Online-Workshop: Wir wollen mehr Open Access wagen! Wege, Modelle und Services für die Politikwissenschaft
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Open Access Financing
Learn more about Open Access Financing Research Funders and Open Access Business Models for Journals Business Models for Books...
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Open Access Policy Frameworks
Intro Open Research Europe Graphic: Open Research Europe in Action. Source: Open Research Europe (2021). faster-h2020.eu The key takeaways from this article are 1 The main players in the policy area of open access in Europe and Germany, respectively, are the European Commission, the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR; until 2025 called the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, BMBF), and the governments of the federal states. 2 Through various policy measures, these players promote and expect open access to knowledge. 3 At the level of the German federal states, different trends in the areas of open access and open science are emerging. Practical tip The presentation “ Open Access unterstützen – Praxistipps für Landesregierungen ” lists measures with which the governments of the German federal states can practise and support open access. Object of Governance, Subject of Policy Discussion The topic of open access and the formulation and implementation of open access policies are the subject of policy discussions and negotiation processes. Who are the driving forces, and what are their positions? Open access policies are driven both from the top down – especially from the European level to the level of the national states and federal states – and from the bottom up, by committed scholars and scientists, scientific institutions, and open access initiatives. Important milestones in the debate on open access to information are (see also the History of the Open Access Movement ) are : the Declaration of the Budapest Open Access Initiative (2002) , the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003) . Further milestones include: the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing (2003) the Amsterdam Call for Action on Open Science (2016) , The Vienna Principles: A Vision for Scholarly Communication in the 21st Century (2016) , the Jussieu Call for Open Science and Bibliodiversity (2017) , Plan S (2018) the Action Plan for Diamond Open Access (2022) . Many national and supranational institutions, for example the European Union (EU), the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR; until May 2025 called the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, BMBF), federal state ministries, the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG), and to some extent also universities and non-university research institutions, play a dual role in this regard. As political actors, they participate through various interventions and measures in negotiation processes on open access; at the same time, they are also research funders , and in that capacity, they directly set standards and framework conditions. In what follows, we provide an overview of the main state actors in the policy area of open access. In each case, we briefly explain how free access to scientific knowledge is enabled or promoted by policy regulations in the respective contexts. Kindling, M., Martin, L., Neufend, M., & Wenninger, A. (2022). Open Access Atlas Deutschland: Status Quo in Bund und Ländern (1.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6472672 Supranational Level At the supranational level, the European Commission (EC) and the European Research Council (ERC) provide important stimuli for the implementation of open access and open science. In 2021, UNESCO also adopted a Recommendation on Open Science . Governance of Open Access in Europe As early as 2012, the European Commission issued a Recommendation on access to and preservation of scientific information, in which it called on Member States to implement clear and binding open access policies. According to the recommendation, it should be mandatory to provide open access to publications resulting from publicly funded research, preferably immediately but no later than 6 months after the date of publication in the case of the natural sciences and 12 months in the case of the humanities and social sciences. Although European Commission recommendations are not binding, the majority of the 27 EU Member States (inter alia Belgium , Greece , Italy , Croatia , Latvia , Malta , Poland , Portugal , Slovakia , Slovenia , Spain , Czech Republic , Hungary ) and three non-member States ( Norway , Serbia, and Switzerland ) have by now adopted open access and open science strategies. In the area of research funding , the European Commission requires funding recipients to provide open access to research publications resulting from funded projects (see also Horizon Europe ). [MG1] Error 404 bei Slovenia. [PSM2] Danke – das hier scheint der richtige Link zu sein: https://www.openaire.eu/community/blogs/slovenia-open-science-in-the-recently-adopted-resolution-on-the-slovenian-scientific-research-and-innovation-strategy-2030 Open Access in Germany In contrast to many other European countries, Germany does not have a uniform national open access policy. In its coalition agreement for the legislative period 2021–2025 , the previous German Federal Government undertook to strengthen open access and open science and to establish open access as a common scientific standard. This was duly taken into account with the adoption in 2023 of Joint Guidelines of the Federal Government and the Länder for the implementation of open access in Germany (Federal Ministry of Education and Research, 2023 ). In the coalition agreement of the current federal government in 2025 , open access is not explicitly mentioned; however, access to scientific research is to be facilitated by a research data act. Federal Ministry of Education and Research At federal level in Germany, the amendment of the Copyright Act (UrhG) in 2013 created the legal framework for green open access by implementing an inalienable secondary publication right ( Pflüger, 2016 , p. 14). In 2016, the then German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF; renamed the Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space, BMFTR, in May 2025) published