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What is Open Access? Find an introduction here. Source: based on Brinken, H. (2021). 10 Gründe für Open Access. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4643859 ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access: Pros and Cons Find an introduction here. Open Access and Self-Archiving Find an introduction here. Open Access in the Educational Sciences Although open access as a publishing form is established in educational sciences, it continues to play a somewhat secondary role compared with proprietary publications. Journal articles are the preferred form of publication in educational sciences (Schmidt-Hertha & Müller, 2020), followed by monographs, edited collections, and contributions to edited collections, which together make up around one third of the publication output in this field (Abs et al., 2020). According to the German Education Index ( FIS Bildung ) labelling, as of August 2025, the full-text versions of 42% of the publication output, 32% of the listed journal articles, ca. 58% of the listed monographs and edited collections, and ca. 61% of the listed contributions to edited collections in educational sciences in 2024 were freely available. The German Educational Research Association (GERA/DGfE) , one of the key institutions in educational sciences in the German-speaking area, supports a large number of open access initiatives, but it has not yet adopted a clear position on open access. A further overview of open access developments in the German-language educational sciences is provided in a dissertation by Bambey (2016) and journal articles by Rummler (2021) and Schindler and Rummler (2018) . Open Access Journals As of October 2025, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) listed around 1,980 journals under the subject Education . Important German-language open access journals that are listed in the DOAJ include: bwp@ DOAJ Die Deutsche Schule doaj Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research (FQS) DOAJ Magazin Erwachsenenbildung.at DOAJ MedienPädagogik. Zeitschrift für Theorie und Praxis der Medienbildung DOAJ Zeitschrift für Hochschulentwicklung (ZFHE) DOAJ Zeitschrift für Weiterbildungsforschung DOAJ Important open access journals that are not listed in the DOAJ include: bildungsforschung PhyDid widerstreit-sachunterricht Die Österreichische Volkshochschule (ÖVH) on_education. Journal for Research and Debate Beiträge zur Lehrerinnen- und Lehrerbildung . Contributions up to and including 2013 and contributions from 2014 onwards can be found on peDOCS. Journal for Educational Research Online (JERO) journal für lehrerInnenbildung Erziehungswissenschaft Journals in the educational sciences are often published open access by committed individuals with the help of their institutions and through voluntary effort. For example, the German Youth Institute publishes the magazine IMPULSE . Although, as mentioned earlier, the German Educational Research Association (GERA/DGfE) has not yet adopted a clear position on open access, its journal, Erziehungswissenschaft , is published in diamond open access . In addition, the above-mentioned DOAJ-listed journal MedienPädagogik , which is published by GERA’s Media Education Division, is also diamond open access. In Austria, the Forum Neue Medien in der Lehre Austria publishes the journal Zeitschrift für Hochschulentwicklung in diamond open access. And in Switzerland, the Swiss Society for Research in Education (SSRE) also publishes the quadrilingual journal Swiss Journal of Educational Research in diamond open access. Some journals rely on support from funding agencies or sponsors. For example, the Magazin erwachsenenbildung.at is funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Women, Science and Research (BMFWF ), while the online journal bwp@ is run inter alia through a cooperation with wbv Media and with support from sponsors. What are Open Access Journals Find an introduction here. Practical Tip Publishing Open Access: How to evaluate a journal's quality. Video on the Funding of Open Access Articles Source: Becklas Dorow, C., Hauss, J. (2026). Funding Open Access Articles – What Are the Options?. Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB), open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/73596 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) open-access.network (2021) ( CC BY 4.0 International ) What are Open Access Books Find an introduction here. open-access.network (2026) ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access Books As of October 2025, the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) listed over 1,600 titles under the subject " Education ", and the OAPEN Library listed over 1.200 titles. Furthermore, peDOCS provides a good overview of series in educational sciences. And the German Education Index (FIS Bildung Literaturdatenbank) indexes open access monographs and contributions to edited collections. A large share of open access books in educational sciences are now published by university presses or institutional repositories (see Schindler & Rummler, 2018). Besides research reports and edited collections, these works include in particular monographic doctoral dissertations and habilitation theses. Although the German Educational Research Association (GERA/DGfE) has not yet adopted a clear position on open access, its divisions and committees publish various books and book series open access: Division 1 – Historical Education Research . Series: Jahrbuch Historische Bildungsforschung (Verlag Julius Klinkhardt) Division 7 – Vocational Education . Series: Jahrbuch der berufs- und wirtschaftspädagogischen Forschung (Verlag Barbara Budrich) Division 9 – Adult Education . Series: Schriftenreihe der Sektion Erwachsenenbildung (Verlag Barbara Budrich) The Gesellschaft für Medien in der Wissenschaft (GMW) published the conference proceedings series Medien in der Wissenschaft in open access with Waxmann Verlag until 2022. Furthermore, various publishers support the publication of open access books in educational sciences. They include Verlag Julius Klinkhardt , Barbara Budrich , Nomos , Beltz Juventa , wbv Media , transcript , Waxmann , and Werner-Hülsbusch-Verlag . Disciplinary Repositories The most important repositories in the educational sciences include: peDOCS : the disciplinary repository of DIPF – Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education for the areas educational research, educational science, and subject didactics. DIPFdocs : DIPF’s institutional repository. texte.online : publications on adult education of the German Institute for Adult Education (DIE) . Scripta Paedagogica Online : digital text archive on the history of education in the German-speaking area (holdings include, inter alia, journals, teacher registers, school programmes). VET Repository : the central repository of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training – BIBB for literature in the area of research on vocational education and training (VET). An overview of relevant repositories is also provided by the Open Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) . What are Repositories? Find an introduction here. Legal Aspects Find an introduction here. Video über das Zeitveröffentlichungsrecht Quelle: Brehm, E. (2021). Zweitveröffentlichungsrecht für Wissenschaftler*innen, open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/51789 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) Practical Tip Finding Open Access Literature (in German) Open Access Helpdesk You are welcome to contact our Helpdesk if you have any questions about Open Access. oa.finder The oa.finder shows you from tens of thousands of journals which are Gold Open Access, whether they charge APCs and how high these are. You can also view the funding modalities of your own institution. Other Offerings As a virtual specialised education library, the Education Research Portal is the central point of access for literature searches in (German-language) educational sciences. It is run by the Information Centre for Education (IZB) of DIPF – Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education in Frankfurt am Main. The development of the portal was funded by the German Research Foundation ( DFG ). The offering, which can be used free of charge, is divided into three sections, Literature & References, Research Data in Education, and Research Information: In the Literature & References section, users can conduct searches, report publications that are not yet indexed in the database, publish documents via peDOCS , or avail of the services of the Specialised Information Service for Educational Science and Research . The Research Data in Education section contains comprehensive studies in empirical education research that have been documented for the long term. In addition, there is a central access point to descriptive information about the studies (e.g. survey instruments used, research data collected, information material on research data management) . The Research Information section provides a thematic compilation of relevant Internet sources for and about science and research in the area of education . The Education Research Portal has been online since August 2005. Following a complete overhaul, it was relaunched in September 2017. Open Science in the Educational Sciences In educational sciences, there are also other movements in the area of open science beyond open access. For example, a special issue of the journal Erziehungswissenschaft , Issue 61 (2-2020), entitled: “ Neue Formen der Archivierung, Bereitstellung und Nachnutzung von Forschungsdaten ” [New Forms of Archiving, Providing, and Reusing Research Data], which brought together arguments on open science and open data, sparked a debate within educational sciences on new forms of research and data collection and the requirements that these models involve. The special issue also addressed discernible limitations and reservations, especially regarding data protection and the use of open research data and processes. Nonetheless, open science practices and forms of open access publishing will also change things in educational sciences, as the open handling of research data is supported in principle. The German Educational Research Association (GERA/DGfE), the Society for Empirical Educational Research ( Gesellschaft für Empirische Bildungsforschung, GEBF), and the Gesellschaft für Fachdidaktik (GFD) have published a joint statement with recommendations on the archiving, provision, and reuse of research data in the context of education and subject didactics research. At an international level, as of November 2025, the registry of research data repositories re3data listed 100 open research data portals and repositories under “educational research”. In the German-speaking area, the portal Forschungsdaten Bildung indexes research data via the German Network Educational Research Data (Verbund FDB) and provides information on sharing and managing research data in education research. Engagement with open science and the adaptation of open science to the disciplinary framework conditions and possibilities can increasingly be observed in educational sciences (van Dijk et al., 2021; Krammer & Svecnik, 2020; van der Zee & Reich, 2018). Furthermore, educational sciences are also influenced by the open educational resources (OER) movement. By explicitly calling for open access to education, educational opportunities, and educational materials, this thematic field follows the lead of historical pedagogical precursors (Deimann, 2020; Hug, 2014). In recent years, an increasing number of studies have investigated the innovations in the area of educational and informational practice. These studies emphasise, examine, and critically discuss the new ways of handling materials and infrastructures (Schön & Ebner, 2021; Heck et al., 2020; Deimann, 2020; Heinen et al., 2015). The website OERinfo provides regular German-language news and information on OER as well as a compilation of German-language OER directories and platforms (e.g. the OER-Repositorium Baden-Württemberg and twillo ) . These directories and platforms cover both the areas of school and adult education and the area of higher education. In Austria, an OER certificate ( OER-Zertifikat.at) has been introduced for higher education teachers and institutions (Schön et al., 2 023). open-access.network (2021) ( CC BY 4.0 International ) References Abs, H. J., Kuper, H., Cathleen, G., Ludwig, K., Hüfner, K., Radhoff, M., Ruberg, C., Kerst, C., Wolter, A., Gerecht, M., Krüger, H.-H., Sauerwein, M., Schultheiß, J., Schmidt-Hertha, B., Müller, M., Martini, R., & Stelter, A. (2020). Datenreport Erziehungswissenschaft 2020. Erstellt im Auftrag der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Erziehungswissenschaft (DGfE). Verlag Barbara Budrich. https://doi.org/10.25656/01:18987 Bambey, D. (2016). Fachliche Publikationskulturen und Open Access. Fächerübergreifende Entwicklungstendenzen und Spezifika der Erziehungswissenschaft und Bildungsforschung . https://doi.org/10.25656/01:12331 Deimann, M. (2020). Lernen mit Open Educational Resources. In H. M. Niegemann & A. Weinberger (Eds.), Handbuch Bildungstechnologie. Konzeption und Einsatz digitaler Lernumgebungen (pp. 699–708). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-54368-9_58 Heck, T., Kullmann, S., Hiebl, J., Schröder, N., Otto, D., & Sander, P. (2020). Designing Open Informational Ecosystems on the Concept of Open Educational Resources. Open Education Studies , 2 (1), 252–264. https://doi.org/10.1515/edu-2020-0130 Heinen, R., Kerres, M., & Schindler, C. (2015). Provisioning strong and weak OER: Requirements of open informational ecosystems. Proceedings of Open Education Global 2015 . https://doi.org/10.25656/01:18242 Hug, T. (2014). Bildung für alle – eine Neuauflage? Offenheit und Teilen in der Open Educational Resources (OER) Bewegung. In P. Missomelius (Ed.), Freie Bildungsmedien und digitale Archive. Medien - Wissen - Bildung (pp. 227–256). Innsbruck University Press. https://www.fachportal-paedagogik.de/literatur/vollanzeige.html?FId=1055764 Krammer, G., & Svecnik, E. (2020). Open Science als Beitrag zur Qualität in der Bildungsforschung. Zeitschrift für Bildungsforschung , 10 , 263–278. https://doi.org/10.1007/s35834-020-00286-z Rummler, K. (2021). Open Access Zeitschriften in den Bildungs- und Erziehungswissenschaften. Ausgewählte Aspekte zum Betrieb wissenschaftlicher Fachzeitschriften. Schweizerische Zeitschrift Für Bildungswissenschaften , 43 (1), 116–128. https://doi.org/10.24452/sjer.43.1.9 Schindler, C., & Rummler, K. (2018). Open Access in der Publikationslandschaft der Erziehungswissenschaft. Eine Sondierung mit Blick auf Monographien und Sammelwerke. Erziehungswissenschaft , 57 (29), 9–18. https://doi.org/10.3224/ezw.v29i2.02 Schmidt-Hertha, B., & Müller, M. (2020). Forschung und Publikationskulturen. In J. Abs, H. Kuper, & R. Martini (Eds.), Datenreport Erziehungswissenschaft 2020 . Verlag Barbara Budrich. https://doi.org/10.3224/84742419 Schön, S., & Ebner, M. (2021). Digital gestütztes Lernen in der Erwachsenenbildung - wo liegt die Innovation? In Egger, R. & Härtel, P. (Eds.), Bildung für alle? Für ein offenes und chancengerechtes, effizientes und kooperatives System des lebenslangen Lernens in Österreich (pp. 231–252). Springer VS. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-31054-7_12 Schön, S., Ebner, M., Berger, E., Brandhofer, G., Edelsbrunner, S., Gröblinger, O., Hackl, C., Jadin, T., Kopp, M., Neuböck, K., Proinger, J., Schmölz, A. & Steinbacher, H.P. (2023). Development of an Austrian OER certification for higher education institutions and their employees. In D. Otto, G. Scharnberg, M. Kerres, & O. Zawacki-Richter (Eds.), Distributet learning ecosystems. Springer VS. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-38703-7_9 van der Zee, T., & Reich, J. (2018). Open Education Science. AERA Open , 4 (3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858418787466 van Dijk, W., Schratschneider, C., & Hart, S. A. (2021). Open Science in Education Sciences. Journal of Learning Disabilities , 54 (2), 139–152. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022219420945267 Further Reading Mruck, K., Mey, G., Schön, S., Idensen, H., & Purgathofer, P. (2013). Offene Lehr- und Forschungsressourcen. Open Access und Open Educational Resources. In M. Ebner & S. Schön (Eds.), L3T. Lehrbuch für Lernen und Lehren mit Technologien (2. Auflage). https://doi.org/10.25656/01:8356 Schaffert, S. (2004). Kostenlose Online-Literatur der Bildungsforschung. P@psych E-Zine , 9 . https://www.stangl-taller.at/paedpsych/ezine/2004/schaffert04/ Content editors of this page: Dr Klaus Rummler, Zurich University of Teacher Education , Dr Christoph Schindler, Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education , and Dr Sandra Schön, Graz University of Technology (Last updated: November 2025)....

