The theme of this year’s Open Access Week is "Community over Commercialization", to shed light on approaches to open scholarship that serve the best interests of the public and the academic community.

Publicera is the national platform for Swedish scholarly open access journals, managed and developed by the National Library of Sweden (Kungliga biblioteket, KB). All journals on the platform publish their content with immediate open access and a Creative Commons license, allowing free distribution of the journals’ articles. Since its launch three years ago, Publicera has steadily grown, and there are now 35 journals on the platform, with an additional five to be launched shortly.

One of the journals that has been part of Publicera since its inception is Current Swedish Archaeology (CSA). Established in 1993, CSA publishes current research in Swedish and Nordic archaeology, making it available internationally.

Why did you decide to move the journal to Publicera?

“There were several reasons. One is that KB is responsible for the permanent archiving of the digital files. They also ensure that journals meet all the requirements for open access publishing and that everything works technically on the platform”, explain Ing-Marie Back Danielsson and Elisabeth Niklasson, editors of CSA.

The people at KB who work with Publicera are an invaluable support. There is always active dialogue about improvements and changes, and we are invited to occasional meetings and discussions about current issues that affect academic journals. We are very happy to be on Publicera!

The transition to the platform has impacted statistics positively, according to Ing-Marie and Elisabeth. The number of abstract views, downloaded articles, and submitted manuscripts have all increased since CSA moved to Publicera three years ago.

“Previously, it was harder for us to track the number of article downloads, but now it's much easier. The web statistics for Publicera can also show if, for example, newspapers or other media link to the journal's articles. For instance, it was fun to see that one of CSA's works was mentioned in a BBC article.”

What has been the most challenging part of moving to Publicera?

“Uploading all the articles that had already been published before Publicera – there were many. One of CSA’s editors handled the task brilliantly.”

Another journal hosted on Publicera is Acta Logopaedica, covering fields related to speech therapy. The journal includes both clinical studies on speech therapy diagnoses and normative and reference data in relevant areas.

The journal was brand new when you joined Publicera two years ago. Why did you choose Publicera as a platform?

We chose Publicera because it is accessible and user friendly. Acta Logopaedica is a collaboration between different higher education institutions, so it is also practical that the journal is hosted on a platform that is not tied to any specific institution”, explains editor-in-chief Christina Samuelsson.

“My experience of the platform has been very positive in terms of accessibility and technical support. The editorial management can sometimes be a bit tricky, as it can be hard to track the flow of each article, but overall, it works very well. Visibility is not solely dependent on the platform, and considering that the journal is relatively new, I think the influx of articles has been good. At Acta Logopaedica, we use a company for editing, XML, etcetera, which often makes things much easier.”

Was there anything difficult or challenging about starting the journal on Publicera?

“There was some paperwork before joining, but otherwise, I found everything to be very smooth.”

Would you recommend other journals to switch to the platform – and if so, why?

“I would absolutely recommend Publicera, because it is an excellent free service that is easy to manage”, says Christina.

Ing-Marie and Elisabeth, editors of CSA, also recommend other journals switch to Publicera.

“Yes, absolutely! It is smooth, secure, and contributes to making all aspects of the journal’s management professional and transparent. Publicera also helps increase the dissemination of Swedish research results, both nationally and internationally. It’s the best support an academic journal's editorial team can have!”