a strategy for open access in Germany , which was updated in 2018. The aim of the updated strategy is to further establish open access as the standard for scholarly publishing and to close the gap between the scientific community’s desire for more open access publications and current publishing practice ( Federal Ministry of Education and Research, 2018 , p. 7). According to the strategy, various ways of providing open access should be allowed in principle, and academic freedom should remain untouched. Furthermore, publications resulting from publicly funded research should be openly accessible, and established quality assurance procedures should be ensured. Whereas the transposition into concrete policies is the responsibility of the individual federal states, the BMBF, in its capacity as a funding agency, set guidelines: Research projects funded by the BMBF – or its successor, the BMFTR – are expected to publish their results and their research data in open access . Besides scientific and scholarly institutions and libraries, funding recipients also include private sector actors, such as publishers and other service providers, that are establishing themselves in the open access landscape. Open Access at Federal State Level Because of the sovereignty of the federal states in the area of education and higher education policy, the adoption and implementation of open access and open science policies in Germany takes place mainly at federal state level (Kindling et al., 2022). These federal state policies are thus central elements of the open access transformation in the Federal Republic of Germany (Kindling et al., 2021). Some states, for example Baden-Württemberg , Berlin , Brandenburg , Hamburg , and Schleswig-Holstein have state strategies, which in some cases define concrete objectives. These objectives include, for example, an open access quota for journal articles, as well as open access officers and open access policies at all institutions ( Berlin ); the monitoring of open access publication figures ( Thuringia ); the adoption of a clear position on open access by university managers ( Brandenburg ); and a uniform technical infrastructure ( Hamburg ). Some federal state governments support open access through other instruments of higher education governance. For example, support for open access is mentioned in the science plan ( Bremen ), in the higher education development plan ( Saxony ), or in the digital strategy ( Rhineland-Palatinate , Saxony-Anhalt , Hesse ) of the respective federal states. Other federal state governments support the scientific institutions in their states through targeted measures, for example openaccess.nrw in North Rhine-Westphalia; through an open access publication fund ( Thuringia , Lower Saxony ); through open access networking units ( Berlin , Brandenburg ); or by funding openness as a cross-sectional topic ( Bremen ). Although other federal states have not yet adopted an explicit science policy position, many institutions already have well-established open access service offerings (e.g. Saarland, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Bavaria, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Rhineland-Palatinate) (Kindling et al., 2021).The Bundesländer-Atlas (Kindling et al., 2021), the oa.atlas federal state dossiers (2024), and the Open4DE Landscape-Report ( Bärwolf et al. 2023 ) also provide an overview of current and past open access and open science activities of the German federal states. Open Access in Austria and Switzerland Open Access in Austria In Austria, various open access initiatives emerged at a national level at an early stage (see the History of the Open Access Movement ). For example, in 2014, in cooperation with the Austrian Science Fund ( FWF ), the Austrian Academic Library Consortium ( KEMÖ) , as one of the first national library consortia worldwide to do so, concluded an open access agreement with a publisher (see Mayer 2022, p. 47). The FWF had already introduced its own open access policy in 2004, with a strong recommendation to publish works open access. In 2012, Open Access Network Austria (OANA; since 2022: OSA – Open Science Austria ) was founded as a joint national networking initiative on the part of the FWF and Universities Austria ( uniko ). OANA subsequently drew up a number of recommendations, inter alia for a national open access strategy (2016) and a national open science strategy (2020). Following the publication of the 2016 recommendations paper , many research institutions published open access policies. The 2020 recommendations served as a basis for the national Open Science Policy Austria , which was adopted in 2022. A secondary publication right was incorporated into law in 2015 (see also Legal Issues in Austria ). In 2019, the national funding initiative “Digital and Social Transformation in Higher Education” of the then Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research enabled the launch of several digitalization projects with a focus on open access, for example AT2OA2 . In its Government Programme 2020–2024 , the Austrian Federal Government gave a clear commitment to open access and actively supported Plan S for the implementation of open access. The current Government Programme 2025–2029 does not focus explicitly on open access or open science. Open Access in Switzerland According to the strategic vision of the Swiss Higher Education Policy Coordination 2025–2028 (Gesamtschweizerische Hochschulpolitischen Koordination 2025–2028 ), 100% of scholarly publications from Swiss universities will be made available in open access. In particular, swissuniversities , the umbrella organisation of universities in Switzerland, plays the role of a superordinate actor for the promotion of open access. As a funding institution, swissuniversities supports various open access projects . The Swiss National Open Access Strategy published in 2017 was updated in 2024. In the updated strategy, swissuniversities and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) set the framework conditions for the country’s open access transformation. The Open Science Delegation coordinates cooperation between the stakeholders. Besides this national strategy, the Swiss Library Network for Education and Research ( SLiNER ) published National Open Access Policy Guidelines in 2019, which serve as recommendations for the institutional open access policies of Swiss universities. In 2023, 86% of universities in Switzerland had an open access policy (see swissuniversities, 2023). Eleven partner institutions are collaborating to create a national diamond open access consortium ( CoDOA ) to enable the long-term and sustainable funding of diamond open access journals. The groundwork for enshrining a secondary publication right in law is currently in progress. References Bärwolff, T., Benz, M., Dreyer, M., Neufend, M., Kindling, M., Kirchner, A., & Schmidt, B. (2023). Open4DE landscape report . Open-Access-Büro Berlin. https://doi.org/10.21428/986c5d43.bab38f02 Federal Ministry of Education and Research. (2023). Open access in Germany. Joint guidelines of the Federal Government and the Länder . https://www.bmftr.bund.de/SharedDocs/Publikationen/DE/FS/772970_Open_Access_in_Deutschland_en.