What is Open Access? Find an introduction here. Source: based on Brinken, H. (2021). 10 Gründe für Open Access. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4643859 ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access: Pros and Cons Find an introduction here. Open Access Publishing and Self-Archiving Find an introduction here. Open Access in Engineering Open access is not yet as widespread in engineering as it is in other disciplines ( Piwowar et al., 2018 ). This is due in part to the fact that engineering papers with a strong scientific orientation are usually published in scholarly journals of other disciplines, for example, physics or chemistry . It is due also to the fact that research in the field of engineering is very industry-oriented, and in industry, the idea of making findings and knowledge accessible worldwide free of charge is met with great scepticism and misgivings. For this reason, relatively few engineering papers are published on discipline-specific preprint servers such as engrXiv . Authors do not want to endanger future possibilities of exploiting their findings as well as patents and licences – true to the motto: first patent, then publish. Furthermore, the majority of engineering papers are more application- than science-oriented and are published in trade journals, for example for the purpose of client acquisition, in which case they are often not published open access. Here, it is important to note that in engineering it is customary to publish research results in different formats for different target groups. This serves the purpose of transdisciplinary communication and should not be equated to self-plagiarism. However, when reusing published material, transparency should be maintained to avoid the appearance of deception. This can be done by means of notes regarding reuse. In addition, authors should correctly record multiple publications, translations, or identical new editions in their bibliographies to avoid giving the impression that the number of publications is higher than it actually is. Conference papers play a more important role in engineering than do journal articles. In contrast to the journal offerings of other disciplines, the number of conferences that publish their proceedings in open access is comparatively small. Smaller conferences in particular are discouraged by the often high book processing charges (BPCs) for conference proceedings or do not publish any collected proceedings at all. In engineering, increased emphasis is being placed on green open access – that is, the self-archiving of publications in repositories. This circumstance is favoured by the fact that many engineering conferences are organised by professional organisations, for example the IEEE or CIRP , and offer very good self-archiving options in their author agreements. Gold open access usually involves (high) publication costs and is therefore used less, despite the comparatively large funding amounts in the discipline. However, since the advent of the transformative agreements negotiated by Projekt DEAL , an increasing trend towards gold open access can be observed. Conference proceedings are often not covered by the DEAL agreements or other international initiatives (e.g. Plan S ). Thus, even though the share of open access articles in engineering is likely to increase as a result of these efforts, many conference papers will still not be able to be published in gold open access. OpenIng , a project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) , conducted a survey on the publication behaviour of engineers in the German-speaking area, which showed that although many researchers had an awareness of open access, it was not sufficient to change their publication behaviour. Reporting the survey findings, Elsner et al. (2019) noted that this was due inter alia to the fact that the organisational and policy framework at universities regarding when and how research could be published open access was unclear. Open Access Journals As of March 2024, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) listed 1,724 entries under the subject " engineering ". Important open access journals include: Sensors IEEE Access IEEE Photonics Journal Bioactive Materials Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal Engineering npj 2D Materials and Applications Optics Express Open access journals devoted specifically to engineering are quite rare. Many engineering articles are published in the journals of other disciplines, for example in the fields of materials science and physics, or in sub-fields of these disciplines, such as optics. The above selection should thus be regarded merely as a small sample of the journals in which engineering articles are published. Furthermore, scholarly conference papers or conference proceedings are not listed in the DOAJ, because they are not published as consecutive volumes in journal format. Thus, this DOAJ-based counting method leaves out many proceedings from engineering conferences published, for example, by Procedia CIRP , which play an important role in applied research but receive much less attention in the area of basic research. Although the series titles are often indexed with an ISSN in the literature databases, the contents are usually individual proceedings from a scholarly conference rather than an ongoing series in journal format. Despite these circumstances, the number of open access journals in engineering is steadily increasing. For example, around 100 journals in the portfolio of the open access publisher MDPI cover this field, as do 30 journals in the portfolio of SpringerOpen . Predatory publishing is a big problem, especially in engineering ( Shen & Björk, 2015 ), which further increases the scepticism towards open access in the discipline. Therefore, here, too, it is a matter of selecting the respective publication media with care – as dictated by the principles of good research practice – in order to avoid undesirable developments ( DFG, 2022 , Guideline 15). What are Open Access Journals? Find an introduction here. Practical Tip Publishing Open Access: How to evaluate a journal's quality Video on the Funding of Open Access Articles Source: Becklas Dorow, C., Hauss, J. (2026). Funding Open Access Articles – What Are the Options?. Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB), open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/73596 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) open-access.network (2026) ( CC BY 4.0 International ) What are Open Access Books? Find an introduction here. open-access.network (2026) ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access Books As of March 2024, the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) listed some 10,061 titles under " engineering ", and the online library and publication platform OAPEN listed around 17,223 titles under " engineering ". The reason why the number of books listed under this search term in the DOAB and OAPEN is so high is that engineering is not a main category in these databases. Rather, it appears as an accompanying specialist field, for example: Acoustic & sound engineering Biochemical engineering Offshore engineering Energy technology & engineering Disciplinary Repositories The main repositories in engineering include: engrXiv : A preprint server for engineering and related fields, engrXiv is directed by a steering committee of engineers and members of the engineering librarian community. arXiv EESS : the Electrical Engineering and Systems Science archive on the e-print server arXiv The Open Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) provides an overview of relevant repositories. What are Repositories? Find an introduction here. Legal Aspects Find an introduction here. Video über das Zeitveröffentlichungsrecht Quelle: Brehm, E. (2021). Zweitveröffentlichungsrecht für Wissenschaftler*innen, open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/51789 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) Practical Tip Finding Open Access Literature (in German) Open Access Helpdesk You are welcome to contact our Helpdesk of you have any questions about Open Access. oa.finder The oa.finder shows you from tens of thousands of journals which are Gold Open Access, whether they charge APCs and how high these are. You can also view the funding modalities of your own institution. Other Tools and Offerings Publish-Ing. is an open access platform for the publication of scientific papers in the field of engineering. The idea for publish-Ing. stems from the Conference on Production Systems and Logistics (CPSL), which was conducted for the first time in 2020 in collaboration with TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology and University Library , the German Academic Association for Production Technology (WGP) , the Institute for Production Systems and Logistics (IFA) , and Leibniz Universität Hannover (LUH) . Publish-Ing. aims to establish a digital platform for researchers on which scientific papers can be published open access affordably and with minimal effort. All contributions are published by TIB and deposited in the Leibniz Universität Hannover Repository . In addition, the project OpenIng , which was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), developed services for engineers. These services are still usable after the project lifetime. One example is OA-Check , which researchers can use to check the open-access compatibility of their publications. References Elsner, C., Rosenke, N., Weber, M., Hoppe, C., Drößler, S., & Hermann, S. (2019). Von Bottom up zu Top down. Umfrage: Forschende der Ingenieurwissenschaften erwarten klare Rahmenbedingungen von den Hochschulleitungen bei Open Access und Open Educational Resources. o-bib - das offene Bibliotheksjournal , 6 (2), 80–91. https://doi.org/10.5282/o-bib/2019H2S80-91 German Research Foundation (DFG). (2022). Guidelines for safeguarding good research practice. Code of conduct (Revised Version 1.1.). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6472827 Meinel, C. (2013). ‚Selbstplagiat’ und gute wissenschaftliche Praxis . https://www.uni-regensburg.de/assets/universitaet/ombudspersonen/selbstplagiat-memo.pdf Piwowar, H., Priem, J., Larivière, V., Alperin, J. P., Matthias, L., Norlander, B., Farley, A., West, J., & Haustein, S. (2018). The state of OA: A large-scale analysis of the prevalence and impact of Open Access articles. PeerJ , 6 , e4375. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4375 Shen, C., & Björk, B.-C. (2015). ‘Predatory’ open access: A longitudinal study of article volumes and market characteristics. BMC Medicine , 13 , 230. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-015-0469-2 Further Reading Ezema, I. J. (2020). Gold route open access journals in engineering and technology: Analysis of research impact and implications for scholarly communication. Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, 96 . https://doi.org/10.29173/istl43 Content editors of this page: Peter Molitor and Eric Retzlaff, Fraunhofer-Informationszentrum Raum & Bau (IRB) (Last updated: October 2024)....

