Initials of the platform The open-access.net platform provides comprehensive information on the subject of Open Access (OA) and offers practical advice on its implementation. Developed collaboratively by the Freie Universität Berlin and the Universities of Goettingen, Konstanz, and Bielefeld, open-access.net first went online at the beginning of May 2007. Target Groups The platform's target groups include all relevant stakeholders in the science sector, especially the scientists and scholars themselves, university and research institution managers, infrastructure service providers such as libraries and data centres, and funding agencies and policy makers. Quick and efficient access to relevant topics open-access.net provides easy, one-stop access to comprehensive information on OA. Aspects covered include OA concepts, legal, organisational and technical frameworks, concrete implementation experiences, initiatives, services, service providers, and position papers. The target-group-oriented and discipline-specific presentation of the content enables users to access relevant themes quickly and efficiently. Moreover, the platform offers practical implementation advice and answers to fundamental questions regarding OA. Collaborations In collaboration with cooperation partners in Austria (the University of Vienna) and Switzerland (the University of Zurich), country-specific web pages for these two countries have been integrated into the platform - especially in the Legal Issues section. Each year since 2007, the information platform has organised the "Open Access Days" at alternating venues in collaboration with local partners. This event is the key conference on OA and Open Science in the German-speaking area. Updates With funding from the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts (MWK) of the State of Baden-Württemberg, the platform underwent a complete technical and substantive overhaul in 2015. Project open-access.network Verein open-access.network e.V....
We are happy to receive information about events at info@open-access.network 1 2 Next 2026 Aug 20 Governance gestalten: Wie Journals den Diamond Open Access Standard umsetzen 20. August 2026 2026 Sep 17 OJS-Workshop 2026 (Hamburg) 17. September 2026 until 18. September 2026 2026 Sep 21 OASPA Annual Conference (Zagreb, Croatia) 21. September 2026 until 23. September 2026 2026 Sep 28 Open-Access-Tage 2026 (Linz) 28. September 2026 until 30. September 2026 2026 Oct 05 Open Science Forum Mitteldeutschland 2026 (Leipzig) 5. October 2026 Open Science als Gestaltungsaufgabe – Forschungsbewertung und Infrastruktur für die Wissenschaftspraxis 2027 Mar 03 E-Science-Tage 2027 (hybrid) 3. March 2027 until 5. March 2027 1 2 Next To the event archive...
Find answers to legal questions here Legal Issues in Germany Legal Issues in Austria Legal Issues in Switzerland Licences Publishing Agreements Data Protection and Open Access Data protection is particularly of interest in the case of the open access publication of research data, or data sharing. In some fields, for example medicine or psychology, data protection in the context of open access is especially important because sensitive personal data may be processed. At European level, data protection is regulated by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) . As an EU decree law, it must be applied directly. The GDPR therefore takes precedence over national data protection law. In Switzerland, the Federal Act on Data Protection ( FADP, SR 235.1) applies. For higher education institutions in Switzerland, the data protection laws of the respective cantons are usually applicable. Further information on the topic of data protection and research data can be found on the website forschungsdaten.info ....
Intro Numerous legal issues must be considered when implementing open access strategies or operating open access repositories and open access journals . On these pages you will find information on the legal framework for open access in Austria. In practice, both authors and repository operators often face the question of what legal regulations must be observed when making documents available to the public in repositories. These regulations are based on copyright law, the law most frequently consulted when it comes to open access. By now, most publishers allow their authors to self-archive a version of their articles in an institutional repository or on their own personal websites. However, conditions and restrictions are often imposed. For example, authors are often obliged to observe an embargo period between the publication date and the date on which the work is made openly accessible online. The Open Policy Finder database (formerly SHERPA RoMEO) provides information on the self-archiving policies of individual publishers. Nowadays, many authors whose publishers do not yet permit self-archiving supplement their standard publishing agreements with contract addenda that enable them to make their works available in open access in parallel with publication. Such addenda can also be used to avoid embargo periods. To give authors and users of open access contributions legal certainty, these works should be distributed only under an open content licence . Repository operators must also pay particular attention to the liability risks involved in operating repositories. Furthermore, data protection aspects play a very important role, especially in the case of open access to data. Copyright Austrian Copyright Law In Austria, the Federal Law on Copyright in Works of Literature and Art and on Related Rights ( Austrian Copyright Act – UrhG ) applies. Copyright as a body of law (i.e. copyright in the objective sense) grants authors subjective rights in their intellectual property (i.e. copyright in the subjective sense). Copyright is inheritable, but it is not otherwise transferrable (Section 23 UrhG). However, authors may permit others to use their works in a particular manner or in any manner of exploitation to which they are entitled under Sections 14–18a UrhG (right of use in the work and authorisation of the use of the work). The Territoriality Principle and Lex Loci Protectionis The copyright law of a state applies only within its own territory. This means that it has effect only within the borders of the country in which it was enacted. Hence, for example, the provisions of Austrian copyright law apply only on Austrian territory and those of German copyright law are applicable only on German territory (territoriality principle). Because the protective reach of national copyrights is limited spatially to the territory of the state in question, there is no uniform, globally valid copyright. Rather, a whole bundle of territorially limited national copyrights is available to authors. Where there is a connection between a work and a specific foreign country (“foreign nexus”), the territoriality principle also has conflict-of-laws implications insofar as the law that is applicable is that of the country for whose territory protection is claimed. This is referred to as the lex loci protectionis principle. It follows from this principle that the accrual, substance, and expiry of (subjective) copyright are determined by the law of the country in which the respective use, exploitation, or infringement takes place. The question of the personal applicability of copyright – that is, who enjoys protection under the respective applicable provisions and for what – is a separate issue. It is also referred to as the domestic nexus. In Austria, Section 94 et seq. of the Austrian Copyright Act (UrhG) are relevant in this regard. Besides the primarily relevant citizenship principle (Section 94 UrhG), further possible points of reference include, in particular, the place of publication and the place of performance (Section 95 and Section 97 UrhG). Nationals of European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) countries can invoke the principle of non-discrimination (Article 18 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union [TFEU] and Article 4 of the European Economic Area Agreement). Copyright protection against nationals of third countries exists according to state treaties or subject to reciprocity (Section 96 UrhG). A key role is played by international copyright treaties (e.g. the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the Universal Copyright Convention), which lay down the principle of “national treatment”. For example, a US researcher who is working at a Swiss university and in the course of their work there publishes an article with a German publisher that is uploaded without their consent to the website of an Austrian database operator can invoke the protection of Austrian copyright law. Harmonisation of copyright law at the European level is leading to increasing standardisation of national provisions, which in turn is leading to international alignment of protection levels. Nonetheless, non-negligible and sometimes major