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=4 Federal Ministry of Education and Research. (2018). Open Access in Deutschland. Die Strategie des Bundesministeriums für Bildung und Forschung [Open access in Germany. The strategy of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research]. https://www.bildung-forschung.digital/files/2018-08-Open_Access_neu_barrierefrei.pdf Kindling, M., Neufend, M., & Wenninger, A. (2021). Bundesländer-Atlas Open Access . Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5761153 Kindling, M., Martin, L., Neufend, M., & Wenninger, A. (2022). Open Access Atlas Deutschland: Status Quo in Bund und Ländern (1.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6472672 Kindling, M., Martin, L., & Neufend, M. (2024). oa.atlas: Konzept . Open-Access-Büro Berlin. https://doi.org/10.21428/986c5d43.54fbd167 Mayer, K. (2022). Open Access im Wandel. Infrastrukturen, Monitoring und Governance als zentrale Elemente einer erfolgreichen Transformation. Baseline Report zur Open Access Transformation in der Wissenschaft . Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI), Vienna. https://doi.org/10.22163/fteval.2022.533 Pflüger, T. (2016). Open Access-Regulierung im internationalen Vergleich. In T. Dreier, V. Fischer, A. van Raay, & I. Spiecker [known as Döhmann] (Eds.), Informationen der öffentlichen Hand: Zugang und Nutzung (1st ed., Vol. 3, pp. 537–562). Nomos. https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/bitstream/handle/123456789/37572/Pflueger_0-395438.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y swissuniversities. (2023). Open access strategy review. Background report . https://www.swissuniversities.ch/fileadmin/swissuniversities/Dokumente/Hochschulpolitik/Open_Access/OA_Strategie/OA_Strategy_Review_Background_Report.pdf UNESCO. (2021). UNESCO recommendation on open science . https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5741832 Further Reading Fuhrer, C., & Schurte, R. (2018). Nationale Open Access-Strategie in der Schweiz: Herausforderungen für die Hochschulen und ihre Bibliotheken. In Zentralbibliothek Zürich, A. Keller, & S. Uhl (Eds.), Bibliotheken der Schweiz: Innovation durch Kooperation: Festschrift für Susanna Bliggenstorfer anlässlich ihres Rücktrittes als Direktorin der Zentralbibliothek Zürich (pp. 97–118). De Gruyter Saur. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110553796-004 German Science and Humanities Council. (2022). Recommendations on the transformation of academic publishing: Towards open access . https://www.wissenschaftsrat.de/download/2022/9477-22_en.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=0 Taşkın, Z., Melinščak Zlodi, I., Laakso, M., Torny, D., Arasteh, S., Bargheer, M., Klaus, T., Schima, J., Agnoloni, T., Peruginelli, G., Davidson, A., Franczak, M., María Ángeles, C. B., de Pablo Llorente, V., Dobson, H., & Heyman, J. (2024). D5.2 National overviews on sustaining institutional publishing in Europe . Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13683953 Verdicchio, D., Kissling-Näf, I. (2020). Digitale Transformation und Open Access von Forschungsresultaten in der Schweiz. In J. Schellinger, K. Tokarski, & I. Kissling-Näf (Eds.), Digitale Transformation und Unternehmensführung (pp. 11–27). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-26960-9_2...
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Open Access and funding organisations
Intro Open-Access-Vorgaben in EU-Projekten Quelle: Dreher, L. (2020). Open-Access-Vorgaben in EU-Projekten, open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/48698 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) The Key Takeaways from This Article are 1 Many research funding organisations now oblige grant recipients to provide open access to the published results of the research that they fund, and in some cases lay down very concrete guidelines for the implementation of this mandate. 2 Numerous funding organisations provide researchers with financial support for publication costs that may arise when publishing works open access. 3 There are also programmes that promote open access in a targeted manner. Funders and Their Requirements Research funding organisations play a key role in science and academia. In many disciplines, research would be practically impossible without their support. Whereas in Germany, research funders do not mandate open access , some funding organisations in other countries lay down compulsory guidelines for the provision of open access to published outputs that arise from their funding. Pioneers in this regard include, for example, Wellcome Trust (UK) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH; USA). Where research funders mandate that open access must be provided to research results and publications arising from their funding, they may: mandate that research data or scientific publications resulting from funded projects be made freely available to the public (if applicable, subject to an embargo period ), at least in a repository ; set maximum limits for embargo periods, or mandate that embargo periods should not be observed. Most public-sector research funders expect grant holders to publish outputs that arise from the research that they fund in gold open access venues, or to self-archive the publications in open access repositories after an embargo period ( green open access ). They frequently require that open licences be