What is Open Access? Find an introduction here. Source: based on Brinken, H. (2021). 10 Gründe für Open Access. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4643859 ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access: Pros and Cons Find an introduction here. Open Access Publishing and Self-Archiving Find an introduction here. Open Access in Linguistics Find an introduction here. Open Access in English and American Studies English and American studies refers here to a range of disciplines that, at German universities, are also known as Anglophone literature and cultures or British and American studies , and that may comprise different regionally oriented and inter­disciplinary cultural studies. The following information therefore refers in part also to British, Irish, American, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand studies, as well as to interdisciplinary research fields such as postcolonial studies. In addition to genuinely philological topics and research questions, and in line with the current self-perception of the disciplines on the English-studies continuum, the history, society, politics, cultural geography, mass media, and popular culture of the respective countries are also investigated using different metho­dological approaches. The spread and acceptance of forms of open access publishing has not quite been able to keep pace with this continuous thematic and disciplinary opening of the field of English and American studies. There are a variety of reasons for this, the main one being the publication culture in the humanities, which differs – sometimes to a large extent – from the distribution channels and work me­thods in the natural sciences. The exception here is linguistics , which is closer to the natural sciences, not only in terms of its methods but also its scientific communication practices. For example, the concept of preprints is widely known in linguistics. In the field of literary and cultural studies, commercial print publications still prevail, especially in the case of dissertations and monographs. Open access publications in English and American Studies are not usually financed through article processing charges ( APCs ) but rather through book publishing charges ( BPCs ). The publication of open access monographs is supported in various ways, for example through monograph funds at institutional or federal state level, publisher-side pledging initiatives such as Knowledge Unlatched , third-party funding, or professional associations’ membership fees. The consortially funded Open Library of Humanities has developed into an important infrastructure for open access journals . Its platform also hosts a whole range of journals from the field of English and American Studies. In addition, the French platform for humanities and social science research blogs Hypotheses , which is part of the portal OpenEdition , is used by numerous German institutes and scholars to publish their research works. Overall, the development of open access in English and American Studies is positive. Many authors, publishers, and research funding organisations are calling for, and support, the further development of the provision of open access to research results. The growing trend in the humanities towards publishing research results in the form of journal articles and special issues is also contributing to a more vital open access culture in English and American Studies. Open Access Journals As of May 2025, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) listed 92 entries under the keywords “ Language and Literature: English language ”, 61 entries under “ Language and Literature: English literature ”, 20 entries under “ Language and Literature: American literature ”, 4 entries under “ History of Great Britain ”, 9 entries under “ History America: America ”, 2 entries under “ History America: United States ” and 3 entries under “ History America: United States local history ”. The subject classification in the DOAJ is not always precise. Some of the journals of relevance to English and American Studies are to be found under more general categories, such as Language and Literature . In the case of specific research interests, it is therefore worthwhile to use free search terms. There are also several high-quality journals that are not yet listed in the DOAJ. The numbers mentioned above are thus only reference values. Important open access journals include: Anglistik Journal for the Study of British Cultures Amerikastudien / American Studies New American Studies Journal: A Forum European Journal for American Studies Zeitschrift für Australienstudien/Australian Studies Journal Canada and Beyond European Journal of American Studies Review of Irish Studies in Europe Journal of Transnational American Studies On Culture Postcolonial Text Transformative Works and Cultures Many journals that for a long time were available only in printed form have retained the classic subscription model without an open access component for their (mainly additional) digital editions. A welcome tendency when transitioning from a print to a digital version can be observed in the case of the journals of the main professional associations (e.g., the German Association for the Study of English , the German Association for American Studies , and the German Association for Australian Studies ), almost all of which are now (additionally) available in open access. Some of these journals are still published by scholarly publishers, whereas others are published via the associations’ websites. By contrast, the journal of the European Association of American Studies , for example, has been published in open access since its foundation. On the other hand, some e-journals were successfully implemented at an early stage as scholar-led publications without the support of publishers. Besides free worldwide access, in particular the potential of web-based publishing (hyperlinks, integration of images and audio-visual sources) was recognised. These journals include, for example: in Germany, Erfurt Electronic Studies in English (1995–2011) and the American Studies Journal (since 1996); in the United Kingdom, Early Modern Literary Studies (since 1995); and in Canada, Romanticism on the Net (RoN) (since 1996). Open access is now also an established model among journals edited by early career researchers. The articles of the journals Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies (COPAS) (since 2000) and aspeers: emerging voices in american studies (dual-publishing model since 2008) have been published under a Creative Commons (CC) licence from the very beginning. What are Open Access Journals? Find an introduction here. Practical Tip Publishing Open Access: How to evaluate a journal's quality Video on the Funding of Open Access Articles Source: Becklas Dorow, C., Hauss, J. (2026). Funding Open Access Articles – What Are the Options?. Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB), open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/73596 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) open-access.network (2026) ( CC BY 4.0 International ) What are Open Access Books? Find an introduction here. open-access.network (2026) ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access Books A search in the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) in May 2025 using the terms “ English literature ”, “ English language ”, and “ American literature ” yielded a total of 451 results. Numerous monographs were also found under the more general search terms “American Studies” (470 results) and “English Studies” (43 results). In addition, there are publications from the areas of postcolonial studies , literary studies , cultural studies , etc. Because the platform does not provide uniform content indexing, it is worthwhile using search terms to search for books on the research topic in question. In addition, the platform OAPEN provides direct access to many hundreds of titles under the aforementioned search terms. The increasing availability of such a wide range of open access books and documents has been a positive development in recent years. Important commercial publishers in the German-language context that provide noteworthy open access offerings for the scholarly communities in the field of English and American Studies include transcript , DeGruyter/Brill, and Peter Lang . Furthermore, several German university presses offer opportunities to publish monographs in open access. Examples include the series Göttinger Schriften zur Englischen Philologie , which is published by Göttingen University Press , and Berlin University Publishing. Most of these monographs and edited collections are now indexed by central platforms such as OAPEN and thus find their way into library indexing systems. It is likely that the number of open access books – and the number of scholars calling for open access – will continue to increase in the coming years. Not only have research funders such as the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) made the publication of research results in open access a prerequisite for funding, but also German initiatives, such as Enable! , or international initiatives, such as Knowledge Unlatched , have established themselves as additional catalysts. Internationally, many publishers, for example MIT Press, have changed or expanded their business models in favour of open access and now offer a large number of their titles under an open licence. Disciplinary Repositories The most important repositories for English and American Studies include: The Stacks , an interdisciplinary repository for the following disciplines: American Studies, English Studies, Anglophone postcolonial studies, Australian and New Zealand Studies, British and Irish Studies, and Canadian Studies, including all sub-fields. The repository is provided by the Specialised Information Service (SIS) Anglo-American Culture and is operated by Göttingen State and University Library. Besides self-archiving their publications (journal articles and monographs), scholars can also deposit previously unpublished works, for example conference papers, teaching materials, and conference programmes. All documents are made available in open access either immediately or after a freely selectable embargo period. The repository was awarded the current version of the DINI Certificate in 2021. Humanities Commons (CORE) , an interdisciplinary open access repository for the humanities, which is operated inter alia by the Modern Language Association (MLA). Its holdings also include grey literature (teaching materials, conference papers). GenderOpen , a disciplinary repository for gender studies operated by the Margherita von Brentano Center for Gender Studies at Freie Universität Berlin, the Center for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Women and Gender at Technische Universität Berlin. media/rep/ , a disciplinary repository for media studies and neighbouring disciplines, which is operated by the Institute for Media Studies in cooperation with Marburg University Library. CompaRe , a repository for comparative literature, which is maintained by the Specialised Information Service Comparative Literature. An overview of relevant repositories is provided by the Open Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) . The English Language and Literature Commons section of the database Digital Commons Network lists full-text articles from institutional repositories worldwide (with a focus on US institutions). What are Repositories? Find an introduction here. Legal Aspects Find an introduction here. Video über das Zeitveröffentlichungsrecht Quelle: Brehm, E. (2021). Zweitveröffentlichungsrecht für Wissenschaftler*innen, open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/51789 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) Practical Tip Finding Open Access Literature (in German) Open Access Helpdesk You are welcome to contact our Helpdesk if you have any questions about Open Access. oa.finder The oa.finder shows you from tens of thousands of journals which are Gold Open Access, whether they charge APCs and how high these are. You can also view the funding modalities of your own institution. Other Offerings The online archives JSTOR and Project MUSE now also make available open access content of relevance to English and American studies. Open Science in English and American Studies Major open science initiatives, for example the German association Geistes- und kulturwissenschaftliche Forschungsinfrastrukturen e.V , are not usually discipline-specific, but rather are addressed to the humanities as a whole. Here, the term open science refers primarily to providing access to digital materials (historical sources, literary texts, language corpora) and preparing (mostly text-based) research data using digital tools and making them available in the long term (e.g., in the DARIAH-DE Repository ). Especially in research areas in which the object of research includes not only texts but also audiovisual sources, pioneer projects were conducted at an early stage on the Internet to benefit from the opportunities afforded by hypermedia and to enable free access and – especially also interdisciplinary – reusability . For example, the Rossetti Archive and the Victorian Web date back to the 1990s. Recent major edition projects include, for example, the Walt Whitman Archive and the James Joyce Digital Archive . In Germany, scholars in the field of digital humanities, and projects at scholarly libraries in particular, are forging new paths. So far, the anchoring of open science in the main professional associations has only partially been implemented, for example by the Digital American Studies Initiative (DASI) , a working group within the German Association for American Studies that organises, among other things, thematic discussion forums at the annual conferences. Potential for a central strategy for dealing with language- and text-based research data currently also lies in the humanities consortia (e.g., Text+ ) within the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) . open-access.network ( CC BY 4.0 International ) References Further Reading Blumesberger, S. (2023). FAIRe Forschungsdaten in den Geisteswissenschaften: Umfrage über Aufbereitung und Archivierung von Daten. o-bib – das offene Bibliotheksjournal. 10 (4). https://doi.org/10.5282/o-bib/5883 Dreher, L., Lang, I., & Oberländer, A. (2020). Bereitschaft zu Open Access in den Geisteswissenschaften. o-bib – das offene Bibliotheksjournal, 7 (2), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.5282/o-bib/5512 Elstermann, A. (2017). The power of digital publishing: Rethinking knowledge distribution in English philology. In A.-J. Zwierlein, J. Petzold, K. Boehm, & M. Decker (Eds.), Anglistentag 2017 Regensburg. Proceedings: Vol. XXXIX (pp. 39–50). Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier. https://www.wvttrier.de/top/Proceedings_2017_WVT.pdf Eve, M. P. (2014). Open Access and the humanities. Contexts, controversies and the future . Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316161012 Fitzpatrick, K. (2011). Planned obsolescence: Publishing, technology, and the tuture of the academy. New York University Press. http://mcpress.media-commons.org/plannedobsolescence/ (Link leads to manuscript version with open peer review .) Projekt AuROA (2022). Publizieren und Open Access in den Geisteswissenschaften. Erkenntnisse aus dem Projekt AuROA zu den Stakeholdern im Publikationsprozess . Link: https://projekt-auroa.de/stakeholder/#perspektiven . Severin, A., Egger, M., Eve, M. P., & Hürlimann, D. (2020). Discipline-specific open access publishing practices and barriers to change: an evidence-based review. F1000Research, 7 , 1925. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.17328.2 Content editor of this page: Wiebke Kartheus, Greifswald University Library (last updated: May 2025)....

