green Open Access, meaning that only the preprint or accepted manuscript is openly accessible. This approach does not fully align with the Open Access Policy. 

These articles are typically not published in full open access because they are not automatically covered by Read and Publish agreements (due to lack of a CERN-affiliated corresponding author and the corresponding author’s institution doesn’t have an agreement with the publisher). Those articles would be in most cases eligible to be covered centrally by CERN SIS (with individual APC payment), but the CERN author does not contact CERN SIS for central funding in advance for the submission, and the article gets published in closed access.

Open access to books 

CERN supports open-access book publishing through the SCOAP3 Books program, which since its launch in 2022 expanded the scope of program beyond journals into the realm of scientific monographs and text books in high-energy physics and adjascent fields. At the end of 2024, 95 open-access books have been published under the auspices of this project