used. Researchers are advised to compare the guidelines of the funding organisation with those of the publisher, and, in the event of uncertainties, to make enquiries as soon as possible. Many funders have open access policies in which they adopt a clear position. As a rule, these policies also specify concrete funding conditions. Useful information about research funders’ open access policies is provided by Open Policy Finder . In the case of minor discrepancies between the open access policies of the funder and the publisher, authors should contact the publisher. In the case of major discrepancies, alternative publication venues should be considered. In the following, the open access guidelines and funding programmes of leading research funders are outlined. Policy positions on open access at the (supra-)national level can be found on our Policy Frameworks page . Practical Tips Here you will find the slides from the Open Access Talk Fördererauflagen zu Open Access – was gilt es zu beachten? (in German) Here you will find the guide Open Access in die Förderpraxis integrieren – Empfehlungen für Stiftungen und private Förderer (in German) Financing Find an introduction here. Open Policy Finder On this website, you can find information on research funders' open access policies. re3data Here you can find repositories for research data. Helpdesk Our Helpdesk is happy to help with all questions open access. cOAlition S & Plan S Video zu Plan S und Förderung Quelle: Rooryck, J. (2020). Plan S and Funding. What is going to change?, open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/49702 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) Launched in 2018, cOAlition S pursues with Plan S a strategy of ensuring open access to scholarly publications arising from publicly funded research. With effect from 2021, scholarly publications resulting from research funded by organisations participating in cOAlition S must be published in open access journals or on open access platforms, or made immediately available without embargo through open access repositories ( Rücknagel, 2021 ). Plan S Principles The initiative is built around the 10 Principles of Plan S , which are binding for all projects funded by organisations participating in cOAlition S. The main principles are ( Rücknagel, 2021 ): Authors or their institutions retain the rights in their publications. Publications must be made openly available immediately and under an open licence, preferably a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY). Where applicable, the open access publication fees are covered by the research institutions or funding organisations, not by the authors. Publishers’ pricing is fair and transparent. Hybrid publishing is not financially supported unless transformative arrangements exist. Funders shall assess the intrinsic merit of the research work, not the reputation of the publication channel. The cOAlition S Journal Checker Tool can be used to check whether an open access journal is compliant with Plan S. Members of cOAlition S The most well-known organisations participating in cOAlition S are: European Commission Austrian Science Fund (FWF) Agence nationale de la recherche (ANR) Research Council of Norway (RCN) World Health Organization (WHO) The German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) have declared their support for cOAlition S but have not adopted Plan S. European Commission In the EU framework programme for research and innovation Horizon 2020 (2014–2020), the European Commission already required funding recipients to ensure open access to research outputs resulting from funded projects. This stipulation has been retained by the successor programme, Horizon Europe (2021–2027). The European Commission offers funding beneficiaries an open access publishing service, Open Research Europe (ORE) , at no cost to them. Preprints submitted to ORE undergo comprehensive prepublication checks to ensure that all policies and ethical standards have been adhered to. After publication, the articles undergo open peer review . The post-prints of articles that pass peer review are sent to major indexing databases and repositories. Further details of the procedure can be found here . Conditions An overview of Horizon Europe’s framework conditions in relation to open access can be found in the programme's factsheet on open science . Besides ensuring immediate open access to scientific publications, funding recipients are required to manage research data as far as possible in line with the FAIR Principles – under certain circumstances some degree of closed access will be tolerated. Within the framework of the Model Grant Agreement ( European Commission, 2021, pp. 108–109 ), the following requirements apply to peer-reviewed scientific publications relating to the results of funded research: At the latest at the time of publication, a machine-readable electronic copy of the published version or the final manuscript accepted for publication must be deposited in a trusted repository (see OpenDOAR ). Immediate open access must be provided to publications under a CC BY licence or a licence with equivalent rights. For monographs and other long-text formats, the licence may exclude commercial uses and derivative works (e.g. CC BY-NC, CC BY-ND). Information must be given via the repository about any research output or any other tools needed to validate the conclusions of the scientific publication. Moreover, funding beneficiaries (or authors) must retain sufficient intellectual property rights. Metadata of deposited publications must be made openly accessible under a CC 0 licence or a licence with equivalent rights. Further information on this topic – and on the framework conditions for research data management – can be found on pages 108–109 of the Model Grant Agreement ( European Commission, 2021 ). Support for Publication Costs Publication fees will be reimbursed under the following conditions ( European Commission, 2021, p. 109 ): The work must be published in a fully open access publication venue. The publication venue must fulfil open access publication standards (licensing, peer review). Projects for the Promotion of Open Access The European Commission supports several projects on open access and open science, such as OpenAIRE, the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) , and