OPEN SCIENCE AND THE ROLE OF RIGHTS MANAGEMENT
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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 Talk
oa.talk is our online event series dedicated to Open Access. The series features webinars covering a variety of Open Access topics. In these webinars, experts are invited to share information and insights from the field. If you have suggestions for specific topics, we would be glad to hear from you by email . 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next 2026 July 09 CC-Lizenzen nutzen und verstehen 9. July 2026 2026 June 11 Open Book Collective, Open Journals Collective, and Thoth: Collaborating for a sustainable Diamond OA future 11. June 2026 2026 May 05 Umsetzung von Open Access in der angewandten Forschung: Ein Institutsbericht aus dem INP Greifswald 5. May 2026 Umsetzung von Open Access in der angewandten Forschung: Ein Institutsbericht aus dem INP Greifswald 2026 Jan 30 Answers to the increasingly concentrated use of research results as training data for artificial intelligence 30. January 2026 Answers to the increasingly concentrated use of research results as training data for artificial intelligence 2025 Nov 25 Diamond Open Access: ein Aufgabenfeld für Fachinformationsdienste 25. November 2025 2025 Oct 13 Leichter gemeinsam Diamond OA unterstützen: Konsortialangebote im Blick mit dem Diamond Funding Navigator 13. October 2025 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next...
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Open Access Workshops
Das Helmholtz Open Science Office und das Open-Access-Büro Berlin führen im Rahmen des BMBF-geförderten Projekts open-access.network gemeinsam mit unterschiedlichen Partnern Workshops zu speziellen Fragen rund um das Thema Open Access durch. Die angebotenen Workshops sind inhaltlich auf die Bedarfe und Informationsdefizite der Open-Access-Community ausgerichtet. Sie adressieren urheberrechtliche Fragestellungen, Besonderheiten des Publizierens von Open-Access-Monografien, disziplinspezifische Open-Access-Optionen und -Entwicklungen sowie spezifische Herausforderungen der Open-Access-Transformation. Unsere thematischen Workshops: 1 2 3 4 5 Next 2026 Aug 12 OA-Basics und -Publikationsangebote auf peDOCS und im Fachportal Pädagogik. Einführung in Open Access-Grundlagen und Vorstellung der Angebote für die Erziehungswissenschaft, Bildungsforschung und Fachdidaktik im Fachportal Pädagogik 12. August 2026 OA-Basics und -Publikationsangebote auf peDOCS und im Fachportal Pädagogik. Einführung in Open Access-Grundlagen und Vorstellung der Angebote für die Erziehungswissenschaft, Bildungsforschung und Fachdidaktik im Fachportal Pädagogik 2025 June 12 Open-Access-Workshop für Politikwissenschaftler*innen- Sichtbar, offen, wissenschaftsnah: Die eigene Publikationsstrategie entwickeln 12. June 2025 Open Access ist mittlerweile ein in der Politikwissenschaft bekanntes und verbreitetes Publikationsmodell, das Autor*innen eine bessere Sichtbarkeit [...] 2022 Nov 30 Library Publishing - Austausch und erste Schritte, um den eigenen Universitätsverlag aufzubauen 30. November 2022 2022 Nov 21 Online-Workshop "Im Bilde: Open Access publizieren" 21. November 2022 2022 Nov 02 Open Access and share your knowledge! Publishing in African Studies 2. November 2022 2022 Oct 11 Nur ein Forschungsthema? Open Access in der Buch-, Bibliotheks- und Informationswissenschaft 11. October 2022 1 2 3 4 5 Next Weitere Veranstaltungen rund um Open Access und Open Science gibt es im Veranstaltungskalender Workshopreihe Einführung in Open Access und das Urheberrecht Workshopreihe Budgetentwicklung im Kontext der Open-Access-Transformation...
