Your research results should be published open access

Publications resulting from research funded in whole or in part by CIF must be published with full access for all without delay. The requirement applies to grants approved from december 2026. It includes articles that have been accepted for publication in scientific journals, conference reports or on publication platforms. The requirement does not apply to publication in monographs and anthologies, but CIF encourages researchers to publish them in open-access formats as well. For example, through the Kriterium platform, monographs are both peer reviewed and published open access.

Immediate open access on publication means that publishing with open access must take place at the same time as the research results are published in another form, for example in a subscription-based journal.

CIF accepts the following types of open access publication:

  • Publishing in a journal or on a platform with open access. There are many journals and publishing platforms that publish with open access
  • Publishing in hybrid form. A hybrid journal is a traditional subscription-based journal that offers open access publishing for a fee. Many international book publishers offer a similar service.
  • Self-archiving in a freely accessible archive. In principle, all Swedish higher education institutions have an open digital archive. When the article or book is published in a journal or by a publisher, the researcher can save a copy in the higher education institution’s open archive. The saved copy must be a version identical in content to the original publication. CIF does not require the self-archived article or book to have the layout of the journal or publisher.

Costs of publishing

Open-access publishing often involves costs. In Sweden, many journals have prepaid author fees. This means that the cost of publishing is prepaid by higher education institutions, funders and other organisations. There will be no costs for your publication if your higher education institution has such agreements. To find out which journals your university is partnered with, please contact your university’s library. You can also read more about the Bibsam agreement at the National Library of Sweden.

If you are unable to take part in such agreements, you can apply for funding for any additional costs for publishing in an open-access journal or in a hybrid journal. This is a cost that is included under operating costs in the application.

Publication should be done under a CC-BY license

Publication must take place under a license that allows others to take part in and use the research results. The license to be used is CC-BY, a standard license recommended by several international organisations. The licence means that everyone who uses, processes or disseminates research results must state the author, and that researchers retain the right to disseminate their own research.

The CC license also works for illustrations, but in some cases, different licenses may be required for the text and the image material. CIF accepts the CC BY NC ND publishing license for any illustrations with images that are copyrighted. The condition of licensing with CC-BY does not have to apply to material (such as illustrations, photographs, etc.) that is covered by the rights of another party.

Further information

Please contact your university library for guidance on open-access publishing. For inquiries of a more general nature, feel free to contact CIF.