HIRMEOS . The catch-all data repository Zenodo , among other things, was created within the framework of OpenAIRE . Click on the picture to watch the video. Open Research Europe: The new EU open access publishing platform. Source: EU Science & Innovation (2021). Open Research Europe: The new EU open access publishing platform. YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7bW2_xX3iU Practical Tip Here you can find the slides of the Open Access Talk Open Access requirements in EU projects (in German) German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) With its guideline for the promotion of projects to accelerate the transformation to open access ( BMBF, 2020 ), the BMFTR (formerly BMBF) has strengthened the establishment of open access as a standard model of scholarly publishing in Germany. The aim is to accelerate the transition to open access within the framework of a national open access strategy , and to ensure that, by 2025, 70% of all newly published scholarly publications will be exclusively published open access or additionally made available to the public in open access. Open access is not mandatory – the decision remains in the hands of the BMFTR-funded researchers. However, funding recipients are encouraged to provide gold or green open access to the results of BMFTR-funded research. Support for Publication Costs Publication costs that arise when publishing works open access may be covered from project funds or included in the project proposal. Thus, for publications during the lifetime of the project, the financing of publication costs that arise when publishing works open access is assured. The Post-Grant Fund reimburses publication costs incurred when publishing results of completed BMBF-funded projects ( BMBF, 2017 ). The approval period may not date back more than three years. Moreover, contributions must be published under a licence that grants at least a cost-free, worldwide right to read the work in electronic form and to reproduce, disseminate, and make it available to the public ( Rücknagel, 2021 ). Projects for the Promotion of Open Access The former BMBF has supported 20 projects related to the transition to open access . German Research Foundation (DFG) The DFG signed the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities in 2003. For the purpose of scientifically adequate communication, the DFG requests researchers in receipt of DFG funding to either publish project results directly in peer-reviewed and/or renowned open access journals or on open access platforms, or to deposit their articles in disciplinary or institutional open access repositories, if possible without delay, in addition to traditional publication by a publisher ( German Research Foundation, 2021, pp. 42–43 ). Although the DFG supports cOAlition S, it has not made open access mandatory to date. Programmes Providing Support for Publication Costs The DFG offers the following funding options to support the financing of publication costs: The funding programme Open Access Publication Funding is the successor of the long-standing programme Open Access Publishing . It grants research institutions a fixed open access allowance. Individual researchers may use project-related publication expenses for open access publications. However, to avoid double funding, they should check with their library or central service units. The Publication Grants programme supports inter alia the publication of fee-based e-books and open access e-books. According to the Guidelines for Publication Grants , the decision not to publish open access requires explicit justification. Programmes for the Promotion of Open Access Within the framework of the funding programme Infrastructures for Scholarly Publishing , the DFG supports projects relating to open access. The funding programme has three focus areas: Structures for Transitioning to Open Access Open Access Infrastructures Digital Publishing Moreover, within the framework of this programme, proposals may be submitted for projects that aim to set up or further develop an individual open access journal or to convert an existing journal to open access. Austrian Science Fund (FWF) The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) is also a signatory of the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities. Moreover, it is a participant in cOAlition S. Hence, researchers are required to provide open access to peer-reviewed research outputs that result in part or in full from projects funded by the FWF. Conditions Three open access publishing options are available ( Rücknagel, 2021 ): Publication in an open access publication venue Publication in a transformative open access publication venue Self-archiving of the accepted manuscript under a CC BY licence or an equivalent open licence on the date of publication. In exceptional cases, a CC BY-ND licence may be used, but this must be approved by the FWF. Up to three years after completion of a project, applications can be submitted for funding to cover the costs of of peer-reviewed publications. The publication venue must fulfil the following requirements ( Rücknagel, 2021 ): According to Plan S, publication in hybrid journals is not sufficient unless a transformative arrangement exists. The cOAlition S Journal Checker Tool can be used to check whether an open access journal is compliant with Plan S. The quality of the publication venue must be appropriate: journals must be listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) , book publishers must be listed in the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) , and repositories must be listed in OpenDOAR . Pricing and quality assurance ( peer-review ) must be transparent. Since 2019, the FWF expects research data on which scholarly publications resulting from FWF-funded projects are based to be made available in open access in line with the FAIR Principles. In the case of all other research data, the provision of open access is at the discretion of the principal investigator. Where open access is mandatory, the research data should be published under a CC BY licence or an equivalent open licence as soon as possible – at the latest, together with the corresponding scholarly publication. Should open access to research data not be possible, this must be justified. Programme for the Promotion of Open Access The FWF promotes stand-alone publications , including "new formats such as apps, wiki-based publications, annotated scientific databases". The establishment or modernisation of scholarly journals is promoted with the aim of meeting the minimum requirements of Plan S. Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) is a signatory of the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities and supports Plan S ( Philipp, 2018 ). It requires grantees to provide open access to the results of SNSF-funded research because "research findings funded with public money belong to the public". Therefore, "everyone should be able to access them electronically and free of charge". Conditions Researchers may choose between green or gold open access . Hybrid publications also fulfil the SNSF’s open access requirement. However, in contrast to gold open access publications, the costs of publishing in hybrid journals are not covered by the SNSF. Funding Guidelines describe the various options and the procedure for complying with the SNSF’s open access mandate. Via the SNSF’s open access platform (mySNF) , authors can apply for funding to cover the costs of gold open access publishing. In this connection, the SNSF recommends that authors check whether their journal of choice is listed in the DOAJ. If this is the case, the SNSF’s open access requirement is automatically fulfilled. If authors choose green open access, journal articles must be made available to the public in a repository six months at the latest after publication; for books and book chapters, the maximum embargo period is 12 months. The self-archived version should be at least the author’s accepted manuscript (with the changes made after peer review but without the publisher’s layout). It must be deposited in a repository that allows permanent, cost-free access. In the event that the publisher stipulates a longer embargo period than that permitted by the SNSF, the above-mentioned Guidelines suggest a standard email for contacting publishers. The Guidelines also include the requirements that repositories must fulfil, and a list of approved institutional repositories. Programme for the Promotion of Open Access The SNSF also has a programme that finances the publication of open access books . Volkswagen Foundation The Volkswagen Foundation supports open access in principle and "expects the research results funded by it not only to be published in the traditional print media but also to be made available on the internet via open access" ( Volkswagen Foundation, 2021, p. 7 ). Embargo periods of between six and 12 months are possible ( Rücknagel, 2021 ). Support for Publication Costs Researchers can apply for earmarked funds to cover article processing charges (APCs) or book processing charges (BPC). With regard to the quality requirements that journals and book publishers must fulfil, it should be noted that ( Volkswagen Foundation, 2018 ): journals must be listed in the DOAJ; in the case of monographs, the chosen publisher should be listed in the DOAB or be an OASPA member . A further prerequisite for the reimbursement of publication costs is that persistent identifiers (e.g. DOIs ) and metadata should be assigned and the most open CC licence possible should be granted. Moreover, the Volkswagen Foundation recommends that authors retain their rights to exploit their works ( Volkswagen Foundation, 2018 ). The Foundation supports the sustainable storage of research data from the projects that it funds and the provision of open access to these data in line with the FAIR Principles. Funding applicants are requested to submit a data management plan together with their proposals. Further information on research data, as well as on open source programmes that arise in the context of projects funded by the Foundation, can be found in the Foundation guidelines ( Volkswagen Foundation, 2018 ). References Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung. (2017, August 28). Richtlinie zur Förderung von Open Access-Publikationen aus abgeschlossenen BMBF-geförderten Projekten (Post-Grant-Fund), Bundesanzeiger vom 01.09.2017 . BMBF.de. https://www.bmbf.de/bmbf/shareddocs/bekanntmachungen/de/2017/09/1404_bekanntmachung Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung. (2020, May 18). Richtlinie zur Förderung von Projekten zur Beschleunigung der Transformation zu Open Access, Bundesanzeiger vom 17.06.2020 . BMBF.de. https://www.bmbf.de/bmbf/shareddocs/bekanntmachungen/de/2020/06/3044_bekanntmachung Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. (2021). Verwendungsrichtlinien. Allgemeine Bedingungen für Förderverträge mit der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft e.V. (DFG) . https://www.dfg.de/formulare/2_00/v/dfg_2_00_de_v0121.pdf Europäische Kommission. (2021). Horizon Europe (HORIZON) Euratom Research and Training Programme (EURATOM). General Model Grant Agreement EIC Accelerator Contract. https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/common/agr-contr/general-mga_horizon-euratom_en.pdf Philipp, T. (2018, September 4). Freier Zugang zu Publikationen: Der SNF unterstützt den europäischen Plan S . SNF.Ch. https://www.snf.ch/de/0pAC5oBtDJQ10ABP/news/news-180904-freier-zugang-der-snf-unterstuetzt-plan-s Rücknagel, J. (2021, April 15). Fördererauflagen zu Open Access - was gilt es zu beachten? OpenAccessTalk. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4694320 Volkswagenstiftung. (2018). Information Open Access - Open Data - Open Source . https://www.volkswagenstiftung.de/sites/default/files/downloads/OpenAccessOpenDataOpenSource-Hinweise_10_2018.pdf VolkswagenStiftung. (2021). Bewilligungsgrundsätze . https://www.volkswagenstiftung.de/sites/default/files/downloads/Bewilligungsgrunds%C3%A4tze%2002_2021.pdf Further Reading Dreher, L. (2021). Open-Access-Vorgaben in EU-Projekten. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5223006 Europäische Kommission. (2017). H2020 Programme. Guidelines to the Rules on Open Access to Scientific Publications and Open Access to Research Data in Horizon 2020. (Version 3.2.). https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/grants_manual/hi/oa_pilot/h2020-hi-oa-pilot-guide_en.pdf Rooryck, J. (2020). Plan S and funding - what is going to change?. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4159203...