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Open Access in Art History
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 Art History Works in art history are increasingly being published in digital formats, and open access plays an important role in this regard. For example, Heidelberg University Library , together with its Specialised Information Service Art, Design, Photography, arthistoricum.net , have jointly developed strategies for digital publishing in the arts with representatives of the professional associations in the field of art history. Particularly in Die Zukunft des kunsthistorischen Publizierens [The Future of Art Historical Publishing]), an e-book edited by Maria Effinger and Hubertus Kohle (2021), the possibilities of digital publishing are set out in numerous contributions from an art history perspective. These thoughts were further developed by Maria Effinger (2023) in an article entitled “ Kunstgeschichte kommunizieren? Aufgaben, Herausforderungen und Weiterentwicklungspotenziale beim elektronischen Publizieren im Open Access ” [Tasks, Challenges, and Potential for Further Development When Publishing Electronically in Open Access]. A further fundamental work entitled Digitales Publizieren in den Geisteswissenschaften: Begriffe, Standards, Empfehlungen [Digital Publishing in the Humanities: Concepts, Standards, Recommendations] (AG Digitales Publizieren , 2021) was published by the Digital Publishing Working Group of the association Digital Humanities in the German-Speaking Area (DHd) . Veronika Fischer and Grischka Petri’s (2022) guide Bildrechte in der kunsthistorischen Praxis [Image Rights in Art Historical Practice] provides answers to questions about image rights. Open Access Journals As of September 2025, the Directory of Open Access Journals ( DOAJ ) listed 87 entries under the search term History of the arts and 686 entries under Fine arts . Besides newly established open access journals, retrodigitized journal volumes are also available in open access. New issues of these journals either appear simultaneously in print and in digital format, or the digital version is made available in open access after an embargo period (delayed open access). Important open access journals published in the German-speaking area include: 21: Inquiries into Art, History, and the Visual – Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte und visuellen Kultur DOAJ ABE-Journal: Architecture Beyond Europe DOAJ Belvedere Research Journal ; International Journal for Digital Art History Journal for Art Market Studies DOAJ kritische berichte. Zeitschrift für Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaft Kunstchronik. Monatsschrift für Kunstwissenschaft Kunstgeschichte. Open Peer Reviewed Journal kunsttexte.de – Journal für Kunst- und Bildgeschichte Pegasus. Beiträge zum Nachleben antiker Kunst und Architektur RIHA Journal DOAJ Sediment – Materialien und Forschungen zur Geschichte des Kunstmarkts transfer – Zeitschrift für Provenienzforschung und Sammlungsgeschichte | Journal for Provenance Research and the History of Collection Within the framework of the Specialised Information Service Art, Design, Photography, arthistoricum.net , for which it is co-responsible, Heidelberg University Library provides a technical infrastructure for publishing open access journals . The offering is addressed to art historians worldwide. The publication platform uses the open source software Open Journal Systems (OJS), which is provided by the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) . As of September 2025, 52 open access journals were being published via arthistoricum.net. 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 September 2025, the Directory of Open Access Books ( DOAB ) listed 581 titles under the keyword History of art and 36 titles under History of art/art & design styles , while the OAPEN Library ( OAPEN ) listed 27 titles under History of art/art & design styles . Many international museums and research institutions, for example the Getty Research Institute’s Getty Publications Virtual Library , the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s MetPublications , and the Canadian Online Art Book Project , now offer cost-free access to a selection of their books. The open access publication platform arthistoricum.net ART-Books , which is provided by Heidelberg University Library , publishes open access scholarly e-books from the fields of art history, photography, and design ( gold open access ) and also makes digital versions of print books from these fields available to the public ( green open access ). The cost-free offering is addressed to art historians worldwide. The platform uses the open source software Open Monograph Press (OMP) , which is provided by the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) . Disciplinary Repositories ART-Dok , the publication platform of arthistoricum.net, offers scholars from all over the world an opportunity to make their digital art history publications (monographs, articles, lectures, etc.) available in open access. The self-archiving of digital versions of works published in print format elsewhere is also possible and desired. As of September 2025, ART-Dok contained over 9,500 open access publications. Overviews of relevant repositories are also provided by the Open Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) and by re3data under the search terms Art History and Data Access (as of September 2025). 