What is Open Access? Find an introduction here. Source: based on Brinken, H. (2021). 10 Gründe für Open Access. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4643859 ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access: Pros and Cons Find an introduction here. Open Access Publishing and Self-Archiving Find an introduction here. Open Access at the Professional Associations Since around 2019, visible developments in open access have also gained momentum at the professional associations of the ethnological disciplines. However, despite increasing engagement with open access, none of these associations have signed the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities . The International Society for Ethnology and Folklore converted its journal Ethnologia Europaea to open access in 2019. In 2020, the Swiss Anthropological Association converted its journal Tsantsa (since renamed Swiss Journal of Sociocultural Anthropology ) from delayed free access to immediate open access on publication. And in 2021, the Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Volkskunde (since renamed Empirische Kulturwissenschaft Schweiz ) did the same with its journal Schweizerisches Archiv für Volkskunde ( access via the publisher) . As early as 2016, the journal Österreichische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde , which is published on behalf of the Association for Austrian Folk Life ( Verein für Volkskunde ), made new issues freely accessible after a 6-month embargo period, and in 2024 it converted completely to open access. Although some of the publications of the Österreichische Gesellschaft für Empirische Kulturwissenschaft und Volkskunde are freely accessible, this professional association does not publish a journal. The European Association of Social Anthropologists converted its journal, Social Anthropology , to open access in 2022. In the same year, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Empirische Kulturwissenschaft also converted its journal, Zeitschrift für Empirische Kulturwissenschaft , to open access. And in 2024, the German Association for Social and Cultural Anthropology ( Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie ) converted its journal, Zeitschrift für Ethnologie | Journal of Social and Cultural Anthropology , to open access. The Anthropological Society in Vienna does not publish its journal in digital format or in open access. Regarding professional associations in the anglophone world, the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland and the American Anthropological Association have not converted their primary journals, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute and American Anthropologist , to open access. The Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK does not publish a primary journal, but its book series ASA Monographs, which is based on its annual conferences, is not freely accessible. Besides their primary journals, many professional associations also publish other publications, such as announcements, book series, conference proceedings, lectures, discussion papers, and thematically tailored journals. Here too, there has been an increase in open access, and to a certain extent such publications are also used to try out open access and new forms of publishing. Open Access in the Ethnological Disciplines The ethnological disciplines are understood here to comprise, in particular, ethnology, social and cultural anthropology, European ethnology, empirical/ comparative cultural studies, and folklore studies. The information provided relates mainly to the German-speaking area and anglophone countries. Although the spread of open access in the ethnological disciplines has increased in recent years, it cannot yet be considered standard in scholarly publishing, as a substantial proportion of publications are still not published open access. However, the increasing transformation of entire journals to open access, the growing share of open access books , and continuing engagement with open access reflect a positive trend and underscore the fact that acceptance of open access exists in principle in the ethnological disciplines. The share of freely accessible journal articles in the ethnological disciplines has grown significantly in recent years. This is due on the one hand to structural developments, for example the fact that scientific institutions and research funders increasingly require and promote open access, and to transformative open access agreements . On the other hand, the publishing culture in these disciplines is slowly undergoing fundamental change. However, the depositing of preprints and post-print s in open access repositories is still uncommon in the ethnological disciplines. Yet that is precisely where great potential for more open access lies – a potential that can be realised by the individual researchers themselves. Book publications are of great importance in the ethnological disciplines because, in addition to anthologies, the publication of long years of research in the form of a monographic ethnography is considered the publishing gold standard and particularly prestigious. However, comparatively few books from the ethnological disciplines are published open access, although their number has been increasing steadily in recent years. This trend has been facilitated by increasing institutional and other funding opportunities for open access books and by the growth in the number of non-profit and science-led publishers. However, the sometimes high open access book processing charges ( BPCs ) continue to be a significant obstacle. Open access has been discussed and implemented in the ethnological disciplines since the mid-2000s – at first especially in North America. Some developments led to more attention for the topic. These included inter alia the establishment of several open access journals in 2011 and the first transformations of prestigious journals to open access, for example Cultural Anthropology in 2014. A further contributing development was the founding in 2015 of the network Libraria by scholars from the ethnological disciplines with the aim of changing the publishing system in the social sciences. The failure of the open access model at the journal HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory , which was established in 2011, and the public disclosure of internal controversies placed open access in the limelight in 2018 – for negative reasons . In the German-speaking area, comparatively little attention had been paid to open access in the ethnological disciplines up to then. From around 2016 onwards, the debate focussed mainly on the publication of research data . From 2019 onwards, numerous ethnological journals converted to open access, including key journals of professional associations as well as field-specific and transdisciplinary journals (see below). In addition, the conversion of journal bundles to open access through consortial funding models (see below) led to a sharp rise in the share of open access journals in the ethnological disciplines. With the increased focus on the topic both in the German-speaking area and in anglophone countries, and the growth in the number of journals converting to open access, open access had become a relevant topic across the breadth of the ethnological disciplines by 2019. Open Access Journals As of December 2025, the Directory of Open Access Journals ( DOAJ ) listed over 150 journals under “ Ethnology. Social and Cultural Anthropology ”. Scholars in the ethnological disciplines publish in subject-specific journals, field-specific journals (e.g. science studies, migration research, gender studies, museum research, urban research), and region-specific journals. The main focus in what follows is on subject-specific journals. Well-known German-language open access journals include: Baessler-Archiv Berliner Blätter * Bricolage * Ethnoscripts * Hamburger Journal für Kulturanthropologie * Kulturanthropologie Notizen * Österreichische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde Paideuma Schweizerisches Archiv für Volkskunde ( Access via the publisher ) Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie Zeitschrift für Empirische Kulturwissenschaft Zeitschrift für Ethnologie (Journal of Social and Cultural Anthropology) (* Journals marked with an asterisk publish mainly or exclusively thematic special issues.) Well-known English-language open access journals include: Anthropological Journal of European Cultures doaj Cultural Anthropology doaj Ethnologia Europaea doaj Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics Social Analysis doaj Social Anthropology doaj Teaching Anthropology The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology doaj Because of the breadth of publications in the ethnological disciplines and the fact that these disciplines are assigned to the social sciences, the humanities, and the cultural sciences, relevant field-specific and transdisciplinary open access journals can also be added to the list. They include, for example: Curare – Zeitschrift für Medizinethnologie * Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung doaj Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology doaj Journal of Legal Anthropology doaj kommunikation@gesellschaft Movements – Journal für kritische Migrations- und Grenzregimeforschung * Mobile Culture Studies * doaj Open Gender Journal doaj sub\urban – Zeitschrift für kritische Stadtforschung * Urbanities – Journal of Urban Ethnography (* Journals marked with an asterisk publish mainly or exclusively thematic special issues.) Also worthy of mention is the Journal of Political Ecology , which is in part anthro­pologically oriented. It has been published open access since 1994 and is thus one of the first and oldest open access journals in the social sciences. From time to time, several journals are bundled and converted to open access. This is usually done using consortial funding models, where the required funding is jointly provided by many institutions. In 2020, numerous journals published with Berghahn Books were converted to open access by means of the subscribe-to-open variant. The package now comprises 16 journals (besides those already mentioned, they include Anthropology of the Middle East , Focaal , Museum Worlds , and Religion and Society ). In 2024, with the support of the Specialised Information Service for Social and Cultural Anthropology (FID SKA) and the Saxon State and University Library Dresden (SLUB), consortial funding for an initial period of 3 years enabled the open access of a bundle of six German-language, scholar-led journals . Conversions of journals from open access to closed access or the restriction of the open access publishing model are rare, but for various reasons they sometimes happen – usually due to funding problems – also in the case of journals from the ethnological disciplines. Six years after its launch as a purely open access journal, HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory , which has already been mentioned above, switched to a publishing model that combines closed access (with a subscription option) and partial open access (temporary for new issues and permanent for selected articles and target groups; see da Col, 2017 ). The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture and the journal Human Affairs , both of which were open access for a time, were reconverted to closed access (subscription with hybrid publishing model). Furthermore, the discontinuation of journals is common and also affects open access journals, for example Open Anthropology , an open access pilot experiment conducted by the American Anthropological Association from 2013 to 2022, and the Museum Anthropology Review , which was launched in 2007 and discontinued in 2023 ( Jackson, 2023 ). It should also be mentioned that back issues of numerous journals are freely accessible. Via a digitisation project by the Specialised Information Service for Social and Cultural Anthropology (FID SKA) , the back issues of many German-language ethnological journals are freely accessible. The respective time lag relative to the latest issue differs from journal to journal. The journals in question include Anthropos , Baessler-Archiv , Sociologus , Zeitschrift für Volkskunde (predecessor of Zeitschrift für Empirische Kulturwissenschaft ) and Zeitschrift für Ethnologie . The archives of the journals Tsantsa (predecessor of Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie ), Schweizerisches Archiv für Volkskunde , and Österreichische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde are completely freely accessible. So too is the archive of Ethnologia Europaea . Until 2022, all issues of American Anthropologist , the primary journal of the American Anthropological Association, that were over 35 years old were freely accessible. That is no longer the case. Open access is remarkably widespread among journals in the ethnological disciplines in the Ibero-American region, where open access is generally better established. Spanish-language journals from the ethnological disciplines are almost without exception open access. Well-known publications include AIBR – Revista de Antropología Iberoamericana , Chungara , Etnográfica , Horizontes Antropológicos , Intersecciones en Antropología , and Mana – Estudos de Antropologia Social . Was sind Open-Access-Zeitschriften? Hier finden Sie eine Einführung. Praxistipp Qualität von Zeitschriften – Wo publizieren und wo lieber nicht? Video zur Finanzierung von Open-Access-Artikeln Quelle: Becklas Dorow, C., Hauss, J. (2026). Open-Access-Artikel finanzieren – welche Wege gibt es?. Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB), open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/73319 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) open-access.network (2026) ( CC BY 4.0 International ) What are Open Access Books? Find an introduction here. open-access.network (2026) ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access Books As of December 2025, the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) and the OAPEN Library listed several hundred titles from the ethnological disciplines (from fields with the words “anthropology” or “ethnography” in their names). HAU Books and Open Anthropology Cooperative Press are two publishers that publish books in the ethnological disciplines exclusively or mainly open access. Other publishers that often publish English- or German-language open access books from the ethnological disciplines include ANU Press , Duke University Press , Mattering Press , Open Humanities Press , Transcript , UCL Press , and University of California Press . Disciplinary Repositories Important repositories in the ethnological disciplines include: Open Anthropology Research Repository Social Science Open Access Repository SocArXiv Social Sciences Research Network With the EthnOA repositories for texts and audiovisual media , the Specialised Information Service for Social and Cultural Anthropology (FID SKA) provides a cross-institutional offering for open access publishing and self-archiving. The offering also targets researchers who are not affiliated with an institution or who do not have access to an institutional repository. Because of the previously mentioned multi-disciplinarity of the field, repositories for specific lines of research are also an option. They include, for example, CrossAsia-Repository for Asia studies, GenderOpen for gender studies , MENAdoc for Middle East and Islamic studies, and OstDok for research on Eastern, Central Eastern, and South-Eastern Europe. The Open Directory of Open Access Repositories ( OpenDOAR ) also provides an overview of other possible relevant repositories. What are Repositories? Find an introduction here. Legal Aspects Find an introduction here. Video about Self-Archiving Rights Source: Brehm, E. (2021). Zweitveröffentlichungsrecht für Wissenschaftler*innen, open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/51789 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) Practical Tip Finding Open Access Literature (in German) Open Access Helpdesk You are welcome to contact our Helpdesk if you have any questions about Open Access. oa.finder The oa.finder shows you from tens of thousands of journals which are Gold Open Access, whether they charge APCs and how high these are. You can also view the funding modalities of your own institution. Other Useful Offerings EVIFA , which is managed by the Specialised Information Service for Social and Cultural Anthropology (FID SKA), is a central portal for the ethnological disciplines in the German-speaking area where users can, for example, search for and access freely accessible literature. Its holdings include digitised editions of German-language journals and monographs from over 200 years of research. In addition, the FID provides free online access to selected licensed resources . The Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology (formerly the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology) is an open access resource in which peer-reviewed introductory articles on subject-specific topics and concepts are published. Until 2024, the Open Folklore portal listed open access resources in the field of folklore studies. As of late 2024, it was undergoing reorganization. The Anthropology Book Forum , a project of the American Anthropological Association , publishes freely accessible English-language book reviews. Freely accessible research reports, reviews, and news are published via the history portal H-Soz-Kult , also in the category “ Ethnology and Historical Anthropology ”. Numerous other freely accessible disciplinary databases and offerings can be found in the “ Anthropology ” category in the database information system DBIS. Open Science in the Ethnological Disciplines The aspiration of open science to extend the principle of openness to the entire research cycle, from the first idea to the final publication, and thus to make all forms of scholarly knowledge open access, transparent, and reusable, has far-reaching consequences and brings significant challenges for ethnological disciplines and ethnographic research. It is therefore the subject of controversial debate . This becomes particularly clear in the case of open research data . In light of increasing requirements imposed by research funders, research data management and the archiving and reuse of ethnographic materials in particular have been addressed more intensively in the ethnological disciplines since around 2016. What is problematic for the ethnological disciplines – and for other social sciences – is that the specific characteristics of qualitative data, and especially data from ethnographic research, are not adequately taken into account. Rather, funders’ requirements are based on an understanding of data in the sense of raw data and primary data, as found in particular in the natural science disciplines and quantitatively oriented research areas. In the ethnological disciplines, the term “data” is used in a specific sense : Data are understood as being generated in the social process of field research and as embedded in field relationships. It is therefore not possible – or possible only to a limited extent – to make ethnographic research data, which usually contain sensitive information about persons or groups, openly accessible . Rather, openness must be considered and weighed up in relation to the respective concrete research fields as well as from a research ethics and legal perspective. Relevant aspects and important issues include (a) whether adequate consent has been obtained from individuals in the field, or whether it is even possible to obtain such consent in the first place; (b) whether research data belong to the researchers alone (e.g. in the case of interviews or recordings of conversational