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 Political Science Political science is characterised by overlaps with other disciplines, for example sociology , history , law and administrative science , and philosophy . Depending on the sub-discipline, it is influenced by developments in the culture of neighbouring disciplines and adopts their methods. Whereas the humanities-oriented fields of political science, such as political theory, continue to have a strong affinity for book publishing, and open access has therefore not yet become very firmly established there, a more dynamic development towards open access can be observed in the sub-disciplines with a social science and international focus, where journal articles are the dominant form of distribution of research results. The American Political Science Association (APSA) , which is the most important political science association in the world, has been operating APSA Preprints , an open access publication platform for political science preprints, since 2019. In 2024, the largest political science association in Germany, the German Political Science Association (GPSA) , published a statement on open access and open science (in German), in which it underscored the importance of diamond open access in cooperation with independent publishers or non-profit-oriented research infrastructures as an important prerequisite for the success of the open access transformation. Of the major German-language political science journals, the Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft and the Politische Vierteljahresschrift , for example, are available for the most part in open access (to date only as hybrid journals ) as part of the DEAL agreement with Springer Nature. Other key German-language political science journals, such as the Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen and the Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen , have also been published only as hybrid open access to date – that is, they offer authors the option of "buying the freedom" of individual articles (i.e., making them open access) by paying an article processing charge (APC) . A special role is played by the think tanks in the area of application-oriented political science. Think tanks are public or private institutions that analyse foreign policy processes. They focus mainly on concrete options for action for policy makers, while also aiming to influence the political public at large. Many current publications from the leading think tanks, such as Clingendael in the Netherlands, the German Institute for International and Security Affairs and the Center for Applied Policy Research in Germany, and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in Sweden, are for the most part freely accessible, albeit not completely open access. They are well publicised and can be downloaded easily from the respective websites. On the other hand, the problem with this type of grey literature is its findability at the usual search venues and the long-term digital availability of its content. Open Access Journals As of April 2024, the Directory of Open Access Journals listed 644 indexed journals under the keyword “ political science” . Purely open access journals (i.e., all articles are available in open access) of relevance to political science are: Africa Spectrum doaj Central European Journal of International & Security Studies doaj Health and Human Rights doaj (Gebühren werden nur in Rechnung gestellt, wenn diese durch die Einrichtung der Autorin oder des Autors übernommen werden können) Journal of Deliberative Democracy doaj Journal of Political Ecology doaj Leviathan. Berliner Zeitschrift für Sozialwissenschaft Neue Politische Literatur. Berichte aus Geschichts- und Politikwissenschaft Open Gender Journal doaj Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft doaj Perspectives on Terrorism doaj Political Philosophy Redescritptions: Political Thought, Conceptual History and Feminist Theory Revue Internationale de Politique de Développement doaj Totalitarianism and Democrary. An International Journal for the Study of Dictatorship and Liberty (Totalitarismus und Demokratie. Zeitschrift für internationale Diktatur- und Freiheitsforschung) Zeitschrift diskurs ZRex – Zeitschrift für Rechtsextremismusforschung doaj Global Studies Quarterly doaj Policy and Society doaj Political Research Exchange doaj Research & Politics doaj In most cases, new journals from the major international academic publishers appear in open access. Because they have been in existence for only a short time, these young journals have been able to build up only low or average bibliometric indices, compared with the established core journals in this field. Among the 10 political science journals with the highest Journal Impact Factors in 2022, according to the Journal Citation Report (JCR), there are no purely open access journals. Of relevance in this context is the development of alternative metrics ( altmetrics ), which are also critically discussed in political science (Meibauer et al., 2024). New open access journals often occupy regional niches or are in new sub-disciplines and therefore have a more limited scope per se. The situation of German-language political science journals should be viewed independently of this. The fact that the internal market for German-language journals is small, increases the economic risk of open access transformations or start-ups for the publishers operating there – unless there is institutional funding (as, for example, in the case of Africa Spectrum or of Totalitarismus und Demokratie , where the transformation to open access is supported by the Specialized Information Service for Political Science – Pollux). Some of these journals (e.g., Perspectives on Terrorism ) have been able to establish themselves beside renowned journals from international scholarly publishers. In addition, in the area of journals, optional article-level open access in hybrid journals is increasingly being availed of across disciplines through the publish & read licences (e.g., DEAL). This relates also to internationally important publishers for political science, such as Sage und Taylor & Francis. In the Web of Science, the share of gold open access among the political science articles published between 2020 and 2023 was almost one third, and the trend is rising. The increasing share of open access among journal articles is also apparent in a study by Breuning and Aykol (2024), who also showed that having research funding at one's disposal is decisive for the question of whether or not works can be published in open 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 August 2024, the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) listed 3,033 titles under the search term " political science ", and the OAPEN Library listed around 8,602 titles under the search term "political science" . In the case of political science monographs and edited volumes, open access is becoming increasingly widespread. At Taylor & Francis/Routledge, for example, the share of open access books in the section “Politics & International Relations” recently stood at just over 8%. At Springer Nature/Palgrave, a sample of titles in the collection "Political Science and International Studies" for the most recent publication years yielded an open access share of 9.4%. At Nomos Publishing, one of the leading academic publishers for political science in the German-speaking area, the share of open access works among new political science titles between 2020 and May 2024 was 12.6%. By now, all major publishers (including German publishers) offer an open access option, with the result that, at the publishers of relevance to political science, more and more books are available in open access. The publication costs are financed (possibly pro rata) from project funding and through institutional sources such as publication funds or crowdfunding, as is the case with the transcript Open Library Politikwissenschaft , which is supported by the Specialized Information Service Political Science – Pollux (Hanneken et al., 2020). Disciplinary Repositories Important repositories include: SSOAR - Social Science Open Access Repository : The largest full-text server for the social sciences, SSOAR is operated by GESIS Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften . SSRN – Social Science Research Network : a preprint server with research publications from the social and life sciences, the humanities, and economics and business studies. The PSN (Political Science Network) in SSRN holds over 240,000 papers by around 190,000 authors. SocArXiv : This social science document server holds working papers, preprints, and self-archived published papers. APSA Preprints : the political science preprint server of the American Political Science Association (APSA) . 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) 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 online archives JSTOR and Project MUSE now also provide open access content relevant to political science. Open Science in Political Science The visibility of and access to political science research data will gain in importance in future, for example, for the secondary analysis of research results or for meta-analyses. Two social science research data repositories, one of which covers quantitative methods and the other qualitative methods, shall be mentioned here: Archiving BASIS : a social science and economics research data repository for quantitative primary and secondary data Qualidata Network : a search portal for qualitative social science research data open-access.network ( CC BY 4.0 International ) References Breuning, M., Akyol, S. (2024). Who publishes open access? PS: Political Science & Politics . https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096524000106 Hanneken, S., Jobmann, A. & Schönfelder, N. (2020). Die transcript OPEN Library Politikwissenschaften – Ein Modell für Open-Access-eBooks in den Geistes- & Sozialwissenschaften. Informationspraxis , 6 (2). https://doi.org/10.11588/ip.2020.1.66637 Meibauer, G., Phull, K., Alejandro, A., & Ciflikli, G. (2024). Alternative metrics, traditional problems? Assessing gender dynamics in the altmetrics of political science. European Political Science , 23 (2), 179–198. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-023-00431-y Further Reading Czolkoß-Hettwer, M. (2025). Zwischen Hoffnung und Ernüchterung: Open Access in der Politikwissenschaft. DVPW Blog (Deutsche Vereinigung für Politikwissenschaft). https://www.dvpw.de/blog/zwischen-hoffnung-und-ernuechterung-open-access-in-der-politikwissenschaft-ein-beitrag-von-michael-czolkoss-hettwer Czolkoß-Hettwer, M., Lein, P. & Mayr, P. (2024). Probleme und Potenziale der Forschungsinfrastrukturförderung in Deutschland am Beispiel des Fachinformationsdienstes Politikwissenschaft. Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft , 34 (1), 101–122. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41358-024-00371-z König, T. (2020). Converting to Open Access. The Austrian Journal of Political Science (OZP) as a case study. Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft , 49 (3), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.15203/ozp.3184.vol49iss3 Papillon, M., O’Neill, B., Bourque, M., Marland, A. & White, G. (2019). Open access and academic journals in Canada: A political science perspective. Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue Canadienne de Science Politique , 52 (4), 903–922. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423919000799 Taubert, N., Sterzik, L. & Bruns, A. (2024). Mapping the German Diamond Open Access journal landscape. Minerva , 62 (2), 193–227. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-023-09519-7 Vauteck, B. (2008). Open Access als alternative Publikationsform für die deutsche Politikwissenschaft. Argumente und Strategien (Berliner Handreichungen zur Bibliotheks- und Informationswissenschaft; 232 ). https://doi.org/10.18452/18209 Content editors of this page: Michael Czolkoß-Hettwer und Regina Pfeifenberger, Specialized Information Service Political Science (FID Pollux) (Last updated: October 2025)....
