- Funding
- Assessment and final decision
- Guidelines for publication with open access
Guidelines for publication with open access
Results from research funded by Forte through grants awarded from 2021 onwards must be published with immediate open access upon publication. You can read more about Forte’s requirements and conditions here.
All peer-reviewed conference and journal publications stemming from research financed fully or in part by Forte must be published with full access for all.
All peer-reviewed conference and journal publications resulting from research wholly or partly funded by Forte must be made freely accessible to the public.
Open access publishing is now straightforward and, in most cases, comes at no cost to the individual researcher (see further information below). Through the Bibsam Consortium’s agreements with publishers, Swedish researchers can publish with open access in both fully open journals and hybrid journals (where individual articles can be made open access). If publishing in a channel that is not openly accessible, the final published version of the article—or a peer-reviewed and author-approved version—must be deposited in an openly accessible repository without delay.
Publication with an open licence (CC-BY)
Publication must take place with an open licence (CC-BY), which must be stated in all versions of manuscripts submitted for publication. This means that copyright remains with the author(s). The following text must be included in the manuscript:
This research was funded in whole or in part by Forte [Grant number]. For the purpose of Open Access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) version arising from this submission.
Creative Commons licence CC BY is an open licence that means that the author permits others to share and make changes to the article for any purpose. This licence requires that the author be stated in connection with dissemination and that any changes made to the original article be specified.
Publication with Creative Commons CC BY-ND may be accepted in exceptional cases on the condition that the beneficiary expressly requests this and provides acceptable reasons for this. In short, this licence provides the same terms of use as CC BY, but changes may not be made without the author’s permission, i.e. the person reusing the article may otherwise only re-publish exactly the same version of the article.
Content owned by a third party, such as images and illustrations, is not subject to open licence requirements.
Monographs and anthologies are currently exempt from requirements for open access.
Publishing costs
Forte does not cover costs for publication within the framework of the research grants we fund. Costs for publication should therefore not be included in applications for research grants from Forte. Many universities and research organisations are connected to agreements with publishers that enable open access publishing at no additional cost to the organisation’s employees. Forte contributes by funding agreements with publishers that only publish with open access.
Follow-up
In connection with the final scientific reporting of research projects granted as of 2021, Forte will enquire whether the results of the project have been published with open access in accordance with these instructions.
Journal grants
Forte supports the publication of journals in Swedish within our areas of responsibility through our recurring call for Journal Grants. Only journals that are openly accessible and do not apply embargo periods are eligible for such funding. You can read more about the Journal Grants call on the webpage describing our recurring grants.
Forte also encourages journals to make use of the national platform for openly accessible Swedish scholarly journals; Publicera.
How do I know that a journal meets the requirements?
cOAlition S has developed an online tool, Journal Checker Tool, to help researchers to easily identify journals or platforms that enable compliance with the Plan S requirements.
Journal Checker Tool (journalcheckertool.org) External link.
Seek support from your institution
Most Swedish universities and higher education institutions possess extensive knowledge regarding open access to scholarly publications. Researchers can usually obtain advice and practical support from their university library.
Last published: 16 May 2025