situations); and (c) what consequences may arise from this, or how protective measures such as pseudonymisation or anonymisation affect the reusability of ethnographic material. Obligations to provide open access to research data are broadly rejected, especially on legal and ethical grounds, coupled with fears that research, especially in confidential and sensitive contexts, could be made more difficult or even impossible. (On these and other aspects, and on research data management in general, see Imeri 2018, 2019 ). Several professional associations have published position papers on these issues and on the discipline-specific requirements in dealing with research data and have made their debates transparent in scholarly publications. The Specialised Information Service for Social and Cultural Anthropology (FID SKA) portal EVIFA provides comprehensive information on research data in the ethnological disciplines . Furthermore, within the framework of the FID SKA, workflows and procedures that enable the archiving and reuse of almost the entire range of ethnographic data have been developed at the data service centre Qualiservice at the University of Bremen ( Rizzolli et al., 2024 ). Qualiservice offers advice for individual researchers as well as for projects, project consortia, and institutions. DATA AFFAIRS , a platform developed at Collaborative Research Centre 1171 “Affective Societies” at Freie Universität Berlin, invites researchers, teachers, and students to engage in interactive learning on the topic of data management in ethnographic research. Besides texts on individual aspects of data management, it also contains illustrative examples, experience reports, exercises, a glossary, and more. Open methodology – that is, the disclosure of methods developed or used in the research process – is not in fact new to the ethnological disciplines. As a rule, methods are disclosed and discussed in publications, especially in monographic ethnographies. When doing so, the consequences of the chosen approach for the research process are reflected upon. In this regard, the connection with and the relevance of open access should be stressed. The situation is different in cases where the disclosure of methods is expected to take place before or during the actual research process, and where open methodology in the broader sense is thus also understood as the transparent and open documentation of the steps in the research process. Because of the close links with the research field and the research data, the challenges – and therefore also the complex issues that arise here – are similar to those in the case of open data. Open source – that is, making source code available in open access – has played hardly any role in the ethnological disciplines to date, as programs and software are seldom developed in these fields of research. However, there are no fundamental arguments against open source. In the case of software used in research in the ethnological disciplines, especially for qualitative data analysis, there is indeed potential for increasing support for the development and use of open source software. This is relevant not least because the functioning of the mostly proprietary software used in these disciplines is a black box, and disclosure of this part of the method is thus not completely possible. In the case of open evaluation, there is no notable difference between the ethnological disciplines and other fields. Thus, open peer review would be just as possible in the ethnological disciplines as in other disciplines. To date, however, no journals or other publishing models in the ethnological disciplines use open peer review. SOCIOS , which was established in 2024, is an open peer review platform for preprints in the social sciences, and thus also for the ethnological disciplines . The provision of open and free-of-charge access to teaching materials (open educational resources, OER) is closely linked to the publication of books and journals open access. For example, the introductory textbook Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology (2017; 2nd, revised ed. 2020) was published open access. open-access.network ( CC BY 4.0 International ) References da Col, G. (2017). Free gifts that must be invented. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory , 7 (2), i–vii. https://doi.org/10.14318/hau7.3.001 Imeri, S. (2018). Order, archive, share. Research data in the ethnological disciplines. Journal for European Ethnology and Cultural Analysis , 3 (2), 215–240. https://doi.org/10.18452/20810 Imeri, S. (2019). ‚Open Data‘ in den ethnologischen Fächern. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen eines Konzepts. In J. Klinger & M. Lühr (Eds.), Forschungsdesign 4.0 - 1 (Vol. 1, pp. 45–59). Institut für Sächsische Geschichte und Volkskunde. https://doi.org/10.25366/2019.07 Jackson, J. B. (2023). On Museum Anthropology Review (2007–2023). Museum Anthropology Review , 17 (1–2), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.14434/mar.v17i1-2.35839 Rizzolli, M., Imeri, S., & Huber, E. (2024): Ethnografische Forschungsmaterialien zur Archivierung und Nachnutzung vorbereiten und dokumentieren – ein Überblick für Forschende (Qualiservice Working Papers 6-2024). https://doi.org/10.26092/elib/2723 Further Reading Jackson, J. B., & Anderson, R. (2014). Anthropology and open access. Cultural Anthropology , 29 (2), 236–263. https://doi.org/10.14506/ca29.2.04 Kelty, C. M., Fischer, M. M. J., Golub, A., Jackson, J. B., Christen, K., Brown, M. F., & Boellstorff, T. (2008). Anthropology of/in circulation. The future of open access and scholarly societies. Cultural Anthropology , 23 (3), 559–588. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1360.2008.00018.x Miller, D. (2012). Open access, scholarship, and digital anthropology. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory , 2 (1), 385–411. https://doi.org/10.14318/hau2.1.016 Zeitlyn, D., Corsín Jimenez, A., Willinsky, J., Waterston, A., Tritton, R., Kelty, C. M., Ardevol, E., Jemielnak, D., Sanchez-Criado, T., Abadal, E., Gatti, R., García, B., Rasero, V., Nugent, S., Gideon, J., Aibar, E., Malo de Molina, T., & Rodríguez Lópes, J. (2014). Preguntas frecuentes sobre acceso abierto - La economía política en torno a las publicaciones en antropología y otras ciencias sociales . FAQs about open access – The political economy of publishing in anthropology and beyond (A. Montoya, M. Pérez, G. Dallemagne, & V. del Arco, Eds.). https://openaccessmadrid2014.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/faqs-about-open-access_preguntas-frecuentes-sobre-acceso-abierto.pdf Zeitschrift für Empirische Kulturwissenschaft , 118 (1/2), 2022 (with a forum on open access) Content editors of this page: Kathleen Heft , Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, University Library / Specialised Information Service for Social and Cultural Anthropology, and Marc Lange , Helmholtz Open Science Office (last updated: December 2025). The authors thank Sabine Imeri for comments on the section on open research data....

What is Open Access? Find an introduction here. Source: based on Brinken, H. (2021). 10 Gründe für Open Access. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4643859 ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access: Pros and Cons Find arguments and reservations here. Open Access Publishing and Self-Archiving Find out about how to publish and self-archive Open Access. Video on the Funding of Open Access Articles Source: Becklas Dorow, C., Hauss, J. (2026). Funding Open Access Articles – What Are the Options?. Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB), open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/73596 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) Open Access in Gender Studies Gender studies is a field of knowledge that is strongly characterised by inter- or transdisciplinary work methods and in which a variety of disciplinary approaches can be found. In many cases, the publishing practices and venues of gender researchers depend on the specialist disciplines involved and are correspondingly heterogeneous. However, there are also several publications with a decidedly inter- or transdisciplinary focus. For the most part, gender researchers publish their works in journals, edited volumes, and monographs. In addition, handbooks, science blogs, and various other transfer formats are widespread. Preprints , by contrast, play hardly any role at all. Opportunities for Gender Studies Open access publishing offers enormous opportunities, especially for gender studies. Because of political reservations with regard to gender studies, and the ambiguous location of the field between the disciplines, its results are subjected to reception barriers. The potentially greater visibility and the direct access to full texts enables open access publications to overcome these barriers and thus demonstrate their quality. The opportunities offered by electronic publishing, and especially by open access , are now widely acknowledged in gender studies. There are now several open access publications In German-language gender studies, in particular journals and science blogs. There has also been a gradual increase in the number of publications in the area of open access books . Internationally, two developments can be distinguished: On the one hand, relevant, mainly English-language publications on gender studies are being published with large commercial publishers, which, to date, unfortunately offer only hybrid open access options against payment of publication charges . On the other hand, there are a growing number of open access publications in the non-English-speaking world that use no-fee and scholar-led open access models, thereby making an important contribution to bibliodiversity . Activities of the German Gender Studies Association The German Gender Studies Association (Fachgesellschaft Geschlechterstu­dien) actively supports open access publishing. As one of the four editors of the Open Gender Journal , and as the provider of the Open Gender Platform , the association has anchored open access as an important field of activity in its task spectrum. In addition, within the association, the working group Open Digital Gender connects existing initiatives and engages with current developments in the areas of open access and open science. Open Access Journals As of August 2024, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) listed 159 entries under the keyword gender . Only 34 of the journals listed in the DOAJ levy article processing charges ( APCs ). In Germany, the following open access journals and working paper series are published in the area of gender studies: Open Gender Journal DOAJ querelles-net (since 2020 a section of the Open Gender Journal) GENDER FORUM – An Internet Journal for Gender Studies DOAJ IZGOnZeit gender[ed]thoughts FKW // Zeitschrift für Geschlechterforschung und visuelle Kultur Since 2020, the review journal querelles-net , one of the pioneers of the open access movement in German-speaking gender studies, has been integrated as a section in the Open Gender Journal . The aforementioned journals are not only accessible free of charge, they also fulfil the requirements for open access publications by using open licences . What are Open Access Journals? Find an introduction here. Practical Tip Publishing Open Access: How to evaluate a journal's quality open-access.network (2026) ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access Handbooks The handbook “Politik und Geschlecht” [Politics and Gender] (edited by Christine M. Klapeer, Johanna Leinius, Franziska Martinsen, Heike Mauer, and Inga Nüthen), the first edition of which was published in 2017, is an open access introductory work to gender studies that is continuously supplemented and updated. This “living encyclopaedia” was created within the framework of the BMBF-funded project OAPEnz as a collaboration between ZB MED – Information Centre for Life Sciences and the publisher Barbara Budrich . Open Access Science Blogs In addition to classical scholarly journals, there are also several open access gender studies science blogs. The posts in the blog interdisziplinäre geschlechterforschung , an interdisciplinary gender studies blog published by the Koordinations- und Forschungsstelle Netzwerk Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung NRW ( Coordination and Research Office of the Women’s and Gender Research Network of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia ), are preserved long-term in the repository of the Library of the University of Duisburg-Essen . The Genderblog of the Center for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin focuses on the publication of findings, projects, and debates from gender studies research and teaching at the university. Open Educational Resources In the area of Open Educational Resources (OER), the OER “ Was ist Gender? ” [What is gender?] provides an introduction to the topic. The portal Gendering MINT digital makes reusable teaching modules from the area of research and teaching “Gender & STEM” available as OER. The Toolbox Gender und Diversity in der Lehre offers materials for designing discrimination-critical university teaching. All offerings are available under an open licence. What are Repositories? Find an introduction here. Legal Aspects Find legal information on Open Access here. Video über das Zeitveröffentlichungsrecht Quelle: Brehm, E. (2021). Zweitveröffentlichungsrecht für Wissenschaftler*innen, open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/51789 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) Disciplinary Repositories With GenderOpen , which was established in 2018, gender studies has a disciplinary open access repository that ensures the long-term availability of publications under open access conditions. The repository also informs authors about their rights in the areas of self-archiving and the secondary publication right ( Zweitveröffentlichungsrecht ), thereby creating an awareness of the possibilities granted to them under German copyright law. In many cases, targeted collaborations with relevant scholarly publishers enable the self-archiving of the original publisher’s version and the corresponding metadata after expiry of an embargo period . Furthermore, there are collaborations between the GenderOpen repository and the publishers Barbara Budrich and De Gruyter , on the basis of which the original publisher’s version of electronic full texts of articles from certain journals and the corresponding metadata may be made freely available after the expiry of an embargo period. Authors have the possibility of deciding at the time of publication that their contributions are to be made available under a Creative Commons (CC) licence after this embargo period. GenderOpen then releases the contributions automatically. This applies to the following journals: FZG – Freiburger Zeitschrift für GeschlechterStudien (embargo: 24 months) FEMINA POLITICA – Zeitschrift für feministische Politikwissenschaft (embargo: 36 months) Feministische Studien (embargo: 24 months) The GenderOpen keyword index, Schlagwortindex GenderOpen , is a controlled vocabulary for the substantive description of gender studies publications. Developed within the framework of GenderOpen, it is also used by several journals, the Digital German Women’s Archive ( Digitales Deutsches Frauenarchiv , DDF), and the Gutachter*innen-Datenbank , a reviewers database. In 2019, GenderOpen received the DINI Certificate for Open Access Publication Services. An overview of relevant repositories is also provided by the Open Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) . The online archives JSTOR and Project MUSE now also provide open access content relevant to gender studies. Other Offerings Open access in German-language gender studies has been decisively advanced by individual projects. A groundbreaking role in this regard was played by the project Geschlechterforschung und Open Access. Ein Publikationsmodell für ein inter-/transdisziplinäres Forschungsfeld (Gender Studies and Open Access. A Publication Model for an Inter-/Transdisciplinary Research Field), which was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and conducted at the Freie Universität Berlin (2011–2012). The project analysed the opportunities and challenges for open access publications in gender studies and showed that all the necessary technical and legal possibilities for implementing quality-assured open access publications exist. However, open access publications and electro­nic publication processes entail additional challenges, for example, clear divisi­ons of roles, clarification of rights, and adaptation to transdisciplinary and cross-national standards. Another open access offering is the Open Gender Platform , which was deve­loped and built at the Freie Universität Berlin‘s Margherita von Brentano Center within the framework of a project (June 2018–September 2020) funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The project developed sustainable approaches for editorial workflows, business models, and quality assurance procedures and made them available to the entire field of gender studies for reuse. Deliverables included a reviewers database ( Gutachter*­innen-Datenbank ) – that is, a directory of experts who have declared their willingness to act as reviewers for open access journals and books in Germany. Furthermore, there are collaborations between the GenderOpen repository and the publishers Barbara Budrich and De Gruyter , on the basis of which the origi­nal publisher’s version of electronic full texts of articles from certain journals and the corresponding metadata may be made freely available after the expiry of an embargo period. Authors have the possibility of deciding at the time of publication that their contributions are to be made available under a Creative Commons (CC) licence after this embargo period. GenderOpen then releases the contributions automatically. This applies to the following journals: GENDER – Journal for Gender, Culture and Society (24-month embargo) FZG – Freiburger Zeitschrift für GeschlchterStudien (24-month embargo) FEMINA POLITICA – Zeitschrift für feministische Politikwissenschaft (36-month embargo) Feministische Studien (24-month embargo) The online archives JSTOR and Project MUSE now also provide open access content relevant to gender studies. Practical Tip Open-Access-Literatur finden Open Access Helpdesk You are welcome to contact our Helpdesk of you have any questions about Open Access. oa.finder The oa.finder shows you from tens of thousands of journals which are Gold Open Access, whether they charge APCs and how high these are. You can also view the funding modalities of your own institution. open-access.network ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Science in Gender Studies The topic of open research data is being taken up only hesitantly in gender stu­dies. According to a needs analysis on research data infrastructure in gender studies , only a few researchers have experience of the reuse of research data. The difficulties in disciplinarily classifying gender studies repeat themselves also in relation to open research data. To date, there are no explicitly designated re­search repositories for gender studies. Even when metadata have been properly recorded, a search always requires the use of various search strategies with different storage locations, keywords, and disciplines. However, whether an independent storage location for open research data is called for in an inter- and transdisciplinary field such as gender studies, in which researchers work with diverse types of data, has not yet been conclusively settled. Content editor of this page: Kathrin Ganz , Special Information Service Gender Studies (FID Gender) (Last updated: August 2024)....