What is Open Access? Find an introduction here. Source: based on Brinken, H. (2021). 10 Gründe für Open Access. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4643859 ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access: Pros and Cons Find an introduction here. Open Access Publishing and Self-Archiving Find an introduction here. Open Access in Psychology In line with the general trend, open access has also gained ground and further established itself in psychology, albeit via various routes. In Germany, the largest professional association in psychology, the German Psychological Society (DGPs) , expressed its support for open access very early on. For example, as far back as September 2004, the general assembly of the DGPs endorsed the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities , which the DGPs formally signed in 2017. In addition, the Leibniz Institute for Psychology (ZPID) in particular is committed to open access in psychology. In 2012, it launched PsychOpen GOLD , an open access publishing platform for psychology on which 14 open access psychology journals are currently provided. A distinctive feature of the journals published by PsychOpen GOLD is that they use a diamond open access business model. Thus, all content is made freely accessible to readers worldwide at no charge to authors or editors. Furthermore, one of PsychOpen GOLD’s primary goals is to strengthen open science practices in psychology and enhance the international visibility of European psychological research. Besides PsychOpen GOLD, the ZPID offers free access to a range of other information products for psychology (see the "Open Science" section below). By contrast, the internationally influential American Psychological Association (APA) , the largest psychological association in the world, was for a long time quite unreceptive to open access. For example, in September 2007, the then President of the APA, Sharon Stephens Brehm, warned that the existing system of scientific publishing should be changed only with caution ( Stephens Brehm, 2007 ). This reticence about open access is presumably due not least to the fact that, as a commercial publisher, the APA publishes around 90 scholarly journals of psychology. However, all APA subscription-based journals now offer a hybrid open access option whereby authors can make individual contributions freely accessible by paying an article processing charge ( APC ). However, this does not mean that these contributions can be published under an open content licence, for example a Creative Commons (CC) licence . The APA has concluded open access agreements (also known as “read and publish agreements”) with several organizations worldwide. Authors affiliated to institutions participating in these agreements do not have to pay APCs. In addition, all APA journal authors have the option of self-archiving a copy of their author accepted manuscript (AAM) in a repository ( green open access ) and of making it publicly available under an open content licence. In psychology, scholarly literature can be found largely in journals. By contrast, books or conference proceedings play a lesser role. Open access to scholarly books in psychology is still in its infancy. Purely open access journals are still the exception in psychology. In September 2025, a search conducted in OpenAlex for sources with the keyword “psychology” in the title yielded 1,046 journals, of which 26.2% (274) were classified as open access and 11.7% (122) met the narrower criteria for inclusion in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). In an earlier study based on a sample of Web of Science articles published between 2009 and 2015, Piwowar et al. (2017, 2018) found that 4.7% of the articles in psychology were published in purely open access journals ( gold open access ). However, as many journals in psychology offer authors at least an open access option ( hybrid model ), the share of actually freely available psychology journal articles is probably higher. This is also indicated by a study conducted by Hardwicke et al. (2022) , who examined transparency measures in the psychology literature and found an open access rate of 65% for the N = 250 articles included in a random sample of psychology articles published between 2014 and 2017. Open Access Journals As of August 2025, the aforementioned Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) itself listed 1,838 entries under the keyword Psychology. Many of the purely open access journals can traditionally be found on scholarly, non-commercial platforms of professional associations, research institutions, universities, or specialised information centres. However, as author-funded business models are growing in popularity, purely open access journals are increasingly being provided by traditional scholarly publishers and new commercial open access publishers. Important open access journals in psychology include: Advances in Cognitive Psychology DOAJ Collabra Psychology DOAJ Europe's Journal of Psychology DOAJ Frontiers in Psychology DOAJ Judgement and Decision Making DOAJ Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience DOAJ Some of the above-mentioned journals have been published open access for many years now and do not levy any article processing charges (APCs) (Europe's Journal of Psychology, Judgement and Decision Making). Among the open access journals that do charge their authors a fee to have their research articles published, this fee ranges from a few hundred (e.g. Advances in Cognitive Psychology) to several thousand euros/dollars (e.g. Frontiers in Psychology ) and is payable before publication. Frontiers in Psychology is an example of a mega-journal that is published by a commercial open access publisher and publishes several thousand articles per year. As of August 2025, the most important psychology publisher in the German-speaking area, Hogref e , had four purely open access journals in its portfolio (European Journal of Psychology Open, Sports Psychiatry, Psychological Test Adaptation and Development, Rorschachiana). For all the other journals in its portfolio, it offers authors the option of publishing their articles open access against payment of an APC ( hybrid model ). Hogrefe has concluded transformative agreements with institutions in Germany and Switzerland, whereby open access publication charges are consortially funded. Authors affiliated to participating research institutions can thus publish open access without having to pay individual APCs. In addition to these traditional journals, other types of publication are also gaining in importance. They include, for example, the Peer Community in (PCI) platforms, which offer free peer-reviews of preprints and registered reports for a wide range of disciplines. Registered reports are an alternative publishing format to the classical journal article. Before a study is conducted, a “Stage 1 manuscript” comprising research questions, theoretical background, hypotheses (if applicable), methods, and any necessary preliminary data is submitted to a journal or to PCI Registered Reports (PCI RR) , where it undergoes peer-review. If successful, authors receive “in-principle acceptance” and thus have the assurance that their study will be published irrespective of the results. After in-principle acceptance, the authors conduct the study and complete the manuscript by adding the Results and Discussion sections (Stage 2 manuscript). PCI RR has agreements with various journals (so-called “PCI-friendly journals) whereby articles reviewed and accepted in principle at PCI RR can be published after undergoing a shortened peer-review (PCI-friendly journals) or without having to undergo peer-review at all (in Peer Community Journal ). Registered reports are not published solely in open access, but both modes are often combined. PCI RR and PCI Psychology play an increasingly important role in psychology. 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 August 2025, the Directory of Open Access Books listed 738 titles under Psychology , and the online library of open access books OAPEN listed 21,855 titles under Psychology . As scholarly literature in psychology is largely found in journals, books and conference proceedings play a minor role. Nonetheless, the number of open access books has been increasing steadily in recent years. Disciplinary Repositories Important disciplinary repositories in psychology include: PsychArchives – one of the few open access repositories worldwide that specialise in psychology. In addition to the actual manuscripts, it also contains in many cases supplementary material (e.g. data and code). PsyArXiv – contains preprints from psychology Social Science Open Access Repository (SSOAR) – contains documents from the social sciences, some of which are also assigned to psychology. Green open access – that is, the self archiving of preprints and post-prints – is now widespread in psychology and is permitted by many publishers. An overview of relevant repositories is also provided by the Open Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) . What are Repositories? Find an introduction here. Legal Aspects Find an introduction here. Video über das Zeitveröffentlichungsrecht Quelle: Brehm, E. (2021). Zweitveröffentlichungsrecht für Wissenschaftler*innen, open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/51789 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) Practical Tip Open-Access- Literatur finden [Finding Open Access Literature] (available only in German) oa.helpdesk If you have any questions about open access, we will be happy to help you. oa.finder The oa.finder shows you which journals, among tens of thousands, are gold open access, whether they levy article processing charges (APCs), and how high these charges are. In addition, you can view the funding modalities of your own journal. Other Useful Offerings As yet, there are no databases and search engines that index only open access documents from psychology. However, with PsychPorta there is a large, freely accessible psychological reference database that also provides links to full texts and allows users to filter search results specifically by open access content. PsychPorta comprises records of journal articles, books and book chapters, intervention programmes, research data , and psychodiagnostic test instruments from all areas of psychology. Open Science in Psychology Ever since Ioannidis (2005) questioned the validity of most published research findings, and in view of the large number of failed attempts to replicate previously significant effects (e.g. Open Science Collaboration, 2015 ), vehement discussions on the reliability of published research findings have been taking place in many scholarly disciplines under the heading “replication crisis”. According to the criticism of scientific practice, the low reproducibility could be an indication of a high rate of false-positive results. Potential causes of this (e.g. p -hacking or HARKing) are often subsumed under the rubric "questionable research practices". In reaction to this, there has been an increase in the importance of open science (e.g. Munafò et al., 2017 ), an umbrella term for a wide variety of practices aimed at making the research process more transparent and thus more reproducible. Open science also aims to make research accessible to more