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 Useful Offerings Subject Portals and Platforms The information and service portal for art history arthistoricum.net is operated by the Saxon State and University Library Dresden (SLUB) and Heidelberg University Library. The Digital Art History Research Group , a platform for digital art history, promotes networking among scholars in the field of art history who develop, use, and theoretically reflect on digital tools and methods. The Deutsche Verband für Kunstgeschichte e. V . (German Association for Art History) represents the interest of art historians working in Germany and at German institutions abroad. The online archives JSTOR and Project MUSE now make available open access content of relevance to art historians. Databases and the Like The Art Discovery Group Catalogue is an international database with holdings from art and museum libraries in the USA and Europe. Via arthistoricum.net ’s catalogue, users can search for literature of relevance to art history. Searches in the full texts of collections and in image sources and disciplinary repositories are also possible. The Getty Research Portal is a subject portal of the Getty Research Institute. The portal offers worldwide open access to digitized art history literature. The Database Information System (DBIS) provides an overview of databases in the areas of art history and architecture . Image Databases The Bildarchiv Foto Marburg at Philipps-Universität Marburg is the German Documentation Centre for Art History. With around 2.6 million images, it is one of the largest digital image archives for European art and architecture. With around 7 million digitized images, the Deutsche Fotothek is a universal archive of art and cultural history. It is located at the Saxon State and University Library Dresden (SLUB) . heidICON is Heidelberg University Library’s object and multimedia database. prometheus is a distributed digital image archive for research and teaching located at the Department of Art History at the University of Cologne . With almost 4 million high-quality digitized images from the fields of art and archaeology, the web-based collection currently connects 128 databases from institutes, research facilities, and museums on a common user interface. Open Science in Art History Although open access has received strong support in the field of art history in recent times, legal, technical, and organizational issues relating to the publication and archiving of art history research data still put obstacles in the way of many scholars who want to publish their data open access. To remedy this, the consortium NFDI4Culture , which was established in October 2020, has set itself the goal of creating an infrastructure for research data on tangible and intangible cultural assets and, when doing so, to engage with the needs of the communities. The NFDI4Culture Helpdesk advises art historians on various aspects of handling research data. Questions can be asked about legal aspects, publishing and archiving data, digitization in general, open access standards, and support for the planning of funding proposals. Moreover, with its FAIR Clearing Unit, NFDI4Culture has created an advisory service that promotes the application of quality standards such as the FAIR Principles. The Munich Memorandum 2024 – Research Data in Art History: 10 Theses (Deutscher Verband für Kunstgeschichte e. V. et al., 2024) formulates from the perspective of art history in Germany current requirements, positions, and impulses for the further development of digital art history research data and their infrastructure. In addition to the possibility of archiving research data in institutional research data repositories, research data relating to open access publications on arthistoricum.net can also be published online and archived with arthistoricum.net@heiDATA . DARIAH-EU is a European network that not only supports and improves digital research and teaching in the arts and humanities but also promotes the transition to open science in these fields. open-access.network ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Praxistipp Wie und unter welchen Bedingungen audiovisuelle Materialien als Open Educational Resources in Forschung und Lehre genutzt werden dürfen, erläutert das Rechtsgutachten von Klimpel & Rack (2023) . References AG Digitales Publizieren (2021). Digitales Publizieren in den Geisteswissenschaften: Begriffe, Standards, Empfehlungen. https://doi.org/10.17175/wp_2021_001_v2 Effinger, M., & Kohle, H. (Eds.) (2021). Die Zukunft des kunsthistorischen Publizierens. arthistoricum.net. https://doi.org/10.11588/arthistoricum.663 Effinger, M. (2023). Kunstgeschichte kommunizieren? Aufgaben, Herausforderungen und Weiterentwicklungspotenziale beim elektronischen Publizieren im Open Access. kritische berichte51(1). https://doi.org/10.11588/kb.2023.1.92820 Fischer, V., & Petri, G. (2022). Bildrechte in der kunsthistorischen Praxis. Ein Leitfaden (2nd ed.). Verband Deutscher Kunsthistoriker e.V. http://doi.org/ 10.11588/artdok.00007769 Deutscher Verband für Kunstgeschichte e. V., Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte (2024). Forschungsdaten in der Kunstgeschichte: 10 Thesen - Münchner Memorandum 2024. https://doi.org/10.11588/artdok.00009194 Content editor of this page: Alexandra Büttner. Last revision of content: Maria Effinger, Heidelberg University Library (as of October 2025)....