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Open Access to Research Data
Intro The research data management cycle open-access.network ( CC BY 4.0 International ) The key takeaways from this article are 1 Research data and their independent publication are becoming increasingly important. 2 The FAIR principles are a de facto standard for research data. 3 Organisational, legal, and infrastructural obstacles before publication can be overcome. Research Data Scientific findings in text form are based, as a rule, on research data. Research data come in a wide variety of forms and types. They comprise all (digital) data generated during the scientific process, for example, through measurements, simulations, interviews, source work, or code and software. The management of these research data has become an essential element of good research practice and is anchored in policies at many institutions. Whereas in the past, research data were often neglected as a mere accessory to publications, made available as a matter of form, or provided only upon request, a strong trend towards the independent and prominent publication of research data in an open format is apparent. In some disciplines, the publication of data is on its way to becoming the main outcome of scientific work. Reasons for Publishing Research Data Research data enable the replication and transparency of scientific results. They are thus the basis for transparent science. Reusability promotes the reanalysis of data, the merging of data from different sources, and thus the opportunity to conduct further research with existing data and to generate new knowledge. Ideally, reusability includes the right to download, copy, disseminate, and automatically process the data and to use them without financial, technical, or legal restrictions. The publication of research data enables their citability and therefore contributes to the scientific reputation of the authors. Through research assessment reforms driven by initiatives such as the Coalition for Open Research Assessment (CoARA) , research data are increasingly recognised as a scholarly achievement in their own right. Source: Hole, B. (2015). Open Science: A New publisher Perspective. Ubiquity press. ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Positions and Drivers European Union In 2016, the European Union (EU) integrated the Open Research Data (ORD) Pilot into the funding programme Horizon 2020 . The ORD Pilot provided for the publication of research data according to the premise "as open as possible, as closed as necessary". Participation was voluntary. In Horizon Europe , the successor programme to Horizon 2020, which runs until 2027, open science is designated as the modus operandi and open access to text and data publications and the provision of the data according to the FAIR principles are mandatory. Germany The German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft ; DFG) refers to the provision of data according to the FAIR principles both in its Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice and in its separately published Guidelines on the Handling of Research Data . When submitting proposals, applicants are required to provide statements on research data management and data management plans. These statements are taken into account in the evaluation. The German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) and research funding foundations, for example, also require details of the reuse and exploitation of the data. The German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) , which is jointly financed by the Federal Government and the Länder, has proved to be a further driver. According to its self-description , through the work in 26 consortia, "NFDI systematically indexes and networks valuable scientific and research data for the entire German science system and makes it available for sustainable and qualitative use.” Austria The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) introduced an Open-Access Policy for Research Data in 2019, in which it requires its grant recipients to draw up a data management plan (DMP) and to provide open access to the research data “underlying the project’s academic publications”. The Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) does not mandate open access to research data in its Open Science Policy . However, it “strongly encourages grantees to provide access to shareable research data”. The Austrian Open Science Policy , which came into force in 2022, aims inter alia to ensure that research data are published according to the FAIR principles. Moreover, several Austrian universities have adopted a research data management policy or guideline. Further information (in German) can be found on the Austria pages of forschungsdaten.info . Switzerland The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) also considers open access to research data to be a significant contribution. Further information (in English) can be found on the Switzerland pages of forschungsdaten.info . As in the case of research literature, one argument for making research data available in open access is that their production was financed with public funds. At an early stage in the history of open access, the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities recognised data as objects that should be made openly available. Besides the intrinsic motivation to be able to work more efficiently in increasingly data-driven research with the help of good data management and to benefit from open data oneself, the main drivers of the publication of data are the research funders . FAIR Principles In their guidelines and policies, various national and international research funders, for example the EU and the German Research Foundation (DFG), aim to encourage compliance with the FAIR principles. The German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) has set itself the objective of making data “FAIRfügbar”. This is a play on the German word verfügbar , which means “available”. The acronym FAIR stands for F indable, A ccessible, I nteroperable, and R eusable. The term FAIR was coined by the FORCE11-Community and published in the journal Scientific Data on 15 March 2016 ( Wilkinson et al., 2016 ). Support for the FAIR principles can be found inter alia in the G20 Leaders’ Communiqué issued at the end of the Hangzhou Summit in 2016 . The FAIR principles are an internationally recognised standard for the handling of research data. “FAIR data” does not necessarily mean that the data are openly available. Source: based on Halina Sieminska, P. (2019). A FAIRy tale graphics. Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3267168 . Bearbeitung: Ilona Lang ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) The four individual elements of FAIR mean: Findable : For the data to be reusable, they must be easily findable. To render them findable, the data are described with rich human- and machine-readable metadata. Accessible : Access to the data found must be possible according to clear rules; authentication and authorisation must be defined. Interoperable : To use data and integrate them with other data, an accessible, shared, and broadly applicable language is needed for knowledge representation. Metadata use standardised vocabularies. Reusable : The description of the data and metadata facilitates their use in different contexts. Suitable data licences are used, and the data meet domain-relevant community standards. The FAIR principles are complemented by the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance. The acronym “CARE” stands for Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility and Ethics. On the basis of the CARE principles, researchers are made aware of the need to uphold the rights and interests of indigenous communities as part of efforts to promote open data and open science – irrespective of whether their research focuses specifically on the communities themselves or otherwise affects them. For research software, the FAIR principles are complemented by the FAIR Principles for Research Software (FAIR4RS Principles) . In connection with the AI transformation, the acronym “FAIR” may also stand for Fully AI Ready. It means that data processed according to the FAIR principles are mostly machine readable and can therefore be processed by AI. Publication When publishing research data, a suitable repository should be chosen – where possible one that provides open access to the data. A disciplinary repository that is well established in the community in question should always be the preferred choice, as one’s own data are thus in a good, specialised context, and findability is easier. The Registry of Research Data Repositories, re3data , can be used to select a suitable data repository. If no suitable disciplinary repository can be found, general or institutional repositories can be used. Well-known examples of general repositories are Zenodo and Dataverse . To guarantee the long-term provision and findability of the data, a permanent address must be assigned. This persistent identifier also ensures the citability of the datasets. Preferred identifiers are the Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) provided by the DataCite consortium. As the reusability of research data is greatly limited if they lack adequate descriptions and metadata, it is imperative that they be curated in accordance with the FAIR principles before publication. Metadata should be assigned at the earliest possible point in time during the research process. They comprise both technical metadata (e.g.: When and by whom was the dataset collected?) and substantive metadata (e.g.: What is the content of the individual variables?). There are specific metadata standards for numerous disciplines. These standards are promoted, maintained, and published in particular by the NFDI consortia (see the RDA Metadata Standards Catalog ). During curation, the data are, above all, technically checked. This includes checking the data format, the basic access, and the formal accuracy. Regarding data format, long-term accessible and open data formats should be used, for example. The checking of the data content must be carried out mainly by the researchers themselves. The curation ends with the choice of a suitable licence . The Creative Commons (CC) licences have proved their worth (more information can be found on the English-language pages of the research data portal forschungsdaten.info ). However, CC licences are not suitable for licensing code or software. There are special open source licences for this purpose. Source: based on Koch, M. (2015). Publizieren über das Repositorium der Leibniz Universität Hannover. TIB Blog Practical tip Tips and tricks on how to make research data openly available to the community are available here in the slides for the Open Access Talk Research Data & Open Access - How to Publish Your Data in German. Challenges Three important challenges in research data management (RDM) and in the publication process should be mentioned as surmountable obstacles: Organisational Research data management and curation require additional competencies. New professions, such as data curator, data steward, and data scientist, are emerging, and research institutions and infrastructure facilities must make corresponding resources available and provide their employees with the necessary basic and continuing training. Research funders now finance data stewards, for example in collaborative research centres or excellence clusters. Institutions must meet the increased demands by implementing policies and adapted procedures. Legal Research data may be personal and very sensitive. These data must be anonymised before publication, or access to them must be restricted in such a way that no data protection rights are violated. Copyright aspects in connection with research data should not be ignored. This applies both to the publication of one’s own data and to the reuse of existing data. It is imperative to obtain legal advice at an early stage in the research process. Infrastructure Especially in the natural sciences, the amounts of data generated can quickly become very large. Past experience shows that the volume of data will steadily grow. Handling petabyte-scale data places demands on storage, backup, archiving, and transfer. Reservations One criticism frequently voiced by researchers stems from their concern that others will benefit excessively from their wealth of data, and that they will not achieve the reputation they need for their scientific careers. It should be made clear in this connection that publication should be sought as early and as comprehensively as possible. However, the data may still be published at a later point in time – after the analysis or subject to an embargo period . This reservation is also being addressed through proposed reforms in the assessment of research. Sovereignty over the data can remain with the data producer. The additional costs associated with the required handling of the data are also frequently mentioned. It is already possible to also request funding for these costs when applying for research funding. Data management must be regarded as a key element of scientific research and be adequately staffed and funded. Outlook The process observed in recent years will further intensify. The publication, reuse, and linking of research data have become the scientific standard. Many journals now require compliance with data availability statements upon submission. Furthermore, dedicated data and software journals are establishing themselves as additional publication venues for research data alongside repositories. Overall, it is to be expected that the boundaries between open access, text publications, and research data will become increasingly blurred, that the topics and tasks will overlap, and that a change in mindset will be brought about in the scientific community under the umbrella term “open science”. For acceptance in the scientific community, data and their handling must be recognised as a scholarly achievement. References Wilkinson, M. D., Dumontier, M., Aalbersberg, Ij. J., Appleton, G., Axton, M., Baak, A., Blomberg, N., Boiten, J.-W., Bonino da Silva Santos, L., Bourne, P. E., Bouwman, J., Brookes, A. J., Clark, T., Crosas, M., Dillo, I., Dumon, O., Edmunds, S., Evelo, C. T., Finkers, R., … Mons, B. (2016). The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship. Scientific Data , 3 . https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2016.18 Further Reading Austrian Science Fund (FWF). (n.d.). Open-Access Policy for Research Data . https://www.fwf.ac.at/en/about-us/what-we-do/open-science/open-access-policy/open-access-policy-for-research-data Putnings, M., Neuroth, H., & Neumann, J. (2021). Praxishandbuch Forschungsdatenmanagement . de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110657807 Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF). (n.d.). Open Science Policy . https://wiki.wwtf.at/books/open-science-policy/page/open-science-policy-gultig-ab-112026 Further Links forschungsdaten.info – G erman-language platform with information on research data (with some English pages) go-fair.org/ – Go Fair Initiative re3data.org – Registry of Research Data Repositories Content editor of this page: Matthias Landwehr, University of Konstanz (Last updated: May 2026). Special thanks are due to Anna-Karina Renziehausen, TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology and University Library ....