people. Important open science practices in psychology include, for example, the preregistration of studies (i.e. the recording and publication of research plans before the beginning of a study/the data analysis in order to transparently specify a priori what is planned), open material, and open data (i.e. the sharing of research materials and data in order to make findings transparent and reusable). As there are diverse and changing positions on open science within psychology, the extent of the spread of its constituent elements varies ( Spinath, 2021 ). There are various offerings in psychology that are in the spirit of the open science idea: RDC at ZPID – The Research Data Centre (RDC) at ZPID makes psychological research data available for reuse. Provided by the Leibniz Institute for Psychology (ZPID) , and accredited by the German Data Forum (RatSWD) , it documents, archives, and publishes research data from all areas of psychology; it is currently the only research data centre specialising in psychology. Open Science Framework – The Center for Open Science , which operates the Open Science Framework (OSF) , a platform for sharing documents, data, scripts, etc., is one of the most committed advocates of open access, also in psychology. Although this initiative is transdisciplinary, it has a strong psychological foundation. Open Test Archive – This archive, which is also provided by the Leibniz Institute for Psychology (ZPID) , makes open access test instruments available for research and teaching. PsychAuthors – This freely accessible database contains profiles and publication lists of authors in psychology from the German-speaking area. Link Collection of the German Psychological Society (DGPs) – practical resources for research and teaching on the topic of open science In addition, there are numerous open science initiatives at the psychological institutes and faculties of various universities in Germany. Most of these initiatives have come together in the Netzwerk der Open-Science-Initiativen in Deutschland (NOSI) . open-access.network ( CC BY 4.0 International ) References Hardwicke, T. E., Thibault, R. T., Kosie, J. E., Wallach, J. D., Kidwell, M. C., & Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2021). Estimating the prevalence of transparency and reproducibility-related research practices in psychology (2014–2017). Perspectives on Psychological Science, 17(1), 239–251. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691620979806 Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2005). Why most published research findings are false. PLOS Medicine, 2 (8). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124 Munafò, M. R., Nosek, B. A., Bishop, D. V. M., Button, K. S., Chambers, C. D., Percie du Sert, N., Simonsohn, U., Wagenmakers, E.-J., Ware, J. J., & Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2017). A manifesto for reproducible science. Nature Human Behaviour , 1. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-016-0021 Open Science Collaboration. (2015). Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science. Science, 349 (6251). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aac4716 Piwowar, H., Priem, J., Larivière, V., Alperin, J. P., Matthias, L., Norlander, B., Farley, A., West, J., & Haustein, S. (2017). Data from: The state of OA: A large-scale analysis of the prevalence and impact of Open Access articles . Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1041791 Piwowar, H., Priem, J., Larivière, V., Alperin, J. P., Matthias, L., Norlander, B., Farley, A., West, J., & Haustein, S. (2018). The state of OA: A large-scale analysis of the prevalence and impact of Open Access articles. PeerJ , 6. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4375 Spinath, B. (2021). Zur Lage der Psychologie. Psychologische Rundschau, 72 (1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1026/0033-3042/a000521 Stephens Brehm, S. (2007). Open access: A thorny debate. Monitor on Psychology, 38 (8). https://www.apa.org/monitor/sep07/pc Content editors of this page: Dr Katarina Blask, Dr Lisa Spitzer and Dr Gerrit Fröhlich, Leibniz Institute for Psychology (ZPID) (Last updated: September 2025)....
What is Open Access? Find an introduction here. Source: based on Brinken, H. (2021). 10 Gründe für Open Access. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4643859 ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access: Pros and Cons Find arguments and reservations here. Open Access Publishing and Self-Archiving Find an introduction here. Open Access in Religious Studies In Germany, religious studies is one of the small disciplines , and is considered an independent humanities and cultural studies discipline distinct from the theologies. In other countries, for example in Britain and North America, the (institutional) separation of religious studies and the theologies is to some extent less pronounced. Research in religious studies takes place in a professionally and methodologically broad, heterogeneous environment. Overlaps exist inter alia with the ethnological disciplines , with sociology , philosophy , historical studies and classical studies , and also with various area studies disciplines (e.g. African Studies ) and the theologies. In religious studies, as in other humanities disciplines, great importance continues to be attached to print books in general, as well to the publication of contributions in edited collections and conference proceedings. However, in dialogue with the religious studies community, an increasing openness towards the reception and production of open access publications is apparent. Reservations towards open access relate inter alia to fears of compromised quality and additional effort and costs (e.g. when converting journals to open access), as well as to concerns with regard to higher publication costs for authors. To date, neither the German Association for the study of Religion (Deutsche Vereinigung für Religionswissenschaft, DVRW) , nor the European Association for the Study of Religions (EASR) nor the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR) has taken a clear position on open access. The DVRW’s journal, Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft , is still published in closed access. By contrast, associations for the study of religion in some other European countries (inter alia the Czech Association for the Study of Religions and the British Association for the Study of Religions ) have been successfully publishing open access journals for some years now. In the English-language literature, the topic of open access in religious studies has been reflected on in several contributions – both from the perspective of the editors of individual scholarly journals ( Drees, 2015; Drees, 2017; Wildman et al., 2019; Petersen, 2021 ) and from the perspective of individual scholars ( Clasquin-Johnson, 2008; Cavallin, 2013 ). An added value of open access is seen especially in the fact that it can also make scientific participation easier for financially insecure institutions and researchers worldwide, who are unable to access expensive licensed resources. For authors, on the other hand, open access may also become a hurdle if, for example, they cannot afford the sometimes-considerable publication fees charged by the publishers (Frank et al., 2023). Open Access Journals As of April 2024, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) listed 131 entries under the subject Religions. Mythology. Rationalism . A closer look at this list reveals that journals relating to a specific religion, or journals with a theological focus, are also assigned to this subject area. If one extends the search query to include journals that are listed under individual religions (Islam, Judaism, Buddhism), one achieves a more extensive result (451 entries) . Here, the challenge intimated in the previous section becomes clear: on the one hand, in the international context, the discipline of religious studies cannot be clearly distinguished from the theologies; on the other hand, overlaps exist with numerous other humanities and cultural studies disciplines, as well as with the social sciences. Important open access religious studies journals include: Approaching Religion* , DOAJ Journal of Global Buddhism* , DOAJ Temenos: Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion* , DOAJ International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage* , DOAJ Japanese Journal of Religious Studies *, DOAJ Journal for Religion, Film and Media *, DOAJ Entangled Religions *, DOAJ Religion and Society: Advances in Research *, DOAJ Secularism and Nonreligion , DOAJ Debates do NER *, DOAJ Zygon * (Journals with an asterisk do not levy article processing charges [APCs]) The journals listed above reflect the disciplinary and geographical spread of open access endeavours. From an international perspective, there is therefore a very great diversity of open access journals with content of relevance to religious studies – often on very specific topics. Most of these journals are published at universities and do not charge authors any publication fees. Thus, in the religious studies community the diamond open access model is more widespread than the gold open access model. In addition, there is still a large body of subscription-based journals, including, in particular, the “renowned” journals in the discipline. Some of these journals offer authors the option to make their articles open access for a fee. Mention should also be made of the Zeitschrift für junge Religionswissenschaft , the only publication to date for early-stage researchers in the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland). It, too, is published open access. A large number of open access journals in the field of religious studies have not yet been listed in the DOAJ. They include inter alia: Religio: Revue pro religionistiku , the Journal of the British Association for the Study of Religions , the Marburg Journal of Religion and REVER: Revista de Estudos da Religião . 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 April 2024, the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) listed 142 titles under the subject Religion: general , and the online library of open access books OAPEN listed 149 titles under Religion: general . In religious studies, the publication of books in open access has only recently gained in importance. Some publishers, for example transcript and DeGruyter , offer this option, and it has already been availed of (in addition to the print version) for many religious studies titles. The greatest challenge in this regard is considered to be the financing of the publication fees (book processing charges, BPCs), which is most likely possible within the framework of a project. Disciplinary Repositories Both in the German-speaking area and internationally, there is currently only one disciplinary repository for religious studies . It is managed by the Specialised Information Service (FID) for the Study of Religion at Tübingen University Library. The repository can be searched and the archived content accessed via the bibliography of the study of religion RelBib, the portal of the FID for the Study of Religion (see self-archived works in RelBib ). In addition, the FID for the Study of Religion offers authors from the German-speaking area (DACH) individual support to provide green open access to their works (within the framework of a comprehensive self-archiving service ). As a low-threshold alternative, an internationally oriented self-archiving form with the possibility to upload is offered via RelBib. Depending on the field of research, other disciplinary repositories may be of relevance for authors in religious studies, for example the Social Science Open Access Repository (SSOAR) . Repositories with an area studies focus, for example the FID4SA-Repository for South Asian studies or MENAdoc for Middle East and Islamic studies, can also be availed of. In addition, the thematically focused repository Science and Religion Dialogue Prints (SciRePrints) is provided at the University of Latvia. SciRePrints is specifically intended for the self-archiving of publications and preprints about – or pertinent to – the dialogue between science and religion. 