differences exist between the national legal systems, which must be considered in each individual case. The Berne Convention – an international treaty to which most states in the world are a party – has led to the harmonisation of many elements of copyright law. As a result, the principle of lex loci protectionis (the law of the place where protection is claimed) also leads to fewer upheavals. For example, a scholarly publication in Germany enjoys the same protection as in the United States or South Africa. Things get more complicated in the case of limitations on copyright (also referred to in Germany as Schranken des Urheberrechts ) – that is, types of use permitted by law. For example, if a German researcher in Austria downloads a U.S. publication from a U.S. database in order to conduct a natural language processing (NLP) analysis in Austria within the framework of their research, this is covered by Section 42h of the Austrian Copyright Act (Text and Data Mining). Even if the publisher’s terms of use explicitly forbid such an action, it remains permissible under local law. In the event of legal proceedings, the dispute would be judged according to Austrian law because the owners of the U.S. database would seek legal protection in Austria, and therefore – according to the lex loci protectionis principle – Austrian law would be applicable. What Does Copyright Protect? Copyright protects works and related rights (also known as “neighbouring rights”). Works within the meaning of the Austrian Copyright Act (Section 1 UrhG) are original intellectual creations in the fields of literature, music, art, and cinematography. According to Austrian case law, the individual character alone is decisive for determining the existence of an original intellectual creation. A creation is individually characteristic if it sets itself apart from the everyday or the commonplace. The result of a creative intellectual activity that derives the individuality that distinguishes it from other works from the personality of its creator is deemed to be a work. A specific degree of originality (“threshold of originality”) is not required. As a result, even simple and apparently trivial creations can enjoy copyright protection irrespective of their aesthetic, scientific, or other value, provided they can be assigned to a category of works in the domains of literature, music, art, or cinematography. Copyright protects a work in whole or in part. Adaptations of a work (Section 5 UrhG) and collections (Section 6 UrhG) also enjoy copyright protection. Furthermore, copyright protects only works created by humans. Although this point has recently become particularly relevant in connection with outputs generated by artificial intelligence (AI), it is also of relevance when assessing the protection of machine-generated research data. Even if the latter are the result of complex processes, and setting up the experiment or the machine may involve considerably more effort than, for example, writing a short text, the results (i.e. the data) are not protected unless the individual expression of the author comes through in them. The situation is similar in the case of AI-generated works (including texts produced with large language models [LLMs]). To obtain copyright protection, the work must reflect conscious decisions on the part of the creator. The boundaries are fluid and sometimes difficult to determine. As a rule of thumb, wherever a process is merely initiated by humans (e.g. by entering a prompt or starting a machine), the results do not enjoy protection. What Are Related Rights? Related rights (also known as neighbouring rights) protect performances or products that are not themselves works but are performed or produced in connection with works or are similar to them. This includes performances by performing artists (Section 66 et seq. of the Austrian Copyright Act [UrHG]), the protection of event organisers (Section 72 UrhG), the production of photographs and moving images (Sections 73–75 UrhG), the production of audio recordings (Section 76 UrhG), the protection of broadcasts (Section 76a UrhG), the first publication of works in which copyright has expired (Section 76b UrhG), the production of investment-intensive databases (Sections 76c–76e UrhG), and – since the amendment of the Austrian Copyright Act in 2021 – the production of press releases (Section 76f UrhG). Compared with copyright protection in the narrower sense, the prerequisites for and the scope of protection are less extensive in the case of related rights. Furthermore, the term of protection of related rights is shorter. What Rights Does Copyright Grant Copyright grants authors moral rights on the one hand and economic exploitation rights on the other. The moral rights of authors, which are non-transferrable, protect authors’ moral interests in their works, whereas the exploitation rights regulate their powers to economically exploit a work. Exploitation rights are so-called exclusive rights, that is, they entitle the author to exploit the work to the exclusion of all other persons. The most important exploitation right is the right of reproduction, which entitles the author to forbid any unauthorised reproduction of the work (e.g. any digital copy). Other important rights include the right of making works available to the public (which is, e.g., important when uploading protected content online) and the right of broadcasting. Term of Protection of Works Copyright protection accrues the moment a work is created. Further measures, for example registration or an official administrative act, are not required. Copyright ends 70 years after the death of the author or – in the case of several joint authors – 70 years after the death of the last surviving joint author (Section 60 of the Austrian Copyright Act [UrhG]). In contrast to industrial property rights (especially trademark, design, and patent rights), the term of protection of copyrights and related rights cannot be extended. A work whose term of protection has expired can be used freely. However, as explained in the following paragraph, caution is warranted when doing so. Several rightholders with rights of different terms of protection may have participated in a work. In the case of a piece of music, for example, the copyright of the composer or the lyricist may have expired long ago, but the related rights of the performing musicians and producers may still persist. In the case of texts that have been translated or otherwise adapted, besides the term of protection of the rights of the authors, the rights in the adaptation may have to be considered separately. In the case of photos, a distinction must be made between the rights of photographers and, if applicable, the rights in the photographed object. Only when all copyrights and related rights have expired, may the content be freely used in its entirety. And finally, it should be borne in mind that the term of protection may differ in other countries. When calculating the term of protection, the year of occurrence of the event that determined the commencement of the term of protection (e.g. the death of the author) should not be counted. In other words, the term of protection always begins on 1 January of the calendar year that follows the decisive point in time. Freely Usable Content Works in the public domain are not protected by copyright and may thus be used freely (Section 7 of the Austrian Copyright Act [UrhG]). They include laws, regulations, official decrees, public announcements, and court decisions, as well as other official literary works and works of a scientific or didactic nature produced exclusively or primarily for official use that consist of two- or three-dimensional figurative representations (e.g. maps or relief representations of mountain ranges), provided they are not classified as works of art. However, materials published by higher education institutions, for example examination tasks, sample solutions, scripts, etc., are not deemed to be works in the public domain. Furthermore, ideas, thoughts, concepts, methods, rules of play, etc. are not eligible for copyright protection. Only the tangible, outwardly perceptible form enjoys protection, not the still intangible intellectual content as such. For example, ideas or concepts for a specific course or research project, a didactic concept, or criteria for the successful completion of a course are not eligible for protection. Scientific findings and teachings, such as formulae, scientific or didactic methods, laws of nature, individual chords, a style, a verse form, geometric symbols, saga material, and inspirations from nature or history, are also freely usable. They are classified as intellectual property in the public domain. This category also includes the CVs of persons, historical events, current events, and news content. Therefore, copyright in a scholarly work does not protect the historical, economic, or societal data, facts and