What is Open Access? Find an introduction here. Source: based on Brinken, H. (2021). 10 Gründe für Open Access. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4643859 ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access: Pros and Cons Find an introduction here. Open Access Publishing and Self-Archiving Find an introduction here. Video on the Funding of Open Access Articles Source: Becklas Dorow, C., Hauss, J. (2026). Funding Open Access Articles – What Are the Options?. Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB), open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/73596 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) Open Access in Comparative Literature Scholars in the field of comparative literature conduct research on literature from all language areas, epochs, and cultures in a transnational, intercultural and interdisciplinary way. They conduct basic research in the areas of literary theory, aesthetics and poetics, and literary semiotics. Besides comparing different literatures, they engage with the relationship between literature and other forms of media and knowledge. The field of comparative literature has long been characterised by a strong fixation on print media, and open access publishing is not yet established practice across locations. Although a few comparative literature scholars in other countries, for example Jean-Claude Guédon in Canada, actively support open access (see Eve, 2014, p. 24 ), there have been no official statements to date from representatives of this field in Germany. One reason for this may be the heterogeneous publication cultures in the humanities, with which comparative literature has traditional ties. Its main forms of publication are monographs and edited collections. Because the reputation of the publisher is an important criterion in the field of comparative literature, it has a direct influence on how much scholarly literature is published open access . By contrast, bibliometric indicators, such as the Journal Impact Factor , citation rates, etc., play hardly any role at all in this discipline. However, open access has increased in importance in the field of comparative literature in recent years. Prestigious publishers now enable and promote gold open access , and are also (more) open towards green open access . At the same time, there are an increasing number of institutional offerings to promote open access monographs and collections ( open access publication funds ; payment of publication costs from third-party funds; the German Research Foundation’s (DFG) Publication Grants Programme) . These developments have resulted in an increase in open access publications. In addition, more and more resear­chers are availing of the possibility of self-archiving their publications in institu­tional repositories such as CompaRe . A number of non-university research institutions, for example the Leibniz-Zentrum für Literatur und Kulturforschung (ZfL) or the ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry, have taken active steps. The ZfL is a signatory of the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities ; it makes numerous publications available in CompaRe ; and it is pursuing further open access projects . The ICI Berlin not only archives publications of the ICI Berlin Press in CompaRe , but also operates an in-house archive, the ICI Berlin Repository . The German Comparative Literature Association (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft, DGAVL) has decided to make its yearbooks available in open access after an embargo period . This trend is expected to continue. Open Access Journals As of March 2024, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) listed 271 entries under the keyword Literature (General) . Important open access journals in this field include: DIEGESIS DOAJ Komparatistik Online LiTheS DOAJ interlitteraria DOAJ Acta Iassyensia Comparationis DOAJ International diamond open access literature journals can also be found in the Open Library of Humanities . What are Open Access Journals? Find an introduction here. Practical Tip Publishing Open Access: How to evaluate a journal's quality open-access.network (2026) ( CC BY 4.0 International ) What are Open Access Books? Find an introduction here. open-access.network (2026) ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access Books As of March 2024, the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) listed 1738 titles under the keyword Literature & Literary Studies and 1538 titles under Literature: History & Criticism . OAPEN listed 875 titles under the subject Literature & Literary Studies and 1074 titles under Literature: History & Criticism (as of March 2024). International literature-related books published under a diamond open access model – that is, published open access without charging book processing charges (BPCs) – can also be found on the Open Book Publishers website. The publishing house transcript is of particular relevance for open access publishing in the field of comparative literature. Disciplinary Repositories The central repository for comparative literature is the Compa rative Literature Re pository – CompaRe . It is the main open access service offering of avldigital.de, the online portal of the Specialised Information Service for Compa­rative Literature (FID AVL). In the disciplinary repository CompaRe, which can also be used to publish works for the first time, scholars of comparative literature, research institutions and projects in this field, as well as scholarly publishers can make new publications or publications already published elsewhere freely available online. The following repositories of neighbouring philologies, disciplines, and institutions are also of importance for scholars of comparative literature: GiNDok (the disciplinary repository of the Specialised Information Service German Studies ) GenderOpen (a repository for gender research , whose literature content is especially relevant for comparative literature) The Stacks (a disciplinary repository for American studies, Anglophone literatures and cultures, Australian and New Zealand studies, British and Irish studies, Canadian studies, and English, including all sub-fields) ICI Berlin Repository (a multi-disciplinary repository of the ICI Berlin) An overview of relevant repositories is provided by the Open Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) . What are Repositories? Find an introduction here. Legal Aspects Find an introduction here. Open Access Helpdesk You are welcome to contact our Helpdesk if you have any questions about Open Access. oa.finder The oa.finder shows you from tens of thousands of journals which are Gold Open Access, whether they charge APCs and how high these are. You can also view the funding modalities of your own institution. Other Offerings Besides the disciplinary repository CompaRe, the Specialised Information Service for Comparative Literature (FID AVL) also provides an e-journal hosting service for open access journals and other periodical digital publications, such as working papers or series. Calls for papers for open access collections and other types of publications related to comparative literature can be publicised via the communication platform Vernetzen , which can be found on the subject portal avldigital.de. Die Open-Access-Publikation von Büchern (Monografien und Sammelbände) aus der AVL wird vom FID durch einen fachspezifischen Publikationsfonds gefördert, der aus Eigenmitteln der Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg finanziert wird. The online archives JSTOR and Project MUSE now also provide open access content of relevance to comparative literature. References Eve, M. P. (2014). Open Access and the Humanities. Contexts, Controversies and the Future . Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316161012 Further Reading Graf, D., Fadeeva, Y., & Falkenstein-Feldhoff, K. (Eds.). (2020). Bücher im Open Access: Ein Zukunftsmodell für die Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften? Verlag Barbara Budrich. https://doi.org/10.17185/DUEPUBLICO/72237 Messerschmidt, N. (2011). Open Access in den Literaturwissenschaften. Ergebnisse qualitativer Interviews mit Wissenschaftlern der Deutschen Literatur. https://doi.org/10.18452/14147 Projekt AuROA (2022). Publizieren und Open Access in den Geisteswissenschaften. Erkenntnisse aus dem Projekt AuROA zu den Stakeholdern im Publikationsprozess . Link: https://projekt-auroa.de/stakeholder/#perspektiven . Söllner, K. (2017). Geisteswissenschaften. In K. Söllner & B. Mittermaier (Eds.), Praxishandbuch Open Access (1st edition, pp. 247–253). De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110494068 Content editor of this page: Arne Mrotzek, Specialised Information Service for Comparative Literature (FID AVL) (Last updated: August 2024)....

What is Open Access? Find an introduction here. Source: based on Brinken, H. (2021). 10 Gründe für Open Access. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4643859 ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access: Pros and Cons Find an introduction here. Open Access Publishing and Self-Archiving Find an introduction here. Video on the Funding of Open Access Articles Source: Becklas Dorow, C., Hauss, J. (2026). Funding Open Access Articles – What Are the Options?. Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB), open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/73596 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) Open Access in the Geosciences The geosciences study the scientific aspects of the Earth system in an interdisciplinary way. The major geoscience disciplines – geology, palaeontology, geodesy, mineralogy, petrology, and geochemistry – have close links, for example, to soil science and atmospheric, marine, and climate research. The interdisciplinary spectrum of the geosciences is supplemented by other research fields, such as geomicrobiology and geoinformatics. The geosciences are among the disciplines in which open access is comparatively widespread ( Severin et al., 2020 ). In the geosciences, the typical publication cultures of the natural sciences predominate. As a rule, articles are published in international peer-reviewed journals. Currently, reputational ascriptions are still based primarily on the journal impact factor . Overall, books play a minor role in the geosciences, serving mainly as digests and collections of essays. There are however exceptions in some subdisciplines, for example in palaeontology, where books certainly play a greater role. Although regional non-English-language publication venues, which were very common in the past, are decreasing in number, they are still of importance for regional topics ( Bertelmann, 2017 ). More detailed studies on open access publishing behaviour in geoscience sub-disciplines are available for geochemistry ( Pourret et al., 2020a ; Pourret et al., 2020b ). Many professional geoscience societies in Germany publish or co-publish journals. Most of these journals are published in cooperation with a publisher and are financed via the subscription model . The leading international professional societies with the largest memberships are the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and the European Geosciences Union (EGU). Besides subscription-based journals, the AGU also publishes a number of open access journals . By contrast, all of the EGU’s journals are open access. The Specialised Information Service for Geosciences (FID GEO) supports the German geoscience societies in implementing open access. Open Access Journals As of March 2026, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) listed 265 entries under the subjects Geology, Geodesy, Geophysics. Cosmic physics, and Geomagnetism . Of these journals, 136 do not levy publication charges . Important open access journals and publishers in the geosciences include, for example: European Journal of Mineralogy DOAJ Limnology and Oceanography Letters DOAJ Living Reviews in Solar Physics DOAJ 12 AGU journals (all in cooperation with Wiley) 19 EGU journals, (all in cooperation with Copernicus Publications), e.g. Solid Earth DOAJ and Climate of the Past DOAJ A further 28 Copernicus Publications journals, incl. Earth System Science Data (ESSD) DOAJ ), a journal for the publication of articles on research data(sets) 6 Springer Nature journals Over 80 MDPI journals (in the area of Environmental & Earth Sciences ). 