GOAL Information and Collaboration Hub (GOAL-Hub)

Description

GOAL-Hub, co-funded by swissuniversities, is an 18‑month project led by the ZHAW Library and developed in collaboration with the HSLU Library. It is further supported by an advisory sounding board consisting of five additional libraries from Swiss higher education institutions.

GOAL-Hub aims to strengthen Green and Diamond Open Access in Switzerland by providing information on Green and Diamond OA policies for various publication types in the GOAL database, and by building a password-protected collaborative hub for repository managers to exchange policies, experiences, and information about publishers.

In the first project phase, information on Green OA policies for different publication types—such as book chapters—is collected and added to the GOAL database. While this information is publicly accessible, it is scattered across the internet and therefore difficult to find. Currently, no public database offers such a service. The collected information complements the existing data in the GOAL database on OA policies of practice-oriented Swiss journals.

In a second phase, a password-protected platform will be developed within the database. This platform will allow repository managers from participating and associated institutions to document their experiences and individual agreements with publishers and to collaborate internally.

In a third phase (July–December 2026, project extension), Diamond OA policies will be added to the database in collaboration with the DOACH and CoDOA projects, which are also co-funded by swissuniversities. This will further strengthen sustainable OA at the national level.

Through these services, GOAL-Hub seeks to connect the individual activities of Swiss higher education institutions in the area of Green and Diamond OA and thereby strengthen coordination and collaboration between infrastructures and services at the national level. The project thus contributes to demonstrating that cost-effective, sustainable partnerships between universities and publishers are possible—while simultaneously preserving and promoting bibliodiversity within the Swiss publishing landscape.

GOAL-Hub runs from July 2025 to December 2026.

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Further documents and links

Publications