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If an agreement on copyrights has been made at the time of publication in the scientific journal, for example in a written publishing agreement, the formulations used therein apply.
Otherwise, the provisions of the publishing contract law of the Swiss Code of Obligations apply. There, Art. 382 para. 3 reads: "Contributions to collective works or major contributions to journals may not be further published by the publisher before the expiration of three months after the complete publication of the contribution." Therefore, the author may publish scientific essays such as journal articles, as long as they deal with a topic in depth, in a repository or other server three months after the complete publication. In this context, the author's version (accepted manuscript) is certainly permissible. According to the legal opinion of Reto Hilty and Matthias Seemann, the version published by the publisher can also be used (publisher's PDF), but without publisher's logos protected by trademark law. However, there is no established court practice on this question of format.
It should be noted that in international circumstances, for example with a document server abroad, a foreign legal system may apply (Section D).
If an agreement on copyrights has been made at the time of publication in the collective work, for example in a written publishing agreement, the formulations used therein shall apply.
Otherwise, the provisions of the publishing contract law of the Swiss Code of Obligations apply. There, Art. 382 para. 3 reads: "Contributions to collective works or major contributions to journals may not be further published by the publisher before the expiration of three months after the complete publication of the contribution." Therefore, the author may publish scientific essays such as book contributions, as long as they deal with a topic in depth, in a repository or other server three months after the complete publication. In this context, the author's version (accepted manuscript) is certainly permissible. According to the legal opinion of Reto Hilty and Matthias Seemann, the version published by the publisher can also be used (publisher's PDF), but without publisher's logos protected by trademark law. However, there is no established court practice on this question of format.
It should be noted that in international circumstances, for example with a document server abroad, a foreign legal system may apply (Section D).
If an agreement on copyrights has been made at the time of publication in the newspaper, for example in a written publishing agreement, the wording used therein shall apply.
Otherwise, the provisions of the publishing contract law of the Swiss Code of Obligations apply. There, Art. 382 para. 2 reads: "The publisher may continue to publish newspaper articles and individual smaller essays in magazines at any time." This means that update-related reports, e.g. newspaper articles, may be published by the author in a repository or other server at any time. In this context, the author's version (accepted manuscript) is certainly permissible. According to the legal opinion of Reto Hilty and Matthias Seemann, the version published by the publisher can also be used (publisher's PDF), but without publisher's logos protected by trademark law. However, there is no established court practice on this question of format.
It should be noted that in international circumstances, for example with a document server abroad, a foreign legal system may apply (Section D).
If an agreement on copyrights was made at the time of publication, for example in a written publishing agreement, the formulations used therein shall apply.
Otherwise, the provisions of the publishing contract law of the Swiss Code of Obligations apply. There, Art. 382 para. 1 reads: "As long as the editions of the work to which the publisher is entitled are not out of print, the publisher may not otherwise dispose of the work as a whole or of its individual parts to the detriment of the publisher." Therefore, the author may not openly deposit works such as monographs or textbooks in a repository in competition with the publisher until the edition is out of print. Incorrectly citable versions that do not represent real competition are permitted, e.g., files without original page numbers in subjects where page-by-page citations are used.
It should be noted that in international circumstances, for example with a document server abroad, a foreign legal system may apply (Section D).
Most Swiss universities allow the electronic publication of dissertations. It is usually the university libraries that are responsible for digital publication and they will give you the information you need. As the author of the dissertation, you are permitted to place it under an open licence.
If, however, the dissertation contains parts that have already been or will be published elsewhere, the provisions of the corresponding publishing contract or, as the case may be, the non-mandatory statutory provisions must be complied with, and account taken of the information about submitting manuscripts to the journal or the publisher. It may therefore be appropriate to make only parts of the dissertation accessible on a repository and to refrain from disclosing other parts. The doctorate regulations of the university or faculty will also apply.
If a publishing contract has been concluded, it must first be determined whether such a deposit of the work on a repository is permitted. If it is, the consent of all the authors must be obtained for the publication on a document server in the same way as for the assignment of the rights to the institution in question. However, it is possible that the authors have appointed one of their numbers to speak for them all. In such a case, this person is entitled to assign the rights (Art. 7 Para. 2 of the Copyright Act).
No. Permission to make these works accessible cannot be derived from such conduct on the part of the publisher (Art. 10 Para. 2 c, Copyright Act).
No. In particular the use of the work in a different layout, e.g. omitting the publisher’s logo and page numbers, also requires the publisher’s consent.
In addition to the aspects described in questions 1 and 2, it must be determined whether the collecting society has authorised the publisher to grant the rights to the images for further publications, and whether the publisher has granted these rights to the author. As a rule, this is not the case, and so the author must frequently obtain permission from the collecting society, which involves costs. For this reason, it may be appropriate to publish the text in a repository without images.
The “request a copy” function differs from the normal deposit in particular by the fact that the work is not automatically made available to the public.
If no contractual agreements have been concluded between the author and the publisher, such that the statutory provisions apply (Arts. 380 et seq., Code of Obligations, see Question 16), the distinction between “request a copy” and normal deposit is of no practical importance. In other words, the statutory provisions also apply to the “request a copy” function.
If a contractual agreement has been concluded between the author and the publisher, the provisions it contains will apply. If the author has granted the publisher the reproduction and distribution rights, or has granted an exclusive licence, he is as a matter of principle no longer entitled to send a copy via the “request a copy” function. However, the “request a copy” function – unlike normal deposit – is permitted and useful if the publishing contract only permits the distribution of the work to a limited circle of persons, which is the case in many publishing contracts. The “request a copy” function corresponds to distribution within such a limited circle.
Where the “request a copy” function is used, it is as a matter of principle more difficult to prove any breaches of copyright than with a normal deposit, in particular because an outsider cannot see whether any infringement of the rights has been committed by the author alone or also by the operator of the repository.