60 Elsevier journals Examples of open access journals that do not levy publication charges ( diamond open access ) include: Advances in Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry Geochemical Perspectives Letters DOAJ Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland Bulletin DOAJ Mineralogia DOAJ Scientific Drilling DOAJ Sedimentologika DOAJ Seismica DOAJ The Sedimentary Record DOAJ Volcanica DOAJ What are Open Access Journals? Find an introduction here. Practical Tip Publishing Open Access: How to evaluate a journal's quality open-access.network (2026) ( CC BY 4.0 International ) What are Open Access Books? Find an introduction here. open-access.network (2026) ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access Books As of March 2026, the DOAB listed 210 titles under “Earth Sciences, Geography, Environment, Planning”. The OAPEN Library can be browsed by subject . Suitable search terms for geoscience titles are geo or earth . Disciplinary Repositories The most important repositories in the geosciences include: Agris : an offering of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), mainly for agricultural sciences AquaDocs : the joint open access repository of the UNESCO/IOC International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) and the International Association of Aquatic and Marine Science Libraries and Information Centers (IAMSLIC) with support from the FAO Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts. AquaDocs was developed in 2021 by merging content from two former repositories, OceanDocs and Aquatic Commons. GEO-LEOe-docs : the disciplinary repository of the Specialised Information Service for Geosciences (FID GEO) NASA STI Repository : contains a collection of NASA’s aerospace-related research results. The following repositories of relevant research institutions are particularly suitable for direct searches: Earth-prints , Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia EPIC , Alfred Wegener Institute – Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research GFZpublic , GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences Oceanrep , GEOMAR – Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel Preprint servers: PaleorXiv , ESSOA r , and EarthArXiv are preprint servers for the geosciences. An overview of relevant repositories is also provided by the Open Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) . What are Repositories? Find an introduction here. Legal Aspects Find an introduction here. Video über das Zeitveröffentlichungsrecht Quelle: Brehm, E. (2021). Zweitveröffentlichungsrecht für Wissenschaftler*innen, open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/51789 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) Practical Tip Finding Open Access Literature (in German) Open Access Helpdesk You are welcome to contact our Helpdesk if you have any questions about Open Access. oa.finder The oa.finder shows you from tens of thousands of journals which are Gold Open Access, whether they charge APCs and how high these are. You can also view the funding modalities of your own institution. Other Offerings Using BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine) , over 3,000,000 documents can be found, for example, via the menu item Browsing and the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) main class Science and division Earth sciences & geology. For article-level searches, the library search engine ALBERT provides access to the relevant open access journals and a number of relevant repositories in the geosciences. It also provides access to published research data . GEO-LEO is a metasearch engine for searching for sources of information on the Earth system and space. FID GEO offers to digitise geoscience works free of charge. All works digitised by FID GEO are made freely available in GEO-LEOe-docs , the disciplinary repository of FID GEO. FID GEO documents map sheets of the geological map 1:25,000 (GK25) of Germany and adjacent territories that are already freely available online. The articles published in open access journals can also be searched via the popular disciplinary databases and in transdisciplinary offerings (e.g., GeoRef, Science Citation Index, Scopus). Open Science in the Geosciences The handling of research data has been a key issue in the geosciences ever since the International Geophysical Year (1957/58). It is no coincidence that the first journals devoted exclusively to articles on research data ( Earth System Science Data (ESSD) and Geoscience Data Journal ) were published in the field of geosciences. Regarding research data, the German geoscience community is organised within the consortium NFDI4Earth in order to: establish a set of common and internationally compatible principles, rules, and standards for research data management in Earth system science (ESS); create experimental prototype platforms; and provide tools and mechanisms for data integration and analysis. In this pursuit, NFDI4Earth follows the principles of FAIR and open data. Information on the subject of research data in the geosciences (e.g., on repositories, initiatives, and literature) is compiled in the German-language information portal forschungsdaten.info . At international level, the Coalition for Publishing Data in the Earth and Space Sciences (COPDESS) connects Earth and space science publishers, data centres, and other actors to translate the aspirations of open, available, and useful data into practice. Other contributions to open science include the International Generic Sample Number (IGSN) for referenceable samples (e.g., rock samples), and the open peer review processes conducted, for example, for over 10 years now at the journals of the publisher Copernicus Publications . Because the geosciences are software-intensive sciences, attention is being increasingly focused on the handling of software – that is, its publication and referenceability (see, e.g., Stall et al., 2020 ). open-access.network ( CC BY 4.0 International ) References Bertelmann, R. (2017). 5c. Geowissenschaften. In K. Söllner & B. Mittermaier (Eds.), Praxishandbuch Open Access (pp. 261–266). De Gruyter Saur. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110494068 Pourret, O., Hursthouse, A., Irawan, D. E., Johannesson, K., Liu, H., Poujol, M., Tartèse, R., Hullebusch, E. D. van, & Wiche, O. (2020). Open Access publishing practice in geochemistry: Overview of current state and look to the future. Heliyon , 6 (3), e03551. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03551 Pourret, O., Irawan, D. E., Tennant, J. P., Hursthouse, A., & Hullebusch, E. D. van (2020). The growth of open access publishing in geochemistry. Results in Geochemistry , 1 , 100001. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ringeo.2020.100001 Severin, A., Egger, M., Eve, M. P., & Hürlimann, D. (2020). Discipline-specific open access publishing practices and barriers to change: An evidence-based review. F1000Research , 7 , 1925. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.17328.2 Stall, S., Townsend, R., & Robinson, E. (2020, April). The paper and the data: Authors, reviewers, and editors webinar on updated journal practices for data (and software) . Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3744660 Content editor of this page: Specialised Information Service for Geosciences (FID GEO) (Last updated: March 2026)....

What is Open Access? Find an introduction here. Source: based on Brinken, H. (2021). 10 Gründe für Open Access. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4643859 ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access: Pros and Cons Find an introduction here. Open Access Publishing and Self-Archiving Find an introduction here. Video on the Funding of Open Access Articles Source: Becklas Dorow, C., Hauss, J. (2026). Funding Open Access Articles – What Are the Options?. Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB), open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/73596 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) Open Access in German Studies A trend towards greater openness and acceptance of open access can be observed in German studies. In this respect, the discipline resembles other philologies, for example comparative literature , where similar developments are taking place. Nonetheless, the fixation on print is still dominant in German studies, and the publisher–academic reputation nexus remains close. Besides concerns about scholarly quality, prejudices towards open access relate also to the long-term availability of research contributions published exclusively online. Bibliometric indicators such as the Journal Impact Factor , citation rates etc. generally play only a minor role in publishing practice in German studies. The business models of many publishing houses with a humanities focus are in a state of flux, not least because of the open access policies of the major national research funding organisations . Prestigious publishers now enable and promote gold open access and are also (more) open towards green open access . At the same time, there are an increasing number of institutional offerings to promote open access monographs and edited collections. They include, for example, open access publication funds , the payment of publication charges from third-party funds, and the German Research Foundation’s (DFG) Publication Grants Programme . These developments result in more works being published open access. In addition, more and more researchers are availing of the possibility of self-archiving their publications in the repositories of their university libraries or research institutions or in central disciplinary repositories such as GiNDok . This can be expected to continue slowly but surely. The German Association of Germanists (Deutscher Germanistenverband, DGV) has yet to adopt a clear position on open access. However, the association established two working groups (Digitales in Forschung und Lehre [Digitality in Research and Teaching] and Germanistik im digitalen Zeitalter [German Studies in the Digital Age]) to address the topic of digitalisation and the changing work, teaching, and research practices in the discipline. Engagement with open access publishing plays an important role in this regard. The working group Germanistik im digitalen Zeitalter has since been dissolved. The responsible persons at the Institut für Textkritik (Institute for Textual Criticism) frequently express criticism of open access. Open Access in Linguistics Find an introduction here. Open Access Journals As of November 2024, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) listed 14 entries under “ German literature ” and 4 entries under “ Germanic languages ” (not including Scandinavian languages). Important open access journals in German studies include: IASLonline Philologie im Netz (PhiN) Textpraxis. Digitales Journal für Philologie ( DOAJ ) Linguistik online ( DOAJ ) Zeitschrift für interkulturelle Germanistik (ZiG) literaturkritik.de Transit. A Journal of Travel, Migration and Multiculturalism in the German-speaking World ( DOAJ ) Zeitschrift für digitale Geisteswissenschaft (ZfdG) Also worthy of mention (although not listed in the DOAJ) are the journals Germanistische Mitteilungen and Zeitschrift für Wortbildung . What are Open Access Journals? Find an introduction here. Practical Tip Publishing Open Access: How to evaluate a journal's quality open-access.network (2026) ( CC BY 4.0 International ) What are Open Access Books? Find an introduction here. open-access.network (2026) ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access Books As of March 2024, the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) listed 166 titles under “ German literature ” , 217 titles under “ German language ” , 22 titles under “ German linguistics ” , and 171 titles under “ German studies ” . German-studies-related books published under a diamond open access model – that is, published open access without charging book processing charges (BPCs) – can also be found under German Studies on the Open Book Publishers website. Disciplinary Repositories The most important repositories in the field of German studies include GiNDok, which is operated by the Specialised Information Service (FID) German Studies and is part of the Virtual Library of German Studies – Germanistik im Netz (GiN) , and the Publication Server of the Leibniz Institute for German Language (IDS): GiNDok Publication server of the Leibniz Institute for German Language (IDS) The IDS publication server holds mainly publications from the area of German linguistics. GiNDok is used by individual researchers, publishers, institutions, and projects as a platform for publishing and self-archiving works from all sub-disciplines of German studies and almost all text genres. The Specialised Information Service (FID) German Studies also offers an e-journal hosting service based on the software application Open Journal Systems (OJS) . The following repositories of neighbouring disciplines are also of importance for German studies: CompaRe – the specialised repository for comparative literature AMAD – an interdisciplinary open access repository and scholarly blog for research on the Middle Ages PsyArxiv (especially in German linguistics) PhilPapers An overview of relevant repositories in the area of language and literature is also provided by the Open Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) . What are Repositories? Find an introduction here. Legal Aspects Find legal information on Open Access here. Video über das Zeitveröffentlichungsrecht Quelle: Brehm, E. (2021). Zweitveröffentlichungsrecht für Wissenschaftler*innen, open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/51789 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) Practical Tip Finding Open Access Literature (in German) You are welcome to contact our Helpdesk if you have any questions about Open Access. oa.finder The oa.finder shows you from tens of thousands of journals which are Gold Open Access, whether they charge APCs and how high these are. You can also view the funding modalities of your own institution. Other Offerings The Specialised Information Service (FID) German Studies has published a series of German-language tutorials that provide information on, among other things, the benefits of open access publishing , as well as listing in a compact and understandable way relevant practical information on topics such as long-term archiving and the citation of digital publications. References Further Reading Baillot, A. (2019). Digitales Publizieren und Open Access in der Germanistik. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Germanistenverbands , 66 (3), 237–247. https://doi.org/10.14220/mdge.2019.66.3.237 Eve, M. P. (2014). Open access and the humanities. Contexts, controversies and the future . Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316161012 Messerschmidt, N. (2011). Open Access in den Literaturwissenschaften. Ergebnisse qualitativer Interviews mit Wissenschaftlern der Deutschen Literatur . https://doi.org/10.18452/14147 Söllner, K. (2017). Geisteswissenschaften. In K. Söllner & B. Mittermaier (Eds.), Praxishandbuch Open Access (1st ed., pp. 247–253). De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110494068 Content editor of this page: Dr Volker Michel, Specialised Information Service (FID) German Studies . Last revision of content: Stefan Hartmann, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (as of November 2024)....

