Diamond open access is a concept that emerged from the academic environment. It guarantees editorial independence and scientific transparency.
Authors are not required to make financial contributions for their submissions. This avoids any financial influence on editorial decisions.
SMW was one of the first journals to adhere to the principles of diamond open access (also known as “platinum open access” or “public service open access”).
In the “author-pays model“, article processing charges can become a major threat to the independence of editorial decisions, since the more articles accepted, the higher the income for the journal. Due to the SMW supporting association, which covers all related costs, the Swiss Medical Weekly remains independent and offers a high-quality journal without any costs for either authors or readers.
The SMW had built its own freely accessible website, initially only with the abstracts of the articles, as early as in 1996. It has followed the open access model since the first OA declarations and initiatives. Full-text PDFs have been published since January 2000 (the Budapest Open Access Initiative was released in 2002 and the Berlin Declaration in 2003).
In March 2022, Science Europe, cOAlition S, OPERAS, and the French National Research Agency presented an “Action Plan for Diamond Open Access” to further develop and expand a sustainable, community-driven Diamond OA scholarly communication ecosystem. Swiss Medical Weekly is one of the journals who share its vision and ethos and have endorsed it.
From my personal experience, I would like to point out that the journal not only has a strong brand as a high quality scientific journal, but also plays a crucial role for the academic medical community. lt is a well-accepted peer reviewed journal, contributing to many academic careers in Switzerland and is read with interest by all medical specialists. This enables an important networking aspect especially for upcoming scientific clusters and researchers.