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 Offerings With RelBib , the FID for the Study of Religion at Tübingen University Library operates an international online bibliography for the study of religion that can be used free of charge. RelBib collaborates very closely with the international bibliography for theology and religious studies Index Theologicus (IxTheo) . In RelBib, monographs, journals, journal articles and edited collections, websites, blogs, research data, and many other resources are indexed. As new titles and updates are regularly imported, RelBib offers the most up-to-date specialised information. A steadily growing number of journals of relevance to religious studies are continuously analysed at article level. As RelBib’s focus is on providing open access content, priority is given to titles with immediate and open access to full texts. Search results can be narrowed to freely accessible titles by applying the open access filter. In addition, there is also a full-text search option in RelBib. With the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform RelBib Open Journals , the FID for the Study of Religion promotes the conversion of journals or series to open access or the founding of new open access journals and series. In addition to the publishing system, the FID provides advice on these topics to interested parties beforehand and supports editors in founding new open access journals or series or in migrating existing journals or series to open access. It also offers hands-on support with technical queries. Blogs RelBib Newsfeedaggregator : the latest contributions from international blogs and podcasts of relevance to religious studies Platforms Mapping Religionswissenschaft : a project for thematic exchanges in religious studies Netzwerk un-sichtbar : a project for the transfer of religious studies knowledge to the public Databases Database of Religious History (DRH) : a collaborative open access encyclopaedia of religious cultural history The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) : a large collection of freely available statistical data from religion-related population surveys Further open access religious studies content is made available on the platforms Project Muse (as of July 2024, 293 titles: monographs in the research area “religion”) and JSTOR (as of July 2024, 34,915 titles: essays from journals and edited volumes on the subject of “religion”. Open Science in Religious Studies To date, open science endeavours have been neither very pronounced nor centrally coordinated in the small discipline of religious studies. Nonetheless, initial activities are apparent, especially in the area of open data. In 2019, with support from the DVRW, the FID for the Study of Religion conducted a survey on research data in the discipline ( FID for the studies of Religion & DVRW, 2020 ), the results of which also received attention in the religious studies community ( Koch, 2020 ). The central indexing of research data of relevance to religious studies was one of the desiderata that emerged from the survey. As a result, the targeted search for research data was introduced in RelBib. CERES (the Center for Religious Studies) at Ruhr-Universität Bochum is involved as a participating institution in the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) Consortium for the Historically Oriented Humanities, 4memory . One example of a digital humanities project for the digitisation of religious objects is DiGA – Digitization of Gandharan Artefacts , which is located at CERES. The provision and archiving of the image and object data are carried out in collaboration with the Specialized Information Service (FID) for South Asia . Comparable developments are also to be expected in the future in the other areas of open science (e.g. Hermann, 2021 ). open-access.network ( CC BY 4.0 International ) References Cavallin, C. (2013). Religious studies and the knowledge society: Open access as contributing to an open society. In F. Sardella, & R. Sain (Eds.), The sociology of religion in India (pp. 105–113). Abhijeet Publications. Clasquin-Johnson, M. (2008). Finding, using and creating open-access religious studies academic material on the Internet. Journal for the Study of Religion, 21 (2). https://doi.org/10.4314/jsr.v21i2.65741 Drees, W. B. (2017). Green open access for interesting contributions. Zygon, 52 (1), 3–8. https://doi.org/10.1111/zygo.12329 Drees, W. B. (2015). Publishing in a changing world. Zygon 50 (3), 559–568. https://doi.org/10.1111/zygo.12199 FID for the Study of Religion & DVRW (2020). Umfrage zum Thema Forschungsdaten in der Religionswissenschaft. https://relbib.de/Content/survey_results#content Frank, J., Foster, R., & Pagliari, C. (2023). Open access publishing – Noble intention, flawed reality, Social Science & Medicine, 317 , Article 115592. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115592 Hermann, A. (Ed.). (2021). Experimente mit digitaler Lehre: Überlegungen und Modelle jenseits einer Defizitperspektive . Universitäts- u. Landesbibliothek Bonn. https://doi.org/10.48565/bonndoc-3 Koch, A. (2020). Religionswissenschaft und digital humanities. Verkündigung und Forschung , 65 (2), 152–158. https://doi.org/10.14315/vf-2020-650211 Petersen, A. C. (2021). Open access, the humanities, and contemplation through science. Zygon, 56 (3), 541–546. https://doi.org/10.1111/zygo.12736 Wildman, W. J., Bulbulia, J., Schjødt, U., & Sosis, R. (2019). Is the Open Access movement about to get real? Religion, Brain & Behavior , 9 (2), 105–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2019.159507 Content editor of this page: Mareike Heinritz, Specialised Information Service for the Study of Religion (FID Religionswissenschaft) / Tübingen University Library (Last updated: October 2024)....
What is Open Access? Find an introduction here. Source: based on Brinken, H. (2021). 10 Gründe für Open Access. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4643859 ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access: Pros and Cons Find an introduction here. Open Access Publishing and Self-Archiving Find an introduction here. Open Access in Linguistics Find an introduction here. Open Access in Romance Studies Although access to digital publications is highly valued in Romance studies, open access is rather underrepresented there compared with other disciplines. Romance studies has a heterogeneous publication culture in which established models of publication and dissemination of research results play a central role. Printed journals continue to occupy a special place, and, besides journals, edited collections are an important form of publication. Publishers and independent journals as well as researchers and associations are increasingly breaking new ground in the form of open access publications and initiatives – to date, mainly in the journals area, but increasingly also in the area of monographs and edited collections. The topic of open access is becoming increasingly important in the publication culture in Romance studies, not least because of the positions and requirements of research funders. Small publishers are responsible for a substantial part of the publication output in Romance studies, and many of them now offer open access options. The information offerings and networking activities of the Specialised Information Service for Romance Studies ( FID Romanistik ) are also worthy of mention. Impetus has been forthcoming from the community through journal startups and a position paper on open access and research data ( Schöch et al., 2017 ) produced by the Digital Romance Studies Working Group ( AG Digitale Romanistik ) of the German Association of Romance Philologists ( Deutscher Romanistikverband) . The topic is also gaining traction, especially among mid-level academics, through workshops organised by the German Association of Romance Philologists and through inter-disciplinary discussions and further education programmes at graduate schools. Best-practice examples and reports of concrete experiences were presented at a workshop in 2017 in which publishers, editors, and researchers participated ( Hornung & Trapp, 2018 ). A survey of German-speaking Romance philologists ( Hornung et al., 2017 ) conducted in 2016 by the Specialised Information Service for Romance Studies ( FID Romanistik ) provided insights into the question of how open access is perceived in the discipline and what factors influence researchers when it comes to deciding whether to publish open or closed access . The survey found that the reputation of the publisher, the series, the journal, and the editors were decisive factors. Although respondents valued the high degree of dissemination and the findability of open access publications, these factors were not decisive. The survey results suggest that Impact Factors, which are of central importance in other disciplines, play hardly any role in Romance studies. A more recent survey conducted by the Specialised Information Service for Romance Studies (Schepers, 2024) suggests that awareness of open access has increased. Respondents formulated specific concerns and problems, such as the funding of open access monographs or possibilities of self-archiving works published with a publisher, while also pointing to a need for information about – and to barriers to – open access publishing. Open Access Journals As of April 2024, the Directory of Open Access Journals listed 66 entries under Romanic languages and 176 entries under French literature - Italian literature - Spanish literature - Portuguese literature . Important open access journals include: apropos [Perspektiven auf die Romania] Estudios Culturales Hispánicos (University of Regensburg) HeLix – Dossiers zur romanischen Literaturwissenschaft Horizonte – Neue Serie • Nuova Serie Romanische Studien Versants – Revista suiza de literaturas románicas (University of Bern) Zeitschrift für Katalanistik – Revista d’Estudis Catalans (German Association of Catalan Philologists) Other journals from neighbouring and superordinate fields, such as general linguistics , comparative literary studies, and the digital humanities, that are also of relevance to Romance studies include: Glossa: a journal of general linguistics HiN – Alexander von Humboldt im Netz Iberoamericana. América Latina - España - Portugal iMex. México Interdisciplinario/Interdisciplinary Mexico Miradas – Zeitschrift für Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte der Amérikas und der iberischen Halbinsel PhiN – Philologie im Netz Pragmática Sociocultural / Sociocultural Pragmatics Textpraxis. Digitales Journal für Philologie Zeitschrift für Interkulturellen Fremdsprachenunterricht ZfdG - Zeitschrift für digitale Geisteswissenschaften Also worthy of mention are review journals such as fabula.org for Franco-Romance studies. Bibliodiversity is also apparent among open access publications that are more firmly anchored in the field of Romance studies outside Germany, especially among Latin American offerings provided by the platforms sciELO , Redalyc , AmeliCA , and Latindex ( Müller, 2020 ). Among the German-language offerings there are also early pioneer projects, in particular PhiN – Philologie im Netz , which was launched as a purely open access journal in 