What is Open Access? Find an introduction here. Source: based on Brinken, H. (2021). 10 Gründe für Open Access. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4643859 ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access: Pros and Cons Find an introduction here. Open Access Publishing and Self-Archiving Find an introduction here. Perception of Open Access Survey on requirements and obstacles in selected humanities and social science disciplines: historical sciences and social work. Open Access in Historical Studies Historians are generally well disposed towards all forms of open access . The number of open access journals and digital collections in historical studies is steadily growing. In the case of monographs and edited collections , however, open access is progressing more slowly. Blogs are another form of publication used to disseminate scholarly information in this field. Besides publications, freely available historical sources, especially in the form of digital reproductions and machine-readable digital editions, are of great importance in historical studies. In addition, in the areas of digital humanities of relevance to historical studies, open access tools (e.g. for text mining) also play a role. Open Access Journals As of December 2025, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) listed 1,582 open access journals under “ History ”. Important open access journals in historical studies include: Historische Zeitschrift ( https://doaj.org/toc/2196-680X ) Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte ( https://doaj.org/toc/2196-6842 ) Zeithistorische Forschungen ( https://doaj.org/toc/1612-6041 ) Zeitschrift für digitale Geisteswissenschaften ( https://doaj.org/toc/2510-1358 ) Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung. Beihefte Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung ( https://doaj.org/toc/2701-0449 ) Reviews also play an important role in historical studies. Many journals that are not open access nonetheless make their review sections freely available. Furthermore, there are a number of open access review platforms: Francia-Recensio (review journal of the German Historical Institute Paris) recensio.net (platform for reviews from journals in historical studies from all over Europe) recensio.regio (platform for reviews from historical journals with a regional focus) RIDE (review journal dedicated to digital editions and resources) sehepunkte (review journal) ​​​​​​​ What are Open Access Journals? Find an introduction here. Practical Tip Publishing Open Access: How to evaluate a journal's quality Video about the Funding of Open Access Articles Source: Brinken, H. (2020). Finanzierung von Open-Access-Artikeln, open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/49536 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) open-access.network (2026) ( CC BY 4.0 International ) What are Open Access Books? Find an introduction here. open-access.network (2026) ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access Books As of December 2025, the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) listed 2,773 monographs and edited collections under “ History ”. The OAPEN Online Library also provides open access full texts on historical topics . As of December 2025, the publication platform OpenEdition provided 5,203 open access books under “ History” . Overall, there are a great variety of publishing models, whose conditions, costs, and technical implementation vary greatly. The German-language university presses in the consortium AG Universitätsverlage strongly support the open access movement, and many of them publish monographs and edited collections from the humanities. Within the framework of the open access transformation , scholarly publishers, for example Barbara Budrich , de Gruyter , transcript , Wachholtz , and Wallstein , increasingly offer authors – also from historical studies – the option of publishing their works open access. In the meantime, there are a number of open access publishers in the humanities that publish works exclusively in open access and do not levy book processing charges ( BPCs ). They include, for example, Language Science Press and Edition Topoi . The Edition Open Sources , which is hosted by the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) , makes academic editions of primary sources available in open access. Stand-alone publications funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), including publications on historical topics, are made available in open access in the FWF-E-Book-Library . In the series Historisches Forum , themed issues with contributions and reports from historical studies are published in collaboration with Clio-online and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin . Disciplinary Repositories As of December 2025, the Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) listed 26 repositories under “ History ”, and the Registry of Research Data Repositories re3data.org listed 141 research data repositories with historical content. In addition, content and publishing opportunities of relevance to historical studies can be found in repositories, databases, and other reference systems of neighbouring disciplines. An important role in the provision of content is played by the Specialised Information Service (FID) for Historical Studies – historicum.net . The FID offers publishing, archiving, and search services. Other specialised information services also offer historians significant added value. Because of the multi-perspectivity of the field, diverse historical studies content can be found in numerous sub-disciplines. This content can be found in the respective disciplinary repositories by using appropriate search filters (e.g. “history”). Furthermore, many specialised information services offer advice on and services for open access publishing. What are Repositories? Find an introduction here. Legal Aspects Find an introduction here. Video about self-archiving rights Source: Brehm, E. (2021). Zweitveröffentlichungsrecht für Wissenschaftler*innen, open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/51789 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) Practical Tip Finding Open Access Literature (in German) Open Access Helpdesk You are welcome to contact our Helpdesk if you have any questions about Open Access. oa.finder The oa.finder shows you from tens of thousands of journals which are Gold Open Access, whether they charge APCs and how high these are. You can also view the funding modalities of your own institution. Other Offerings Blogs In addition to the many stand-alone historical blogs by research institutions, associations, and individual researchers, there is a central platform for humanities and social science blogs, Hypotheses . Run by the open access service provider Open Edition , Hypotheses hosts several thousand blogs, including blogs on topics related to historical, archival, and auxiliary studies. As of December 2025, some 315 blogs from the German-speaking area were listed under “History & Archaeology”. Redaktionsblog , the blog by the editorial team of the German-language Hypotheses portal, de.hypotheses.org, serves to develop and disseminate scholarly information and to create a network. Subject Portals and Platforms Subject portals provide central points of entry for searches for open access publications, historical sources, and other materials. Clio-online is a subject portal for historical studies. It is involved in numerous projects, including Zeitgeschichte online – a subject portal for contemporary historians – and H-Soz-Kult. Clio-online publishes a series of German-language handbooks, Clio Guides , for a diverse range of historical studies specializations (covering digital methods and techniques, epochs, collections, and topics). The Clio Guides provide detailed guidance on relevant information resources, media, and search options. European History Online , which is provided by the Leibniz Institute of European History (IEG) , publishes scholarly contributions on European history between 1450 and 1950. The contributions in German and English are linked to various materials. historicum.net , the Specialised Information Service for Historical Studies, provides a wide range of historical information and in particular the German Historical Bibliography . H-Net - Humanities and Social Sciences online is a network for academic communication in the humanities and social sciences. H-Soz-Kult , a moderated information and communication platform for historians, publishes academic news and alerts users to new releases. Databases Access to digitised resources (archivalia, library and museum collections) is essential for historical research. Key databases for historical studies are often operated by individual institutions that are crucial to the discipline or are merged in inter-institutional databases. Arachne is the central object database of the German Archaeological Institute (DAO) and the Archaeological Institute of the University of Cologne at Cologne Digital Archaeology Laboratory (Arbeitsstelle für Digitale Archäologie). Archives Portal Europa provides inter alia 285 million individual documents from over 7,000 cultural institutions, sometimes with links to digital objects. The Deutsche Biographie provides information on over one million persons from the German-speaking area from the early Middle Ages to the present day. The Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (German Digital Library) lists and links over 26 million objects from German cultural institutions (archives, libraries, museums). e-codices - Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland has set itself the goal of providing free access to all medieval manuscripts and a selection of modern manuscripts of Switzerland via a virtual library. On the portal e-rara.ch , digitised printed works from the 15th to the 20th centur y from various Swiss libraries are made publicly available free of charge. Europeana aggregates over 60 million objects (images, text materials, sound and video recordings, and 3D objects) from over 2,000 European cultural organisations. The Handschriftenportal (Manuscript Portal) serves as a central reference for the manuscripts in German collections, which it links to indexing data and digital reproductions. perspectivia.net , the publication platform of the Max Weber Foundation – German Humanities Institutes Abroad , provides free access to the full texts of journals, reviews, monographs, and conference proceedings (digital publications and retrodigitised works). The Regesta Imperii (RI) record in the form of German-language regesta (abstracts) all activities of the Roman-German kings and emperors from the Carolingians to Maximilian I (ca. 751–1519) and the popes in the early and high Middle Ages that are evidenced by charters or other historical sources. The RI project provides RI Opac – a freely accessible literature database for medieval research in the entire European language area – a regesta database , and publications. The Wörterbuch-Netz , a project of the Trier Center for Digital Humanities (Kompetenzzentrum für elektronische Erschließungs- und Publikationsverfahren in den Geisteswissenschaften) at the University of Trier, provides inter alia dictionaries of the older historical stages of the German language. Open Science in Historical Studies Across the wide spectrum of historical studies, key elements of open science exist in the form of digital sources, machine-readable editions, the use of open access tools for innovative digital research, and the publication of research results in open access. The Digital Historical Studies Working Group ( Arbeitsgemeinschaft Digitale Geschichtswissenschaft ) within the Verband der Historiker und Historikerinnen Deutschlands e. V. (Association of German Historians, VHD) focuses on the potential of the digital humanities – or e-humanities – for historical studies and offers a forum for exchange with neighbouring disciplines working in history. Established in 2023, NFDI4Memory is a consortium within the German National Research Infrastructure, NFDI , for humanities disciplines working in history. It is led by the Leibniz Institute for European History (IEG) and also comprises 10 other co-applicants (including the VHD). The consortium promotes the quality-assured, standardised, and competent use of research data in the historical disciplines. The EU-funded project Social Sciences & Humanities Open Cloud (SSHOC) is an online market place that makes digital tools, services, training materials, and datasets in the social sciences and humanities freely available with the aim of promoting interdisciplinary research and collaboration in these disciplines. The European research infrastructure OPERAS promotes open scholarly communication in the social sciences and humanities in the European Research Area. OPERAS supports open science inter alia through projects such as TRIPLE (Transforming Research through Innovative Practices for Linked Interdisciplinary Exploration), which is dedicated to developing a multilingual and multicultural discovery service for the social sciences and humanities. open-access.network ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Practical Tip The legal opinion by Klimpel and Rack (2023, new edition of the 2015 version) explains how and under what conditions audiovisual materials may be used in research and teaching. Further Reading Daniel, S., Enderle, W., Hohls, R., Meyer, T., Prellwitz, J., Prinz, C., Schuhmann, A., & Schwandt, S. (Eds.). (2023–2025). Clio Guide. Ein Handbuch zu digitalen Ressourcen für die Geschichtswissenschaften (3rd expanded and updated edition ). Clio-online. https://guides.clio-online.de/ Content editor of this page: Eva Bunge, Deutsches Museum (Last updated: December 2025)....

What is Open Access? Find an introduction here. Source: based on Brinken, H. (2021). 10 Gründe für Open Access. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4643859 ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access in Information Science Information science can generally be considered quite a small discipline in the German-speaking area. The Hochschulverband Informationswissenschaft (Higher Education Association for Information Science, HI) lists only 19 higher education institutions (HEIs) at which the subject is taught. Most of these HEIs are universities of applied sciences. The German-language publishing landscape in information science is thus modest in size. Although open access is considered an object of research in information science, it has not dominated publishing practice in the discipline to date. In January 2022, the HI published its Open Science Guideline , which calls for open access to texts, data, software, and methods. This was preceded by the discussion of a first draft of the guideline by members of the HI in autumn 2021. The HI signed the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities on 15 November 2021. Open Access Journals Journals of information science in the German-speaking area, for example Information – Wissenschaft & Praxis , the journal of the German Society for Information and Knowledge (DGI), are published in closed access . This is also true of journals further afield, for example Aslib Proceedings , the journal of the Association for Information Management (ASLIB), all journals of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (asis&t), and the Journal of Information Science . As of December 2024, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) listed 1,075 indexed journals under “ information science “ and 205 entries under the related search term “ library science “. With the spread of diamond open access journals, the subscribe-to-open model , and transformative agreements , the number of open access articles in information science has been increasing in recent years. Open access journals of relevance to information science include: Bibliothek Forschung und Praxis Big Data & Society College and Research Libraries Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics Information Research: An International Electronic Journal Information Journal of the Medical Library Association Library and Information Research Libreas: Library Ideas o-bib. Das offene Bibliotheksjournal Scientific Data Quantitative Science Studies What are Open Access Journals? Find an introduction here. Practical Tip Publishing Open Access: How to evaluate a journal's quality Video on the Funding of Open Access Articles Source: Becklas Dorow, C., Hauss, J. (2026). Funding Open Access Articles – What Are the Options?. Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB), open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/73596 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) What are Open Access Books? Find an introduction here. open-access.network (2026) ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access Books As of December 2024, the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) listed 79 titles under the subject “ library & information sciences ”, while the online library OAPEN listed 75 titles under “ library & information sciences ”. The proceedings of the International Symposium of Information Science (ISI), which is organised by the HI, are published in open access; the contributions can be found on the HI website . Disciplinary Repositories Important disciplinary repositories include E-LIS ( eprints in library & information science ) and arXiv, in whose category "Digital Libraries" many information science research publications can be found. As in many other disciplines, Zenodo is also increasingly being used in library and information science (LIS). In the German-speaking information science community, publications are often also self-archived and made available in the institutional open access repositories of the institutions at which researchers are working on the topic. What are Repositories? Find an introduction here. Legal Aspects Find an introduction here. Practical Tip Finding Open Access Literature (in German) Open Access Helpdesk You are welcome to contact our Helpdesk if you have any questions about Open Access. oa.finder The oa.finder shows you from tens of thousands of journals which are Gold Open Access, whether they charge APCs and how high these are. You can also view the funding modalities of your own institution. Other Offerings On the left-hand side you can find helpful services and tools to inform yourself about specific questions on Open Access. Literatur Further Reading Asef, E. (2021). Analyse von Open Access Publikationen in der Bibliotheks- und Informationswissenschaft 2003 bis 2016. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. https://doi.org/10.18452/2302 Chen, M., & Du, Y. (2016). The status of open access library and information science journals in SSCI. The Electronic Library , 34 (5), 722–739. https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-05-2015-0070 Sahoo, J., Birtia, T., & Mohanty, B. (2017). Open access journals in library and information science: A study on DOAJ. International Journal of Information Dissemination and Technology , 7 (2), 116. https://doi.org/10.5958/2249-5576.2017.00008.5 Way, D. (2010). The open access availability of library and information science literature. College & Research Libraries , 71 (4), 302–309. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl-38r1 Content editor of this page: Ulrich Herb, Saarland University and State Library (Last updated: January 2022)...