theories presented therein. Rather, protection accrues to the respective presentation, structure, selection, etc. – that is, to the concrete elaboration or preparation of a specific material. Authorship / Accrual of Copyright Protection The author of a work is the person who created it (Section 10 [1] of the Austrian Copyright Act [UrhG]). Thus, the “creator principle” is enshrined in law. It follows from this that the author can only ever be a human being (a “natural person”) and never an animal, a machine, or a legal person (e.g. a regional or local authority, a university, or an enterprise). However, a legal person may acquire exclusive rights of use in the works ( Werknutzungsrechte ) or authorisations to use the works ( Werknutzungsbewilligungen ; licences) of third parties and thus become the holder of derived rights of use. But the natural person who created the work always remains the author. This applies also to a ghostwriter who is commissioned by another to write on their behalf and who is the only one who can claim authorship. This right cannot be waived (Section 19 [2] UrhG). However, a person may validly waive the right to be named as the author of a work (Section 20 [1] UrhG). After the author’s death, the heirs, as universal successors in title, assume the legal position of copyright holder. From the creator principle, it further follows that statutory copyright protection accrues automatically the moment the work is created (“real act of creation”). In contrast to brands, designs, or patents, the acquisition of protection requires neither registration nor a sovereign act. The advantage of the “automatic” accrual of copyright protection is that a work is effectively protected immediately without additional financial expense and formal effort. Several Participants in the Creation of a Work Joint authorship Where several persons have jointly created a work, and the work constitutes an indivisible unit, copyright accrues jointly to all joint authors (Section 11 [1] of the Austrian Copyright Act [UrhG]). Each joint author is separately entitled to take legal action against violations of copyright. Alteration or exploitation of the work requires the consent of all joint authors. If a joint author refuses consent without sufficient reason, any other joint author may sue for the grant of consent (Section 11 [2] UrhG). The combination of works of different types – for example a work of music and a literary or cinematographic work – does not establish joint authorship (Section 11 [3] UrhG); nor does an adaptation, where a work is used as a basis for a new work, or an individual contribution to a collection (e.g. a legal commentary). However, the authors of a jointly authored essay are joint authors. Joint authorship can also arise because of the transfer of copyright to several heirs due to the death of the copyright holder (Section 23 [4] UrhG). Partial Authorship The divisible combination of independent works of different types (e.g. a film and film music) does not establish joint authorship but rather partial authorship. The authors of individual contributions in a collection may – independently of the editors and the authors of other contributions – decide freely on the exploitation of the content of their own contributions, unless otherwise contractually agreed. The same applies, for example, to the setting to music of a song text. Unless an agreement to the contrary has been entered into, the authors of song texts are entitled to commission a new score without the consent of the composers, and the composers are entitled to use new lyrics. Assistants Furthermore, assistants and persons who contribute ideas must be distinguished from joint authors. Because only a person who makes a creative contribution to a work can be deemed to be an author of the work, mere ideas or tips from the mentors of a thesis, for example, do not suffice to establish joint authorship. This applies even if the mentors suggested the topic of the thesis. Therefore, ideas, abstract suggestions, or the supervision of a work do not result in joint authorship. Assistants do not make an independent creative contribution to the creation of a work, either, and therefore do not acquire copyright. Hence, the purely routine activities – such as literature searches, the production of subject indexes and bibliographies, the elaboration of footnotes, and copy editing – that are typically performed by research assistants or student assistants do not lead to the accrual of (joint) copyright. However, it should be noted that, according to the Austrian Universities Act (UG), university members who have made an independent scientific or artistic contribution to a work must be named as co-authors (Section 106 [1] UG). Plagiarism is deemed to have been committed when text, content, or ideas are used and presented as one’s own. This encompasses in particular the appropriation and use of text passages, theories, hypotheses, findings, or data by directly quoting, paraphrasing, or translating them without appropriate identification and citation of the source and the authors (Section 51 [2] Number 31 UG). Rights Ownership in the Case of Contractual and Employment Relationships In practice, the granting of rights of use often means that authorship and rights ownership are separated. Especially in cases where persons are paid to create copyrighted works – in other words in contractual and employment relationships – it is customary that the authors themselves are not entitled, or are entitled only to a limited extent, to make decisions about the exploitation of their works, because the exploitation rights pass to the contracting entity or the employer. Except in the case of computer programs and database works (Section 40b and Section 40f [3] UrhG), the Austrian Copyright Act does not contain any explicit special provisions for the creation of works in a contractual or employment relationship. Contracting entities and employers therefore primarily need – and are well advised – to have the rights contractually granted to them. However, even in the absence of an explicit agreement about rights ownership, a tacit grant of rights is assumed in the case of works created in the course of official duties, to the extent that that is necessary to fulfil the purpose of the (work) contract. According to previous case law, the following already applied before the amendment of the Austrian Copyright Act in 2021: If a work is created on behalf of a third party, that party is – at least logically – granted the right to use the work for the purpose for which it was commissioned. If the contract is meaningful for the contracting entity only if that entity alone is entitled to use the work product, then the contract between the contracting entity and the performing contractor includes the granting of a right of use in the work. In cases of doubt, the scope of the rights granted was determined by the practical purpose of the envisaged use of the work. With the amendment of the Austrian Copyright Act in 2021, the principle that the purpose of the contract determines the rights granted ( Zweckübertragungsgrundsatz ) was also enshrined in law (Section 24c UrhG). However, it does not apply to works created in the context of an employment relationship. Particular consideration should be given to the employment relationship when interpreting (implied) contracts. Clauses granting rights of use can also be found in the usual (employment) contracts at universities and research institutions. If such an agreement with researchers is lacking, and if they produce a work, for example a PowerPoint presentation or an E-learning unit, it should be established whether it arose in performance of official duties or whether another obligation to produce the work can be derived from the underlying contractual relationship. In these cases – for example in the case of project staff employed to generate E-learning content – a tacit grant of rights can be assumed even in the absence of an explicit legal agreement, so that the rights are held by the university. It should be noted that because of the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of research and science (Article 17 Austrian Basic Law [StGG]), university members and university teachers have the right to freely dispose of the results of their own work and to decide themselves about the publication or exploitation of their works. The authors of the teaching and learning material are therefore the respective teachers. Where they have commissioned third parties to produce the material, these third parties are considered to be the authors of that material. In the absence of contractual agreements to the contrary, the exploitation rights in teaching and learning material are always held by the teachers because their duties primarily comprise teaching and the transfer of knowledge but not, however, the provision of material. Caution is therefore warranted when assuming