1997. The number of open access journals is increasing due, especially, to new periodicals such as apropos [Perspektiven auf die Romania] . By contrast, transformations of existing periodicals in Romance studies in the German-speaking area are still rare. However, the Zeitschrift für Katalanistik has a certain exemplary character because all issues are hybrid in the sense that they are made available in print for a fee and online in open access, and all older volumes dating back to the very first volume in 1988 have been retrodigitised. A similar repositioning can be seen in the case of Versants . The journal Horizonte - Neue Serie • Nuova Serie was newly founded as an independent open access publication after the discontinuation of its subscription-based predecessor, Horizonte . The founding of the open access journal Glossa in 2016 was spectacular in that it emerged from a conflict between the editorial board of the journal Lingua and the publisher Elsevier. Whereas authors in other disciplines often have to pay article processing charges (APCs) to have their works published open access, that funding model is – with a few exceptions – not common in Romance studies, where publishing is usually free of charge for authors ( diamond open access ), because many purely open access journals are run by institutes or by the editors themselves. Exceptions are hybrid journals of the major publishers in which individual articles are published open access against payment of a fee. Also of relevance is the possibility to self-archive the contributions in a repository after an embargo period of 12 months. In the case of promptus – Würzburger Beiträge zur Romanistik , for example, this is implemented by the editors. In Romance studies, it is relatively common for journals to be hosted either in-house or by local libraries, some of which are supra-regionally active. For example, the journal apropos [Perspektiven auf die Romania] is hosted by Hamburg University Press using the free software Open Journal Systems (OJS) . The French platform OpenEdition Journals hosts numerous other journals of relevance to Romance studies from various countries. Also worthy of mention are the publication service of the Ibero-American Institute in Berlin, the hosting offerings of many local university libraries, and the Open Library of Humanities . What are Open Access Journals? Find an introduction here. Practical Tip Publishing Open Access: How to evaluate a journal's quality 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 April 2024, the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) listed 171 entries under the search term Romance languages and 193 entries under Romance literature ; in addition, there are the titles in the individual Romance disciplines, for example Catalan language (45 entries as of April 2024). The online library and publication platform OAPEN listed 804 titles under Romance languages and 121 titles under Romance literature as of April 2024. Overall, offerings in the area of monographic OA publications in Romance studies tend to be isolated and heterogeneous. However, the presence of the format is increasing. Yet, none of the above-mentioned platforms fully cover the broad spectrum. Examples in the area of freely available monographs and collections, which are usually published open access and in print at the same time ( "dual publishing "), include: the supplements to the journal Romanische Studien ; the series Imágenes de la diversidad funcional. Literatura, artes escénicas, visuales y virtuales , which has been published with Peter Lang since 2018; the series Aula , which has been published by de Gruyter since 2020; the offerings of the hybrid-publishing university presses , which developed open access models at an early stage; the French platform OpenEdition Books the series Open Romance Linguistics published by Language Science Press; the humanities publication series published by Open Humanities Press and Open Book Publishers ; individual titles published by diverse publishers with a Romance programme, including AVM, de Gruyter, Peter Lang, transcript and Vervuert. The panorama of these publications is extremely heterogeneous. It largely comprises new titles. In addition, there are titles that are made freely available after a certain period of time or that appear in open access as a new edition or a translation, as in the case of Joachim Küpper’s classic work Discursive "Renovatio" in Lope de Vega and Calderón . With Knowledge Unlatched , there have also been some – albeit unsuccessful – initial initiatives to "unlatch" commercial publications in partnership with several specialised publishers. As the DFG has declared open access the priority publication mode for the projects it funds, and other research funders have already made the provision of open access mandatory, a strengthening of the open access monograph in Romance studies is to be expected. However, the additional costs for free access to a monograph that arise at most traditional publishers are an obstacle to this. Extensive funding programmes do not exist at present. In individual cases, the costs may be covered by the monograph funds that have been established at many scientific institutions, by the DFG, or by foundations. In the case of third-party-funded projects, the easiest way is to include applications for the reimbursement of open access costs in the project proposal. University presses can play a complementary role, as can the offerings of non-conventional publishers listed in the overview. Disciplinary Repositories Since 2025, the Specialised Information Service for Romance Studies (FID Romanistik) has been providing a repository for Romance studies in the form of a Romance studies collection. Although technically part of the Repositorium.Hamburg , it is available for use by the Romance studies community as a whole. All articles in this collection are also listed in the search portal of the Specialised Information Service for Romance Studies. There are other repositories for sub-disciplines of Romance studies and for neighbouring disciplines – for example, Archivum Medii Aevi Digitale for medieval studies, AfricArXiv for African studies, CompaRe for general and comparative literary studies, and the Linguistik-Repository for general and comparative linguistics. LA Referencia , a network of open access repositories in Latin America, is illustrative of the distinctive repository landscape in that region. Portugal’s scholarly repositories are aggregated by RCAAP . Also of relevance are the HAL Open Science Archive , which is authoritative for the humanities and social sciences in France; the internationally established universal repository zenodo.org ; and the platforms of the local libraries. The content of the aforementioned repositories is, in part, searchable via regional and supra-regional search engines. The Bielefeld Academic Search Engine ( BASE ) can also be expediently used for searches with a specifically open access focus. 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) 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 There are other useful offerings both with a specifically Romance studies orientation and with a transdisciplinary orientation. The local libraries offer their publication and advisory services to researchers at the respective institutions. Graduate schools are also increasingly arranging advisory and training offerings. The Specialised Information Service for Romance Studies ( FID Romanistik ) offers a discipline-specific information and advisory service . Via the project website, basic information is presented on open access, especially on legal issues. When doing so, concrete application scenarios from publishing practice in Romance studies are discussed – for example, regarding open access publishing and self-archiving, the role of translations, and publishers and repositories in different countries. Personal advice is also offered. The Romanistik-Blog features information on current topics, legal issues, funding conditions, as well as specific offerings and projects. The online archives JSTOR and Project MUSE now also provide open access content relevant to Romance studies. Open Science in Romance Studies The free accessibility and reusability of primary texts, images, and research data; the machine readability of texts; and procedures such as text and data mining are also subjects of increasing discussion. Platforms with a corresponding agenda from the Romance-language countries include, for example Gallica (France), the Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes (Spain), and the Biblioteca Italiana (Italy). A recent example relating to the reusability of images is a decision by the Biblioteca Nacional de España that resulted in images from its holdings being made available free of charge since March 2020 for use in scholarly publications. Of note in the area of research data is the consortium Text+ from the context of the Nationale Forschungsdateninfrastruktur (National Research Data Infrastructure; NFDI), which is developing an infrastructure for language- and text-based data and is initially focusing on digital collections, lexical resources, and editions. Also of relevance to Romance studies are general humanities projects such as CLARIAH-DE and its predecessor projects CLARIN and DARIAH-DE , including the research data repositories DARIAH-DE Repository and the TextGrid Repository . An initiative specific to Romance studies is the directory of research data on the information platform romanistik.de . The Specialised Information Service for Romance Studies (FID Romanistik) provides an information and support service . The series of blog posts published since 2020 by the Digital Romance Studies Working Group (AG Digitale Romanistik ) places a special focus on the sustainable handling of research data in accordance with the FAIR principles. open-access.network ( CC BY 4.0 International ) References Hornung, C., von Deylen, W., Tannous, I., & Wonke-Stehle, J. (2017, February 9). Auswertung der Umfrage des FID Romanistik zu Open Access in der Romanistik. Romanistik-Blog - Das Blog des Fachinformationsdienstes. https://blog.fid-romanistik.de/2017/02/09/auswertung-der-umfrage-des-fid-romanistik-zu-open-access-in-der-romanistik/ Hornung, C., & Trapp, M. (2018). Open Access-Publizieren in der Romanistik: Standortbestimmung und Perspektiven. Romanistik-Blog - Das Blog des Fachinformationsdienstes. https://blog.fid-romanistik.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/OA-Workshop-Protokoll-SUBHH-11-2017.pdf Müller, C. (2020). Elektronisches Publizieren und Open Access: Die Perspektive Lateinamerikas. B. i. t. Online, 23 (4), 374–380. https://www.b-i-t-online.de/heft/2020-04-fachbeitrag-mueller.pdf Schepers, L. (2024). Umfrageergebnisse: Romanistisches Publizieren in frühen Karrierephasen. Romanistik-Blog – Das Blog des Fachinformationsdienstes. blog.fid-romanistik.de/2024/05/30/umfrageergebnisse-romanistisches-publizieren-in-fruehen-karrierephasen/ Schöch, C., Rißler-Pipka, N., Mühlschlegel, U., Gerstenberg, A., & Ehrlicher, H. (2017). Open Access und Forschungsdaten. Ein Positionspapier der AG Digitale Romanistik. In Mitteilungsheft Frühjahr 2017 (pp. 50–59). Deutscher Romanistenverband. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3834226 Further Reading Agnetta, M. (2019). Wie closed darf open access sein? / Eine Momentaufnahme der Publikationskultur in der deutschen Romanistik. Digitalkulturen/Cultures Numériques. Herausforderungen Und Interdisziplinäre Forschungsperspektiven/Enjeux et Perspectives Interdisciplinaire , 16, 33–50. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839442159-002 [ Open Access Preprint at Romanistik-Blog ] Graf, D., Fadeeva, Y., & Falkenstein-Feldhoff, K. (Eds.). (2020). Bücher im Open Access: Ein Zukunftsmodell für die Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften? Verlag Barbara Budrich. https://doi.org/10.17185/duepublico/72237 Hornung, C (2022). Open Access in der Romanistik – Coffee Lecture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBRLDzIeLLc Nonnenmacher, K. (2015). Die Zeitschrift als Idee. Einladung an Leser und Autoren. Romanische Studien, 1 , 5–24. https://www.romanischestudien.de/index.php/rst/issue/view/1 Schöch, C. (2020). Was heißt und zu welchem Ende publiziert man im Open Access? Open Access Week 2020, Universitätsbibliothek Trier. https://christofs.github.io/publ/#/ | Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RQy4wtYls0 Söllner, K., & Mittermaier, B. (2017). Praxishandbuch Open Access . de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110494068 Bearbeitung der Inhalte der Seite: Christoph Hornung (Stand: Juni 2024)....