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Open Access in Arts
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. 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 Arts In recent years, the arts disciplines have also increasingly taken a position on open access . Because they are situated between the arts and the sciences, they always play a special role in this regard. The arts are characterised not only by a diversity of disciplines that work both artistically and academically, but also by an extremely diverse publishing landscape with actors from the areas of science, culture, education, and (creative) industry. The diversity of the arts disciplines is also reflected in the broad range of publications, which may be text-based or non-text-based. Whether they be artist books, exhibition catalogues, photos, music/performance productions, or 3D-objects, these publications usually require consideration of numerous legal issues and are often a challenge for publishing platforms. The currently existing infrastructures for open access publications are geared mostly towards text-based publications and are not adequate for the needs in the arts. The infrastructures in the area of research data , some of which already exist or are currently being developed, are important points of reference and are groundbreaking for open access infrastructures (not only) in the arts. In addition, because of the close links with the creative industries, developments in the arts impact a new area for the open access community – namely, the economic livelihood of artists. Artists work both for cultural and educational institutions and in the culture industry; they are dependent on marketing their content; and their publications are financed only partly via royalties. Moreover, they are often members of collecting societies, and are limited in their freedom to freely license their works. An open access strategy in the arts must therefore include the safeguarding of artists’ incomes. The arts disciplines already clearly show that open access must always be seen in the context of all building blocks of open science and of all actors. Open Access Journals As of March 2024, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) listed 627 entries under the keyword fine arts and 89 entries under music and books on music . The listed open access journals cater often for the arts-related scholarly disciplines but only rarely for the arts or artistic practice. In addition, journals are not the dominant form of publication in the arts disciplines. What are Open Access Journals? Find an introduction here. 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 169 titles under the keyword fine arts , while the OAPEN Library listed around 450 titles under art . However, the search results are mainly publications from the areas of art/art history or even ethnology rather than from the visual or applied arts. In the last few years, the first open library consortia have been establishing themselves, for example the Open Library Medienwissenschaft since 2021 and KOALA Media Studies since 2023. Disciplinary Repositories The most important disciplinary repositories in the arts include: ART-Dok , the full-text server of the Specialised Information Service for Art, Photography and Design musiconn , the portal of the Specialised Information Service for Musicology media/rep/ , an open access repository for media studies publications The above-mentioned repositories are geared towards text-based publications. The increasing importance of open access in the arts is also changing the disciplinary repositories: needs are being identified and new projects that deal with the building of repositories for non-text-based and multimedia media are arising. 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. 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) Fokusgruppe "OA-Künste" Die digitale Fokusgruppe OA-Künste ist ein Netzwerk mit Mailingliste, das für alle künstlerischen Einrichtungen und Hochschulen offensteht. 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 Offerings The network Open Access in den Künsten [Open Access in the Arts] offers all artistic institutions and higher education institutions a forum for exchange and discussion. The aim of the network is to share materials and information and to anchor the open access idea in the arts. The focus of the network is on libraries, which, as service facilities, promote and contribute to shaping the establishing of open access structures at various levels. Open access is also gaining in importance in art and museum libraries ( Hahn, 2018 ). Besides making text-oriented electronic resources available, these libraries have long been administering analogous special collections, such as image archives, graphical collections, or artist books. Here, open access can be a step towards digital transformation and the expansion of the collection profile and the information offering. Via synergy effects, this can also advance open access in the arts. For several years now, the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Kunst- und Museumsbibliotheken (Working Group of the Art and Museum Libraries, AKMB) has offered further training in the area of open access. Open Science in the Arts Open science is also a key topic in the arts. The process of creating art, and also the works themselves, often move between several components of open science. In view of the diversity of the content and formats in the arts, it is therefore very expedient to focus not only on open access but also on open science as a whole, including, for example, open research data. Besides the open access infrastructures, the offerings of cultural institutions and research data infrastructures also offer points of reference. The expertise that exists in NFDI4Culture and other representatives of the GLAM sector (galleries, libraries, archives, museums) is a valuable support for the arts in establishing publication infrastructures. NFDI4Culture is a consortium within the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) that represents the art history, musicology, theatre, dance, architecture, film, and media studies communities. The aim of the consortium is to establish a range of offerings such as advisory and training services, guidelines, and forums for discipline-specific exchange. Moreover, NFDI4Culture engages with the legal complexities of dealing with cultural heritage, for example with questions of provenance or copyright. open-access.network ( CC BY 4.0 International ) References Hahn, C. (2018). Open Access im Museum . Herbstfortbildung AKMB Dresden. https://www.initiativefortbildung.de/pdf/schlaglichter_AKMB2018/Hahn_OA_Museum.pdf Further reading Somajni, Chiara; Tóth-Czifra, Erzsébet; Barbieri, Chiara; Marazza, Suzanna and Pensa, Iolanda (2024). Open Science for Arts, Design andMusic: Guidelines for Researchers, Librarians and Practitioners in the Humanities . SUPSI, CC0 1.0 except where otherwise stated. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.13896781 Content editors of this page: Anika Wilde, Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch , and Friederike Kramer, Library of the Berlin University of the Arts, UdK (Last updated: July 2024)....