tacit grants of rights. In the absence of corresponding provisions in the (employment) contract, separate licensing agreements should be concluded. Where university members and university teachers generally act outside the obligations of their (employment) contracts, they may freely dispose of such works and decide independently about their exploitation. In this case, too, contractual agreements are necessary in order to be able to exploit such work results. Where a higher education institution intends to make their students’ dissertations and theses available in its own repository, it must secure the necessary rights of use from the authors (see also Section 86 of the Austrian Universities Act [UG]). If exclusive rights of use are granted in a specific work, the authors are excluded from using and further exploiting the work themselves. In this case, the licensing of the content by the author under an open source/open access licence such as a Creative Commons licence is ineffective. Links for Further Reading Amini, S. & Forgó, N. (2019). Urheberrechtsfragen beim Einsatz von Multimedia an Hochschulen. Ein Leitfaden für die Praxis am Beispiel der Universität Wien. Available online: https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:28164 Making Documents Publicly Available in Repositories The most important source of information about the permissibility of self-archiving one’s own contribution in a repository after concluding an agreement with a publisher is the publishing agreement itself. Most publishing agreements are standard contracts that provide for the granting of relatively comprehensive rights to the publisher. It is therefore advisable to study the agreement closely and if necessary to talk to the publisher about individual clauses. In the absence of an explicit provision, rights are deemed to have been granted only to the extent that they are necessary for the purpose of the agreement. There are two provisions in the Austrian Copyright Act (UrhG) that may still be relevant after the agreement has been concluded. Section 36 of the UrhG aims to give authors the opportunity, under certain circumstances, to republish works that have appeared in a collection. The prerequisite for its application is therefore that the work (e.g. an essay or also non-written works such as videos or images) is part of a collection. The term “collection” should be understood in a broad sense; it includes anything that comprises several parts that are connected at least outwardly but not necessarily in terms of content. However, the collection must be published periodically, that is, at regular intervals. Typical examples include yearbooks, journals, and newspapers, but not works such as Festschriften, memorial volumes, or monographs If these prerequisites are met, the Austrian Copyright Act (UrhG) provides for specific time limits for the expiry of exclusive rights, after which the contributions may be further exploited. In the case of newspapers, the rights expire after publication of the contribution, otherwise after one year. Note, however, that the application of this provision may be precluded by the publishing agreement and is also precluded in practice. Hence, it is important to always check the publishing agreement carefully. The second provision is the so-called secondary publication right , which is regulated in Section 37a of the Austrian UrhG. Even if the author has already granted exclusive rights of use to a publisher, they can still seek to have the contribution republished after an embargo period of 12 months under the following conditions: The author must be a member of the academic staff of a research institution at least half of which is financed by public funds, and they must have created the contribution in this capacity. The contribution must have appeared in a collection that is published periodically at least twice a year. The version used for secondary publication may only be the author’s accepted manuscript version (i.e. not the publisher’s typeset and formatted version, also known as the version of record). The secondary publication may only be for non-commercial purposes. The source of the first publication must be cited. This right cannot be contractually precluded . The secondary publication right also facilitates the exploitation of works in the context of academic teaching. Although only the authors themselves may exercise this right in their own works, they are entitled to republish the work under an open content licence , for example, for the purpose of making it available to the public, and thus also to permit it to be used in digital or analogue mode in seminars in a legally watertight way. In addition, it should be noted that making a work available in open access in a repository constitutes making the work available to the public within the meaning of the Austrian Copyright Act, and licences for protected content of third parties in the publication (e.g. figures) may be necessary, as free uses of the work provided for in the Act, such as those in the area of research and teaching, then no longer apply. Further Links On secondary publication right A brief overview of further innovations resulting from the copyright amendment Uhr-Nov 2015 A guide to copyright and digital media (available only in German) Liability Liability for Copyright Infringements on the Internet In principle, the same liability rules apply on the internet as in the analogue world. Anyone who undertakes activities exclusively reserved for the author without the authorisation of the author or the corresponding rightholders breaks the law. Hence, anyone who includes, for example, copyright-protected images or texts of third parties in their publication and makes that publication freely accessible in a repository without the authorisation of the respective authors is liable to prosecution, as this constitutes making the work available to the public. Consequences in the event of infringement are usually a cease and desist and removal claim (i.e. an obligation to cease the action, refrain from it in the future, and remove all traces of it; Sections 81 and 82, respectively, of the Austrian Copyright Act [UrhG]) and the payment of an appropriate licence fee (Section 86 UrhG). According to Section 89a UrhG, large online platforms are also responsible for copyright infringements on the part of their users if they have not taken appropriate countermeasures. This provision, which derives from an EU regulation (and which has also become known under the heading “upload filter”), primarily targets large online platforms like YouTube, but it can also have an impact in other contexts. What is important, however, is that it does not apply to scholarly repositories and encyclopaedias. Liability Risks Involved in Operating Institutional Repositories The tasks of institutional repositories usually comprise storing and managing documents produced by researchers from the respective higher education institution or research organisation and making them available to the public. When a document is deposited in an institutional repository, it is not available online immediately but rather undergoes checks that vary in scope depending on the repository. These may range from checking details, through keyword tagging and cataloguing, to content checking (on quality assurance in general in electronic archives, see Andermann & Degwitz, 2004 , p. 53 et seq.). In the context of the storage of files in repositories, infringements of intellectual property rights (such as copyrights, trademark rights, and patent rights) and trade secrets law are conceivable. As mentioned above, Section 89a of the Austrian Copyright Act (UrhG) on the liability of large online platforms or copyright infringements on the part of their users does not apply to scholarly repositories. However, authors can also address their claims for damages against a repository within the framework of so-called intermediary liability (see Section 81 [1a] UrhG). Article 6 of the EU-wide Digital Services Act (DSA) provides for the so-called host-provider privilege. It states that a hosting service provider, for example an online repository, is not liable for the information stored in the infrastructure at a user’s request, provided it does not have actual knowledge of the circumstances giving rise to liability or, upon obtaining such knowledge, it acts immediately. This means in particular that repositories are not obliged to individually check their users’ content. Rather, they are obliged only to act immediately as soon as they obtain knowledge of the circumstances from which the illegal activity is apparent. Conversely, this means that wherever curatorial services are provided – that is, where data are prepared by repository staff in collaboration with researchers – this liability privilege does not apply, because content preparation occurs. In such constellations, it is important that appropriate contractual provisions