The SNSF’s ChronosHub pilot project

The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) offers a new way to manage your publications from submission to Open Access (OA) and reporting: ChronosHub

Do you receive funding for your research from the SNSF? If so, you are obliged to make the resulting publications Open Access. Compliance can be achieved in different ways:

• Publishing Open Access in a pure Open Access journal (see DOAJ).
• Publishing Open Access in a hybrid journal (journals with optional OA).
• Publishing Closed Access in a journal and archiving a peer-reviewed version of the article Open Access in an institutional repository (DORA).

The SNSF has borne the costs incurred in publishing in pure Open Access journals since 2018. Applications can be submitted via mySNF at any time. As an additional option for the settlement of publication fees, the so-called APCs, SNSF started a pilot partnership with the service provider ChronosHub. Via the platform, you can submit your articles directly to the selected journal. For publications in pure Open Access journals that acknowledge the support received from the SNSF, ChronosHub will arrange payment of the APC directly, without you having to submit a request to the SNSF via mySNF. As before, no costs are covered for hybrid OA journals that contain both freely accessible articles and articles that are subject to a charge.

If you publish Open Access in a hybrid journal or make your article Open Access via the Green Road (archiving in DORA), using ChronosHub might not save you much time but still offers some interesting features:

• By using the Journal Finder in ChronosHub you can find out which journals meet the SNSF’s Open Access requirements.
• For publications in hybrid OA journals, ChronosHub will inform you whether the APC is covered by an agreement with your research institution.
• For publications in Closed Access journals, ChronosHub will tell you what you need to do to meet the SNSF’s OA requirements via the Green Road.
• ChronosHub automatically links your articles with your SNSF grants. This will make it easier for you to report scientific output in the future.

Should you give ChronosHub a try?
It depends. If you publish your SNSF funded research in a pure OA journal, submitting the article via ChronosHub might save you time and effort in comparison to submitting directly to the journal and applying for funding of the APC via mySNF. If you publish Open Access in a hybrid journal or make your article Open Access via archiving in DORA, the advantages of ChronosHub are less obvious. In the end, the proof is in the pudding. The claimed greater efficiency of managing your publications with ChronosHub depends on the reliability of information provided on this platform and how frictionless the publishing/funding/reporting workflows are implemented on ChronosHub.

Please note, that there is absolutely no obligation for SNSF grantees to use ChronosHub. You can still submit directly to your journal of choice without using ChronosHub. During the pilot phase of ChronosHub until the end of 2021, financial assistance for Open Access articles will still be available via mySNF. In addition, the introduction of ChronosHub does not change your options to comply with the SNSF Open Access policy (pure OA journals, hybrid OA journals, archiving in DORA) nor does it change which OA fees are covered by the SNSF (pure OA journals – yes; hybrid OA journals – no).

SNSF grantees and persons involved in an SNSF-funded project should have received an email with a link to activate their ChronosHub account. If you have not received an email, please contact @email or request access to your account at https://snsf.chronoshub.io/.