What is Open Access? Find an introduction here. Source: based on Brinken, H. (2021). 10 Gründe für Open Access. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4643859 ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access: Pros and Cons Find an introduction here. Open Access Publishing and Self-Archiving Find an introduction here. Open Access in Sociology In sociology, there are many different attitudes towards open access . Whereas digital resources are widely used in research and teaching, sociologists are as yet rather hesitant about publishing their works open access ( Graf et al., 2019 ). One reason for this is the culture of publishing in the humanities and social sciences. In these disciplines, to which sociology belongs, books in the form of monographs, thematic edited collections, conference proceedings, etc. are the predominant types of publications. In addition, many sociologists lack information on open access, with the result that they often classify open access publications as qualitatively inferior, and rely on established publishers as supposed guarantors of quality. Furthermore, there is often a need for information and clarification in the areas of licences and copyright ( Graf et al., 2019 ). Financial questions also play a major role for authors and publishers. In many cases, for example, it is unclear how financing can be arranged if nobody has to buy the work ( Verlag Barbara Budrich, 2020 ). Hesitancy on the part of sociologists is also reflected in the attitude of large professional associations. Neither the German Sociological Association (DGS) nor its US counterpart, the American Sociological Association (ASA) , are among the signatories of the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities . Although institutional expression s of commitment to open access are lacking in sociology, the groundwork for open access has been laid, as the following offerings on this page show. Open Access Journals As of December 2024, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) listed 914 entries under the keyword Sociology . Important open access journals include: Forum Qualitative Social Research (FQS) DOAJ Survey Research Methods (srm) DOAJ Sociological Research Online Comparative Population Studies DOAJ Demographic Research DOAJ Demography methods, data, analyses DOAJ Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World DOAJ Many renowned scholarly journals do not offer an open access option; others make articles freely available after an embargo period ( green open access ). For example, the journal Zeitschrift für Soziologie (ZfS) makes articles available in open access on its website two years after publication; the same goes for the journal Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft (WuG) . The journal Historical Social Research (HSR) automatically makes articles available in open access in the disciplinary repository Social Science Open Access Repository (SSOAR) after an embargo period of six months. 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 December 2024, the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) listed 1,019 titles under the subject "sociology" , and the online library OAPEN listed around 1,264 titles under "sociology" . The publishing landscape in the book-friendly social sciences is extremely heterogeneous, broad, and fragmented. However, the publishers Springer VS , Nomos , Barbara Budrich , Routledge , transcript , Campus , and LIT are particularly worthy of mention ( Graf et al., 2020, p. 22; Projekt OGeSoMo, n.d. ). Open access publishing faces diverse challenges in book-friendly disciplines such as sociology. To make it more attractive, a suitable infrastructure for and trust in the quality of open access books must be established. Especially worthy of mention in this connection are the quality standards for open access monographs and edited volumes formulated by the consortium of university presses AG Universitätsverlage (Arning et al., 2022). Furthermore, several business models for open access books have become established in recent years ( OAPEN, 2020 ). Disciplinary Repositories For German-speaking sociology, the disciplinary repository Social Science Open Access Repository (SSOAR) is particularly important. At an international level, a leading role is played by the Social Sciences Research Network (SSRN) , which, besides sociological literature, also hosts research papers from economics , political science , anthropology, and many other disciplines. The Open Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) provides an overview of relevant repositories. What are Repositories? Find an introduction here. Legal Aspects Find an introduction here. Video über das Zeitveröffentlichungsrecht Quelle: Brehm, E. (2021). Zweitveröffentlichungsrecht für Wissenschaftler*innen, open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/51789 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) Practical Tip Finding Open Access Literature (in German) Open Access Helpdesk You are welcome to contact our Helpdesk of you have any questions about Open Access. oa.finder The oa.finder shows you from tens of thousands of journals which are Gold Open Access, whether they charge APCs and how high these are. You can also view the funding modalities of your own institution. Other Offerings The Specialised Information Service (SIS) Sociology is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and is operated jointly by the University and City Library of Cologne, GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, and the Research Data Center (RDC) Qualiservice . With over 3,300 registered members, the collaboration portal SocioHub serves as a central platform to promote research communication and improve the supply of scientific information in sociology. The focus is on a combination of collaboration, open science, and research data management. In addition, users can search for subject-specific literature, research data, groups, and persons. The development and implementation of the services of the SIS Sociology take place in close consultation with the Scientific Advisory Board and are supported by the German Sociological Association (DGS) and the Academy of Sociology Open access offerings of the SIS Sociology: Classics of Sociology – From Comte to Weber : 100 works from the sociological canon are available as open access full texts. The collection comprises original editions in German, English, French, and Italian and covers the period from 1826 to the 20th century. SSOAR : As GESIS’s open access repository, SSOAR is integrated in the SocioHub index, its content can be accessed directly via SocioHub. In addition, registered SocioHub users can upload documents directly to SSOAR without having to log in again. Preregistration in the Social Sciences : With the module “Preregistration in the Social Sciences”, SocioHub offers an innovative way of preregistering sociological research projects and thus making them known. This enables early contact between similar projects and an intensification of scientific exchange, thereby possibly avoiding the duplication of work. The substantive concept and technical implementation of the module was developed by the SocioHub team and is based on a standardised template for preregistrations provided by the Open Science Framework (OSF) . Journal hosting : The SIS Sociology supports the founding of new and the migration of existing open access journals of sociology. With the help of the open source software Open Journal Systems (OJS), the entire digital publishing process – from submission to publication – is technically supported. SOCIOS : A satellite project of SocioHub, SOCIOS is a publication platform for collaborative writing and open peer review in the social sciences. The online archives JSTOR and Project MUSE now also provide open access content of relevance to sociology. BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine) enables subject-specific searches for digital full texts. Sociological content can be browsed using the Dewey Decimal Classification Code 301 . Within the framework of the project OGeSoMo – Förderung von Open-Access-Publikationen in den Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften mit dem Schwerpunkt Monografien [Promotion of Open Access Publications in the Humanities and Social Sciences with a Focus on Monographs] , which was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, numerous flyers with comprehensive information on open access publications in the humanities and social sciences were produced. In the successor project, AuROA - Autor:innen und Rechtssicherheit für Open Access [Authors and Legal Certainty for Open Access] a contract generator was developed with which modular sample contracts for open access book publications can be individually and interactively generated. The project ENABLE! aims to bring together in a network the individual players in the open access publishing system in the humanities and social sciences to promote open access publishing and develop new publishing models, among other things. Open Science in Sociology The services provided by GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences give sociologists extensive possibilities of making data, methods, and software available in open access: datorium enables the assignment of citable Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) . da|ra offers the possibility of registering research data for the purpose of DOI assignment – even if the data are hosted by the institutions themselves. In the area of qualitative data, particular mention should be made of the Research Data Center (RDC) Qualiservice , the successor of the Archive for Life Course Research (ALLF) . Qualiservice archives qualitative social science research data from various disciplines and makes them available for scientific reuse. In addition, it offers personalised and study-specific advice. Open Research Data Open research data are highly valued in the area of sociology. In its Code of Ethics, the American Sociological Association (American Sociological Association, 2018) encourages sociologists to make their research data available: Sociologists generally make their data available after completion of a project or its major publications, except where proprietary agreements with employers, contractors, or clients preclude such accessibility or when it is impossible to share data and protect the confidentiality of the data or the anonymity of research participants . Closed-access US journals, such as the American Sociological Review and Sociological Methodology , refer to this Code of Ethics in their submission policies, and encourage their authors to make their research data available. The open access journal Demographic Research also has such a policy, but it applies also to computer code. open-access.network ( CC BY 4.0 International ) References American Sociological Association. (2018). Code of ethics . https://www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/asa_code_of_ethics-june2018a.pdf Arning, U., Bargheer, M., Meinecke, I., Putnings, M., Schobert, D., Tobias, R., & Winkler, M. (2022). Qualitätsstandards für Open-Access-Bücher . Arbeitsgemeinschaft Universitätsverlage. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7075761 Graf, D., Fadeeva, Y., & Falkenstein-Feldhoff, K. (Eds.). (2020). Bücher im Open Access: Ein Zukunftsmodell für die Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften? Verlag Barbara Budrich. https://doi.org/10.17185/DUEPUBLICO/72237 Graf, D., Burovikhina, V., & Leinweber, N. (2019). Zukunftsmodell Monografien im Open Access. Aus der Praxis von Bibliotheken, Verlagen, Wissenschaft und Lehre im gemeinsamen Projekt OGeSoMo. O | Bib. Das offene Bibliotheksjournal , 6 (4), 164–177. https://doi.org/10.5282/o-bib/2019H4S164-177 OAPEN. (2020, September 29). Business models for open access book publishing . OAbooks-Toolkit.Org. https://oabooks-toolkit.org/lifecycle/10944589-planning-funding/article/10432084-business-models-for-open-access-book-publishing Projekt AuROA. (2023). Publikationsdienstleistungen und die Qualitätsfrage. Erkenntnisse aus dem Projekt AuROA zu Leistungen und Qualitätssicherung im Open-Access-Publikationsprozess. osf.io/65rzp Projekt OGeSoMo. (n. d.). Zwischenergebnisse. Written, submitted, published: Wo publizieren die UDE-Autoren? https://www.uni-due.de/ogesomo/zwischenergebnisse Further Reading Biela, J., Stalla, M., Hohmann, L., & Holzer, A. C. (2024). Kartierung und Beschreibung der Open-Access-Dienste in Deutschland. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11121906 Breznau, N. (2021). Does sociology need open science? Societies , 11 (1), 9. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc11010009 Herb, U. (2015). Open Science in der Soziologie. Eine interdisziplinäre Bestandsaufnahme zur offenen Wissenschaft und eine Untersuchung ihrer Verbreitung in der Soziologie . Werner Hülsbusch. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.31234 German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. (2023). Open access in Germany – Joint guidelines of the Federal Government and the Länder . https://www.bmbf.de/SharedDocs/Publikationen/DE/FS/772970_Open_Access_in_Deutschland_en.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=4 Herb, U. (2014). Open Science in Soziologie-Journalen aus deutschsprachigen und nicht-deutschsprachigen Ländern, Daten und Auswertungen einer Journal-Stichprobe . Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10786 German Science and Humanities Council (WR). (2022). Recommendations on the transformation of academic publishing: Towards open access . https://www.wissenschaftsrat.de/download/2022/9477-22_en.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=22 Content editors of this page: Maike Lang and Yannik Hampf, Specialised Information Service Sociology (Last updated: December 2024)....
What is Open Access? Find an introduction here. Source: based on Brinken, H. (2021). 10 Gründe für Open Access. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4643859 ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access: Pros and Cons Find an introduction here. Open Access Publishing and Self-Archiving Find out about how to publish and self-archive Open Access. Video on the Funding of Open Access Articles Source: Becklas Dorow, C., Hauss, J. (2026). Funding Open Access Articles – What Are the Options?. Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB), open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/73596 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) Open Access in Vocational Education and Training (VET) Research The term vocational education and training (VET) research covers research works that deal with vocational learning, VET institutions and systems, vocational and labour market development, the learning-conducive design of work processes, and skills development. The disciplines that contribute to VET research include, in particular: educational sciences/vocational and business education business administration economics of education psychology/occupational psychology sociology/occupational sociology Because of the interdisciplinary nature of VET research, scholarly works in this area are characterised by multidisciplinarity. Articles in scholarly journals are the most frequent form of publication in VET research. Journal articles account for over half of the works indexed in the VET Repository , a disciplinary repository for VET research operated by the German Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB). Although printed books, the traditional form of publication in VET research, are on the decline, they nonetheless continue to play an important role in this field. Overall, a trend towards open access publishing can be observed in VET research, and there are now a number of purely open access journals, for example Berufs- und Wirtschaftspädagogik – online (bwp@) . From 2018 to 2021, the BIBB addressed the topic of open access within the framework of the research project “Open Access in der Berufsbildungsforschung“ (Open Access in VET Research, OABBF ), which investigated the factors that play a role for authors when it comes to the acceptance, spread, and use of open access. The results of that project suggest that reservations towards open access persist in VET research. These reservations relate to reputation and the visibility of research results. Interdisciplinary and inter-institutional communication and information on open access should be expanded in the future to enhance the image of open access in VET research and dismantle any prejudices (see Getz et al., 2022; Getz & Rödel, 2026). Open Access Journals As of December 2025, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) listed 16 entries under “ vocational training ”. Relevant open access journals in VET research include: Berufs- und Wirtschaftspädagogik Online (bwp@) International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training (IJRVET) Journal of Technical Education (JOTED) Zeitschrift für Weiterbildungsforschung - Report (ZfW) Journal for Labour Market Research Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Soziologie Empirical Research in Vocational Education and Training DENK-doch-MAL.de DJI Impulse: Das Forschungsmagazin des Deutschen Jugendinstituts weiter bilden: DIE Zeitschrift für Erwachsenenbildung Further information can be found in a German-language guide to scholarly publishing in VET research journals entitled Wissenschaftliches Publizieren in Zeitschriften der Berufsbildungsforschung (Linten et al., 2023). What are Open Access Journals? Find an introduction here. Practical Tip Publishing Open Access: How to evaluate a journal's quality open-access.network (2026) ( CC BY 4.0 International ) What are Open Access Books? Find an introduction here. open-access.network (2026) ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access Books As of December 2025, the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) listed 219 titles under “vocational training”, while OAPEN listed 2,714 titles under the same keyword. In addition, as of December 2025, the full texts of 5,280 books were freely available in the VET Repository of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB). Disciplinary Repositories The most important disciplinary repository for VET research is the VET Repository . Operated by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), it was launched in 2019 as a disciplinary repository for VET research. In addition to monographs, its holdings include journal articles and contributions to edited collections. Since 2025, the VET Repository also serves as a publishing platform . Via an upload function, it offers authors an opportunity to publish works for the first time or to self-archive already published works. Further repositories with contributions from VET research include: SSOAR EconStor peDOCS What are Repositories? Find an introduction here. Legal Aspects Find an introduction here. Video über das Zeitveröffentlichungsrecht Quelle: Brehm, E. (2021). Zweitveröffentlichungsrecht für Wissenschaftler*innen, open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/51789 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) Practical Tip Finding Open Access Literature (in German) Open Access Helpdesk You are welcome to contact our Helpdesk if you have any questions about Open Access. oa.finder The oa.finder shows you from tens of thousands of journals which are Gold Open Access, whether they charge APCs and how high these are. You can also view the funding modalities of your own institution. Other Offerings On the left-hand side you can find helpful services and tools to inform yourself about specific questions on Open Access. References Getz, L., Langenkamp, K., Weiland, M., Rödel, B., & Taufenbach K. (2022). Wissenschaftliches Publizieren in der Berufsbildungsforschung. Empirische Befunde im Kontext von Open Access. In Ertl, H. & Rödel, B. (Eds.), Offene Zusammenhänge: Open Access in der Berufsbildungsforschung (pp. 49–64). Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB). urn:nbn:de:0035-vetrepository-780892-5 Getz, L., & Rödel, B. (2026). Open Access und Reputation. Widersprüchliche Befunde in der Berufsbildungsforschung. In Y. Fadeeva, S. Franz, D. Kampkaspar, M. Seltmann, T. Steyer, & N.-O. Walkowski (Eds.), Reputation ohne Paywall? Wissenschaftliches Publizieren im digitalen Wandel (pp. 62–79). Melusina Press. https://doi.org/10.26298/1981-5838 Linten, M., Rödel, B., Taufenbach, K., & Woll, C. (2023). Wissenschaftliches Publizieren in Zeitschriften der Berufsbildungsforschung . Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) . urn:nbn:de:0035-1048-3 Further Reading Ertl, H., Rödel, B., & Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung (Eds.). (2022). Offene Zusammenhänge: Open Access in der Berufsbildungsforschung (1st edition). Verlag Barbara Budrich. https://www.bibb.de/dienst/publikationen/de/18249 Content editor of this page: Dr. Bodo Rödel, Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) (last updated: December 2025)....