be put in place. The above-mentioned intermediary liability (Section 81 [1a] UrhG) applies only to a limited extent where the host-provider privilege under Article 6 of the Digital Services Act applies – in the first step, the only possibility is to notify the repository of the infringement. Upon receipt of the notification, the repository must immediately investigate the allegations and, if necessary, remove the content. In addition, liability may also arise from a data protection perspective if personal data are stored in the repository and data protection regulations are not complied with. In this context, it is relevant whether the repository is acting as a controller (Article 4 [7] of the EU General Data Protection Regulation [GDPR]) or as a processor (Artikel 4 [8] GDPR). The controller is the natural or legal person that determines the purposes and means of the data processing, while the processor is merely the natural or legal person that carries out the actual processing on behalf of and bound by the instructions of the controller. Here too, a distinction is made depending on the extent to which the repository influences the preparation of the data or whether it merely makes unsupervised storage space available. Personal Homepage/Website Self-archiving in the sense of self-posting refers to the individual, non-standardised archiving of publications and making them available to the public on an author’s personal homepage on a faculty or institute website, or on their own personal website. Here too, infringements of intellectual property rights may occur (see the previous two tabs), and the principles remain the same. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyone who operates a website – that is, anyone who is responsible for its content design – is a media owner within the meaning of the Austrian Media Act (MedienG). This becomes particularly relevant when an author provides an opportunity for interactive discussion on their own personal website and invites users to submit comments, because, as the owner of the website, the author can then be made liable for infringements of rights that occur in the discussion forum Contractual Limitation of Liability A contractual indemnification and hold harmless agreement should be concluded with the persons who deposit content. In addition, to ensure that the host-provider privilege can be maintained in the event of legal proceedings, the repository should reserve the right to remove the content from the repository at its own discretion and after review if a rights infringement is suspected. Otherwise, a conflict could arise where researchers have a contractual right to store content in the repository, but the repository is required by a third party to cease and desist but cannot remove the content without being in breach of contract. In addition, researchers should be made aware that compliance with legal requirements is their responsibility and that the repository merely makes the infrastructure available. Furthermore, repositories should make use of the possibility to allow limited access to sensitive content, as this may also enable them to claim types of use permitted by law, for example digital use in teaching and learning. References Andermann, H., & Degwitz A. (2004). Neue Ansätze in der wissenschaftlichen Informationsversorgung. Bibliothek: Forschung und Praxis, 28(1), 35–59. https://doi.org/10.1515/BFUP.2004.35 Open Access Basics - How to publish and What to Consider? Find an introduction here. Open Access Helpdesk Please feel free to contact us with any open access-related questions. Ursprüngliche Bearbeitung der Kapitel Repositorien und Haftungsrecht: Dipl.-Jur. Seyavash Amini. Bearbeitung des Kapitels Urheberrecht: Dr. Alexander Baratsits und Dr. Katharina Majchrzak. 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Intro Open Research Europe Graphic: Open Research Europe in Action. Source: Open Research Europe (2021). faster-h2020.eu The key takeaways from this article are 1 The main players in the policy area of open access in Europe and Germany, respectively, are the European Commission, the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR; until 2025 called the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, BMBF), and the governments of the federal states. 2 Through various policy measures, these players promote and expect open access to knowledge. 3 At the level of the German federal states, different trends in the areas of open access and open science are emerging. Practical tip The presentation “ Open Access unterstützen – Praxistipps für Landesregierungen ” lists measures with which the governments of the German federal states can practise and support open access. Object of Governance, Subject of Policy Discussion The topic of open access and the formulation and implementation of open access policies are the subject of policy discussions and negotiation processes. Who are the driving forces, and what are their positions? Open access policies are driven both from the top down – especially from the European level to the level of the national states and federal states – and from the bottom up, by committed scholars and scientists, scientific institutions, and open access initiatives. Important milestones in the debate on open access to information are (see also the History of the Open Access Movement ) are : the Declaration of the Budapest Open Access Initiative (2002) , the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003) . Further milestones include: the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing (2003) the Amsterdam Call for Action on Open Science (2016) , The Vienna Principles: A Vision for Scholarly Communication in the 21st Century (2016) , the Jussieu Call for Open Science and Bibliodiversity (2017) , Plan S (2018) the Action Plan for Diamond Open Access (2022) . Many national and supranational institutions, for example the European Union (EU), the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR; until May 2025 called the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, BMBF), federal state ministries, the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG), and to some extent also universities and non-university research institutions, play a dual role in this regard. As political actors, they participate through various interventions and measures in negotiation processes on open access; at the same time, they are also research funders , and in that capacity, they directly set standards and framework conditions. In what follows, we provide an overview of the main state actors in the policy area of open access. In each case, we briefly explain how free access to scientific knowledge is enabled or promoted by policy regulations in the respective contexts. Kindling, M., Martin, L., Neufend, M., & Wenninger, A. (2022). Open Access Atlas Deutschland: Status Quo in Bund und Ländern (1.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6472672 Supranational Level At the supranational level, the European Commission (EC) and the European Research Council (ERC) provide important stimuli for the implementation of open access and open science. In 2021, UNESCO also adopted a Recommendation on Open Science . Governance of Open Access in Europe As early as 2012, the European Commission issued a Recommendation on access to and preservation of scientific information, in which it called on Member States to implement clear and binding open access policies. According to the recommendation, it should be mandatory to provide open access to publications resulting from publicly funded research, preferably immediately but no later than 6 months after the date of publication in the case of the natural sciences and 12 months in the case of the humanities and social sciences. Although European Commission recommendations are not binding, the majority of the 27 EU Member States (inter alia Belgium , Greece , Italy , Croatia , Latvia , Malta , Poland , Portugal , Slovakia , Slovenia , Spain , Czech Republic , Hungary ) and three non-member States ( Norway , Serbia, and Switzerland ) have by now adopted open access and open science strategies. In the area of research funding , the European Commission requires funding recipients to provide open access to research publications resulting from funded projects (see also Horizon Europe ). [MG1] Error 404 bei Slovenia. [PSM2] Danke – das hier scheint der richtige Link zu sein: https://www.openaire.eu/community/blogs/slovenia-open-science-in-the-recently-adopted-resolution-on-the-slovenian-scientific-research-and-innovation-strategy-2030 Open Access in Germany In contrast to many other European countries, Germany does not have a uniform national open access policy. In its coalition agreement for the legislative period 2021–2025 , the previous German Federal Government undertook to strengthen open access and open science and to establish open access as a common scientific standard. This was duly taken into account with the adoption in 2023 of Joint Guidelines of the Federal Government and the Länder for the implementation of open access in Germany (Federal Ministry of Education and Research, 2023 ). In the coalition agreement of the current federal government in 2025 , open access is not explicitly mentioned; however, access to scientific research is to be facilitated by a research data act. Federal Ministry of Education and Research At federal level in Germany, the amendment of the Copyright Act (UrhG) in 2013 created the legal framework for green open access by implementing an inalienable secondary publication right ( Pflüger, 2016 , p. 14). In 2016, the then German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF; renamed the Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space, BMFTR, in May 2025) published a strategy for open access in Germany , which was updated in 2018. The aim of the updated strategy is to further establish open access as the standard for scholarly publishing and to close the gap between the scientific community’s desire for more open access publications and current publishing practice ( Federal Ministry of Education and Research, 2018 , p. 7). According to the strategy, various ways of providing open access should be allowed in principle, and academic freedom should remain untouched. Furthermore, publications resulting from publicly funded research should be openly accessible, and established quality assurance procedures should be ensured. Whereas the transposition into concrete policies is the responsibility of the individual federal states, the BMBF, in its capacity as a funding agency, set guidelines: Research projects funded by the BMBF – or its successor, the BMFTR – are expected to publish their results and their research data in open access . Besides scientific and scholarly institutions and libraries, funding recipients also include private sector actors, such as publishers and other service providers, that are establishing themselves in the open access landscape. Open Access at Federal State Level Because of the sovereignty of the federal states in the area of education and higher education policy, the adoption and implementation of open access and open science policies in Germany takes place mainly at federal state level (Kindling et al., 2022). These federal state policies are thus central elements of the open access transformation in the Federal Republic of Germany (Kindling et al., 2021). Some states, for example Baden-Württemberg , Berlin , Brandenburg , Hamburg , and Schleswig-Holstein have state strategies, which in some cases define concrete objectives. These objectives include, for example, an open access quota for journal articles, as well as open access officers and open access policies at all institutions ( Berlin ); the monitoring of open access publication figures ( Thuringia ); the adoption of a clear position on open access by university managers ( Brandenburg ); and a uniform technical infrastructure ( Hamburg ). Some federal state governments support open access through other instruments of higher education governance. For example, support for open access is mentioned in the science plan ( Bremen ), in the higher education development plan ( Saxony ), or in the digital strategy ( Rhineland-Palatinate , Saxony-Anhalt , Hesse ) of the respective federal states. Other federal state governments support the scientific institutions in their states through targeted measures, for example openaccess.nrw in North Rhine-Westphalia; through an open access publication fund ( Thuringia , Lower Saxony ); through open access networking units ( Berlin , Brandenburg ); or by funding openness as a cross-sectional topic ( Bremen ). Although other federal states have not yet adopted an explicit science policy position, many institutions already have well-established open access service offerings (e.g. Saarland, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Bavaria, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Rhineland-Palatinate) (Kindling et al., 2021).The Bundesländer-Atlas (Kindling et al., 2021), the oa.atlas federal state dossiers (2024), and the Open4DE Landscape-Report ( Bärwolf et al. 2023 ) also provide an overview of current and past open access and open science activities of the German federal states. Open Access in Austria and Switzerland Open Access in Austria In Austria, various open access initiatives emerged at a national level at an early stage (see the History of the Open Access Movement ). For example, in 2014, in cooperation with the Austrian Science Fund ( FWF ), the Austrian Academic Library Consortium ( KEMÖ) , as one of the first national library consortia worldwide to do so, concluded an open access agreement with a publisher (see Mayer 2022, p. 47). The FWF had already introduced its own open access policy in 2004, with a strong recommendation to publish works open access. In 2012, Open Access Network Austria (OANA; since 2022: OSA – Open Science Austria ) was founded as a joint national networking initiative on the part of the FWF and Universities Austria ( uniko ). OANA subsequently drew up a number of recommendations, inter alia for a national open access strategy (2016) and a national open science strategy (2020). Following the publication of the 2016 recommendations paper , many research institutions published open access policies. The 2020 recommendations served as a basis for the national Open Science Policy Austria , which was adopted in 2022. A secondary publication right was incorporated into law in 2015 (see also Legal Issues in Austria ). In 2019, the national funding initiative “Digital and Social Transformation in Higher Education” of the then Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research enabled the launch of several digitalization projects with a focus on open access, for example AT2OA2 . In its Government Programme 2020–2024 , the Austrian Federal Government gave a clear commitment to open access and actively supported Plan S for the implementation of open access. The current Government Programme 2025–2029 does not focus explicitly on open access or open science. Open Access in Switzerland According to the strategic vision of the Swiss Higher Education Policy Coordination 2025–2028 (Gesamtschweizerische Hochschulpolitischen Koordination 2025–2028 ), 100% of scholarly publications from Swiss universities will be made available in open access. In particular, swissuniversities , the umbrella organisation of universities in Switzerland, plays the role of a superordinate actor for the promotion of open access. As a funding institution, swissuniversities supports various open access projects . The Swiss National Open Access Strategy published in 2017 was updated in 2024. In the updated strategy, swissuniversities and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) set the framework conditions for the country’s open access transformation. The Open Science Delegation coordinates cooperation between the stakeholders. Besides this national strategy, the Swiss Library Network for Education and Research ( SLiNER ) published National Open Access Policy Guidelines in 2019, which serve as recommendations for the institutional open access policies of Swiss universities. In 2023, 86% of universities in Switzerland had an open access policy (see swissuniversities, 2023). Eleven partner institutions are collaborating to create a national diamond open access consortium ( CoDOA ) to enable the long-term and sustainable funding of diamond open access journals. The groundwork for enshrining a secondary publication right in law is currently in progress. References Bärwolff, T., Benz, M., Dreyer, M., Neufend, M., Kindling, M., Kirchner, A., & Schmidt, B. (2023). Open4DE landscape report . Open-Access-Büro Berlin. https://doi.org/10.21428/986c5d43.bab38f02 Federal Ministry of Education and Research. (2023). Open access in Germany. Joint guidelines of the Federal Government and the Länder . https://www.bmftr.bund.de/SharedDocs/Publikationen/DE/FS/772970_Open_Access_in_Deutschland_en.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=4 Federal Ministry of Education and Research. (2018). Open Access in Deutschland. Die Strategie des Bundesministeriums für Bildung und Forschung [Open access in Germany. The strategy of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research]. https://www.bildung-forschung.digital/files/2018-08-Open_Access_neu_barrierefrei.pdf Kindling, M., Neufend, M., & Wenninger, A. (2021). Bundesländer-Atlas Open Access . Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5761153 Kindling, M., Martin, L., Neufend, M., & Wenninger, A. (2022). Open Access Atlas Deutschland: Status Quo in Bund und Ländern (1.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6472672 Kindling, M., Martin, L., & Neufend, M. (2024). oa.atlas: Konzept . Open-Access-Büro Berlin. https://doi.org/10.21428/986c5d43.54fbd167 Mayer, K. (2022). Open Access im Wandel. Infrastrukturen, Monitoring und Governance als zentrale Elemente einer erfolgreichen Transformation. Baseline Report zur Open Access Transformation in der Wissenschaft . Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI), Vienna. https://doi.org/10.22163/fteval.2022.533 Pflüger, T. (2016). Open Access-Regulierung im internationalen Vergleich. In T. Dreier, V. Fischer, A. van Raay, & I. Spiecker [known as Döhmann] (Eds.), Informationen der öffentlichen Hand: Zugang und Nutzung (1st ed., Vol. 3, pp. 537–562). Nomos. https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/bitstream/handle/123456789/37572/Pflueger_0-395438.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y swissuniversities. (2023). Open access strategy review. Background report . https://www.swissuniversities.ch/fileadmin/swissuniversities/Dokumente/Hochschulpolitik/Open_Access/OA_Strategie/OA_Strategy_Review_Background_Report.pdf UNESCO. (2021). UNESCO recommendation on open science . https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5741832 Further Reading Fuhrer, C., & Schurte, R. (2018). Nationale Open Access-Strategie in der Schweiz: Herausforderungen für die Hochschulen und ihre Bibliotheken. In Zentralbibliothek Zürich, A. Keller, & S. Uhl (Eds.), Bibliotheken der Schweiz: Innovation durch Kooperation: Festschrift für Susanna Bliggenstorfer anlässlich ihres Rücktrittes als Direktorin der Zentralbibliothek Zürich (pp. 97–118). De Gruyter Saur. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110553796-004 German Science and Humanities Council. (2022). Recommendations on the transformation of academic publishing: Towards open access . https://www.wissenschaftsrat.de/download/2022/9477-22_en.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=0 Taşkın, Z., Melinščak Zlodi, I., Laakso, M., Torny, D., Arasteh, S., Bargheer, M., Klaus, T., Schima, J., Agnoloni, T., Peruginelli, G., Davidson, A., Franczak, M., María Ángeles, C. B., de Pablo Llorente, V., Dobson, H., & Heyman, J. (2024). D5.2 National overviews on sustaining institutional publishing in Europe . Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13683953 Verdicchio, D., Kissling-Näf, I. (2020). Digitale Transformation und Open Access von Forschungsresultaten in der Schweiz. In J. Schellinger, K. Tokarski, & I. Kissling-Näf (Eds.), Digitale Transformation und Unternehmensführung (pp. 11–27). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-26960-9_2...
Intro The research data management cycle open-access.network ( CC BY 4.0 International ) The key takeaways from this article are 1 Research data and their independent publication are becoming increasingly important. 2 The FAIR principles are a de facto standard for research data. 3 Organisational, legal, and infrastructural obstacles before publication can be overcome. Research Data Scientific findings in text form are based, as a rule, on research data. Research data come in a wide variety of forms and types. They comprise all (digital) data generated during the scientific process, for example, through measurements, simulations, interviews, source work, or code and software. The management of these research data has become an essential element of good research practice and is anchored in policies at many institutions. Whereas in the past, research data were often neglected as a mere accessory to publications, made available as a matter of form, or provided only upon request, a strong trend towards the independent and prominent publication of research data in an open format is apparent. In some disciplines, the publication of data is on its way to becoming the main outcome of scientific work. Reasons for Publishing Research Data Research data enable the replication and transparency of scientific results. They are thus the basis for transparent science. Reusability promotes the reanalysis of data, the merging of data from different sources, and thus the opportunity to conduct further research with existing data and to generate new knowledge. Ideally, reusability includes the right to download, copy, disseminate, and automatically process the data and to use them without financial, technical, or legal restrictions. The publication of research data enables their citability and therefore contributes to the scientific reputation of the authors. Through research assessment reforms driven by initiatives such as the Coalition for Open Research Assessment (CoARA) , research data are increasingly recognised as a scholarly achievement in their own right. Source: Hole, B. (2015). Open Science: A New publisher Perspective. Ubiquity press. ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Positions and Drivers European Union In 2016, the European Union (EU) integrated the Open Research Data (ORD) Pilot into the funding programme Horizon 2020 . The ORD Pilot provided for the publication of research data according to the premise "as open as possible, as closed as necessary". Participation was voluntary. In Horizon Europe , the successor programme to Horizon 2020, which runs until 2027, open science is designated as the modus operandi and open access to text and data publications and the provision of the data according to the FAIR principles are mandatory. Germany The German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft ; DFG) refers to the provision of data according to the FAIR principles both in its Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice and in its separately published Guidelines on the Handling of Research Data . When submitting proposals, applicants are required to provide statements on research data management and data management plans. These statements are taken into account in the evaluation. The German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) and research funding foundations, for example, also require details of the reuse and exploitation of the data. The German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) , which is jointly financed by the Federal Government and the Länder, has proved to be a further driver. According to its self-description , through the work in 26 consortia, "NFDI systematically indexes and networks valuable scientific and research data for the entire German science system and makes it available for sustainable and qualitative use.” Austria The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) introduced an Open-Access Policy for Research Data in 2019, in which it requires its grant recipients to draw up a data management plan (DMP) and to provide open access to the research data “underlying the project’s academic publications”. The Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) does not mandate open access to research data in its Open Science Policy . However, it “strongly encourages grantees to provide access to shareable research data”. The Austrian Open Science Policy , which came into force in 2022, aims inter alia to ensure that research data are published according to the FAIR principles. Moreover, several Austrian universities have adopted a research data management policy or guideline. Further information (in German) can be found on the Austria pages of forschungsdaten.info . Switzerland The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) also considers open access to research data to be a significant contribution. Further information (in English) can be found on the Switzerland pages of forschungsdaten.info . As in the case of research literature, one argument for making research data available in open access is that their production was financed with public funds. At an early stage in the history of open access, the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities recognised data as objects that should be made openly available. Besides the intrinsic motivation to be able to work more efficiently in increasingly data-driven research with the help of good data management and to benefit from open data oneself, the main drivers of the publication of data are the research funders . FAIR Principles In their guidelines and policies, various national and international research funders, for example the EU and the German Research Foundation (DFG), aim to encourage compliance with the FAIR principles. The German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) has set itself the objective of making data “FAIRfügbar”. This is a play on the German word verfügbar , which means “available”. The acronym FAIR stands for F indable, A ccessible, I nteroperable, and R eusable. The term FAIR was coined by the FORCE11-Community and published in the journal Scientific Data on 15 March 2016 ( Wilkinson et al., 2016 ). Support for the FAIR principles can be found inter alia in the G20 Leaders’ Communiqué issued at the end of the Hangzhou Summit in 2016 . The FAIR principles are an internationally recognised standard for the handling of research data. “FAIR data” does not necessarily mean that the data are openly available. Source: based on Halina Sieminska, P. (2019). A FAIRy tale graphics. Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3267168 . Bearbeitung: Ilona Lang ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) The four individual elements of FAIR mean: Findable : For the data to be reusable, they must be easily findable. To render them findable, the data are described with rich human- and machine-readable metadata. Accessible : Access to the data found must be possible according to clear rules; authentication and authorisation must be defined. Interoperable : To use data and integrate them with other data, an accessible, shared, and broadly applicable language is needed for knowledge representation. Metadata use standardised vocabularies. Reusable : The description of the data and metadata facilitates their use in different contexts. Suitable data licences are used, and the data meet domain-relevant community standards. The FAIR principles are complemented by the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance. The acronym “CARE” stands for Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility and Ethics. On the basis of the CARE principles, researchers are made aware of the need to uphold the rights and interests of indigenous communities as part of efforts to promote open data and open science – irrespective of whether their research focuses specifically on the communities themselves or otherwise affects them. For research software, the FAIR principles are complemented by the FAIR Principles for Research Software (FAIR4RS Principles) . In connection with the AI transformation, the acronym “FAIR” may also stand for Fully AI Ready. It means that data processed according to the FAIR principles are mostly machine readable and can therefore be processed by AI. Publication When publishing research data, a suitable repository should be chosen – where possible one that provides open access to the data. A disciplinary repository that is well established in the community in question should always be the preferred choice, as one’s own data are thus in a good, specialised context, and findability is easier. The Registry of Research Data Repositories, re3data , can be used to select a suitable data repository. If no suitable disciplinary repository can be found, general or institutional repositories can be used. Well-known examples of general repositories are Zenodo and Dataverse . To guarantee the long-term provision and findability of the data, a permanent address must be assigned. This persistent identifier also ensures the citability of the datasets. Preferred identifiers are the Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) provided by the DataCite consortium. As the reusability of research data is greatly limited if they lack adequate descriptions and metadata, it is imperative that they be curated in accordance with the FAIR principles before publication. Metadata should be assigned at the earliest possible point in time during the research process. They comprise both technical metadata (e.g.: When and by whom was the dataset collected?) and substantive metadata (e.g.: What is the content of the individual variables?). There are specific metadata standards for numerous disciplines. These standards are promoted, maintained, and published in particular by the NFDI consortia (see the RDA Metadata Standards Catalog ). During curation, the data are, above all, technically checked. This includes checking the data format, the basic access, and the formal accuracy. Regarding data format, long-term accessible and open data formats should be used, for example. The checking of the data content must be carried out mainly by the researchers themselves. The curation ends with the choice of a suitable licence . The Creative Commons (CC) licences have proved their worth (more information can be found on the English-language pages of the research data portal forschungsdaten.info ). However, CC licences are not suitable for licensing code or software. There are special open source licences for this purpose. Source: based on Koch, M. (2015). Publizieren über das Repositorium der Leibniz Universität Hannover. TIB Blog Practical tip Tips and tricks on how to make research data openly available to the community are available here in the slides for the Open Access Talk Research Data & Open Access - How to Publish Your Data in German. Challenges Three important challenges in research data management (RDM) and in the publication process should be mentioned as surmountable obstacles: Organisational Research data management and curation require additional competencies. New professions, such as data curator, data steward, and data scientist, are emerging, and research institutions and infrastructure facilities must make corresponding resources available and provide their employees with the necessary basic and continuing training. Research funders now finance data stewards, for example in collaborative research centres or excellence clusters. Institutions must meet the increased demands by implementing policies and adapted procedures. Legal Research data may be personal and very sensitive. These data must be anonymised before publication, or access to them must be restricted in such a way that no data protection rights are violated. Copyright aspects in connection with research data should not be ignored. This applies both to the publication of one’s own data and to the reuse of existing data. It is imperative to obtain legal advice at an early stage in the research process. Infrastructure Especially in the natural sciences, the amounts of data generated can quickly become very large. Past experience shows that the volume of data will steadily grow. Handling petabyte-scale data places demands on storage, backup, archiving, and transfer. Reservations One criticism frequently voiced by researchers stems from their concern that others will benefit excessively from their wealth of data, and that they will not achieve the reputation they need for their scientific careers. It should be made clear in this connection that publication should be sought as early and as comprehensively as possible. However, the data may still be published at a later point in time – after the analysis or subject to an embargo period . This reservation is also being addressed through proposed reforms in the assessment of research. Sovereignty over the data can remain with the data producer. The additional costs associated with the required handling of the data are also frequently mentioned. It is already possible to also request funding for these costs when applying for research funding. Data management must be regarded as a key element of scientific research and be adequately staffed and funded. Outlook The process observed in recent years will further intensify. The publication, reuse, and linking of research data have become the scientific standard. Many journals now require compliance with data availability statements upon submission. Furthermore, dedicated data and software journals are establishing themselves as additional publication venues for research data alongside repositories. Overall, it is to be expected that the boundaries between open access, text publications, and research data will become increasingly blurred, that the topics and tasks will overlap, and that a change in mindset will be brought about in the scientific community under the umbrella term “open science”. For acceptance in the scientific community, data and their handling must be recognised as a scholarly achievement. References Wilkinson, M. D., Dumontier, M., Aalbersberg, Ij. J., Appleton, G., Axton, M., Baak, A., Blomberg, N., Boiten, J.-W., Bonino da Silva Santos, L., Bourne, P. E., Bouwman, J., Brookes, A. J., Clark, T., Crosas, M., Dillo, I., Dumon, O., Edmunds, S., Evelo, C. T., Finkers, R., … Mons, B. (2016). The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship. Scientific Data , 3 . https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2016.18 Further Reading Austrian Science Fund (FWF). (n.d.). Open-Access Policy for Research Data . https://www.fwf.ac.at/en/about-us/what-we-do/open-science/open-access-policy/open-access-policy-for-research-data Putnings, M., Neuroth, H., & Neumann, J. (2021). Praxishandbuch Forschungsdatenmanagement . de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110657807 Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF). (n.d.). Open Science Policy . https://wiki.wwtf.at/books/open-science-policy/page/open-science-policy-gultig-ab-112026 Further Links forschungsdaten.info – G erman-language platform with information on research data (with some English pages) go-fair.org/ – Go Fair Initiative re3data.org – Registry of Research Data Repositories Content editor of this page: Matthias Landwehr, University of Konstanz (Last updated: May 2026). Special thanks are due to Anna-Karina Renziehausen, TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology and University Library ....