Intro Academic Publishing: Open Access Gold Source: based on Oberländer, A. (2020). Open Access – Es ist nicht alles Gold, was glänzt. In: Open Science. Von Daten zu Publikationen. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4018594 ( CC BY 4.0 International ) The key takeaways from this article are 1 An open access journal can be published in different ways: it can be run independently, published at a research performing organisation, or with the help of a publishing house. 2 When starting an open access journal, roles and responsibilities should be clearly defined from the very beginning. 3 Overlay journals use the technical infrastructure of preprint servers. As in the case of other types of journals, an editorial team takes care of other processes, for example peer review. Starting and Publishing an Open Access Journal Open access journals are freely available – immediately and to all interested parties. This has various advantages for authors, readers and the academic community. But how are open access journals published? And what should be considered when starting an open access journal? This article addresses important points that should be considered when starting and publishing an open access journal. Many of these points are also of relevance when converting an existing journal to open access ( Journal Flipping ). What are Open Access Journals? Find an introduction here. Converting Journals to Open Access Find here more information about "journal flipping" (the conversing of an existing journal to Open Access). Praxistipp Beitritt zum Editorial Board einer bestehenden Zeitschrift: Ja oder Nein? Diese Handreichung liefert Kriterien zur Entscheidungsfindung: https://zenodo.org/records/12801460 . Concept First of all, in view of the editorial effort required, you should consider whether publishing your own journal is plausible within the limits of your resources. You should also find out whether and to what extent existing journals already cover the subject area of your planned journal. To do so, you can consult, among other things, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) , the German Union Catalogue of Serials (ZDB) , and JSTOR . Against this backdrop, you should then consider whether starting a new journal actually makes sense ( Pilaar Birch, 2014; Blechl et al., 2016 ). Depending on the existing situation, it may be more plausible to assume a role in an existing journal or to encourage the conversion of a closed access journal to open access. In the case of a start-up, you should ask yourself the following questions, which will help you to develop a concept (Blechl et al., 2016; Pilaar Birch, 2014; van Edig & Rücknagel, 2021; Kaier & van Edig, 2020; K, 2021) : How can my journal fit in with the existing range of journals in terms of topic and target group? After finding a thematic niche in the existing range of journals, you should determine whether the interest of researchers in the niche topics is sufficient for the scope of a new journal. To this end, you should define and analyse the potential readership. If you conclude that the establishment of a journal makes sense, it is advisable to draft a mission statement, which will appear on the journal website. It should be the length of an abstract and should present the unique thematic features of your journal. What expenditure and revenue are to be expected? To help those thinking of starting an open access journal to develop a business plan, SPARC Europe provides the New Business Plan Toolkit for OA Journals . As a basis for negotiations with potential funders , it is advisable to plan the first three years in advance. The legal form of the journal should be considered, and a financial buffer should be included in the plan. It is advisable to draft a written concept with essential project information. How can the journal be run in the long term? Share the tasks and responsibilities so that as many team members as possible develop expertise in different areas. Document processes in order to conserve knowledge. Long-term preservation is important because it is the best way to ensure the permanent availability of the content. If your own institution does not operate a professional long-term preservation service of its own, all contributions should be archived externally. Examples of professional long-term preservation services include LOCKSS / CLOCKSS and Portico . Ideally, these services offer to transfer, or migrate, content into other (modern) formats should the existing formats become obsolete Content should be migrated into open, machine readable formats. Do I aspire to have an international reach? Decide on the language or languages in which your content and the information about your journal should be available. English-language journals tend to be noticed more and to reach a wider readership. If you want to publish in other languages, you should check whether your journal can reach your target group. What should I call my journal? Find a concise title and an abbreviation for your journal. Avoid special characters, such as ß . It is also important that the title is tailored to the desired target group. Via the serials directory UlrichsWeb , or other search engines, you can find out whether your desired title is still available. As UlrichsWeb is a subscription-based service, you should ask your library whether they can help you access it. Also for ethical reasons, the name should be chosen in such a way that it is not possible to confuse it with the names of other journals. Who exactly should the editor or the owner of the journal be? The editors determine the scientific focus of the journal and usually decide which contributions should be published. In many cases, the editors are scholars who work on a voluntary basis, However, some open access journals work with permanently employed editors. In most cases, however, editorial boards act as editors. Editorial boards are often hierarchically organised and divided into areas of responsibility (chief editor, managing editor, handling editor, etc.). Further details can be found, for example, in Kaier und van Edig (2020) . The ownership of the journal may lie with the editors themselves, with institutions (e.g. universities or professional associations), or with publishers. How can I find co-publishers, members of the editorial board, authors, etc? Although renowned researchers often have only very little time to give, the participation of established academics in the editorial board is highly recommended in order to increase the visibility of your journal. You should therefore start searching as early as possible. Ideally, your editorial board should consist of individuals from different institutions, and – especially in the case of a journal with an international focus – it should include persons of different nationalities. It is important that the journal is affiliated with several stakeholders; too strong an affiliation with individual persons can lead to relationships of dependency. All members of the editorial board should be listed on the journal website with their full names, affiliations, email addresses, research focuses, and, if applicable, links to their websites. Especially in the start-up phase, an adequate number of high quality contributions by renowned authors can build up the reputation of a journal. Do some research, or ask around in professional circles, to find out who would be suitable as authors for your journal, and then actively approach them. You have good prospects of success especially with academics who have reached a point in their careers where they are no longer completely dependent on publishing in already renowned journals. A further possibility is to begin with a small group of renowned contributors, who will attract other renowned contributors over time. It should be borne in mind that the reputation of a journal and its contributors still plays an important role in many disciplines. The Journal Impact Factor is still also of importance in some disciplines. However, a Journal Impact Factor cannot be obtained from the very start, but rather only after meeting various criteria, providing proof of a relatively long publishing history, and undergoing laborious evaluation. The high visibility of a journal ensures increased visibility of its articles. This also enhances the standing of the authors in – and possibly beyond – their disciplinary communities. Who is responsible for what? Responsibilities and competences should be clearly defined. This is especially important when several institutions are participating in the journal, or when external services are used. Clear roles and responsibilities are also important within the editorial board – this point is addressed in more detail in the Editorial Planning section below. How do I connect my journal to the open access community? Consider becoming a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA) and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) . For internationally oriented start-ups from the humanities and social sciences, membership of the Radical Open Access Collective is also an option. To fulfil recognised open access criteria with regard to access and reusability , your journal should comply with the following standards and requirements: Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities The Principles and the Technical Guidance and Requirements of Plan S The DOAJ Seal What contributions will my journal publish? The types of contributions that the journal will publish must be specified – for example research articles, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, or book reviews. It should be considered whether individual issues should have a thematic focus. It is advisable to make research data – for example measurement results or interview transcripts – available as supplementary materials to the contributions in your journal (Hrynaszkiewicz et al., 2020) . These data enable not only peer reviewers but also readers to better understand and check the contributions. It is advisable not only to "store" these data in the journal itself, but also to inform the authors about suitable data repositories such as Zenodo or the Registry of Research Data Repositories, re3data.org . What licensing aspects must be considered? Under what terms and conditions should the contributions be reusable? Authors should not transfer exclusive exploitation rights in their contributions to the publishing institution (e.g. a publisher). With regard to distribution and reuse, it is advisable to make contributions available under the current version of the Creative Commons Attribution licence, CC BY , because this licence type complies with Plan S and restricts reuse the least. In the case of other CC licence variants (e.g. CC BY-NC), possible negative effects must be considered. It should be transparently stated – in the metadata, on the landing page, and in the article itself – what licence is used. On our Open Access and Reuse page , you will find detailed information on open licences such as the Creative Commons licences. Further legal aspects are addressed on our Legal Questions pages. What quality assurance procedures (e.g. [open] peer review, editorial review) will be used? On what criteria should the quality assurance procedure be based? Peer review is the most well-known quality assurance procedure. It is still often conducted anonymously, for example in the following forms: Double-blind peer review: The reviewers do not know the names of the authors and vice versa. Single-blind peer review: The identities of the authors are known to the reviewers but not vice versa. However, open peer review procedures are becoming more common ( Ross-Hellauer, 2017 ), for example in the case of overlay journals . Also common are editorial reviews, where the assessment of the article is carried out by one or more members of the editorial staff ( Lange, 2021 ). When choosing a procedure, standard quality assurance practices in the field in which the journal is located should be taken into account. After all, the journal is dependent on the support of the community, and thus on its acceptance. You should also find out what staff capacities are needed for each procedure, whether these capacities are available, and whether enough reviewers can be found. In any case, precise assessment criteria should be defined, and a maximum duration of the review process stipulated, which should not be longer than a few months. Research data, software, and other supplementary materials should be included in the first submission of the manuscript and made available to the reviewers. In the interest of transparency, the reasons for using the respective quality assurance procedures should be explained on the journal website. Moreover, you should consider offering authors the possibility of naming undesired reviewers. And finally, it is essential that you check submissions for plagiarism. Open source software for this purpose is uncommon. iThenticate.com is often mentioned as a suitable commercial plagiarism detection service. Is there a demand for an additional print edition? You should find out whether demand for an additional print addition exists in the field in which your journal will be located. Although, generally speaking, demand for print editions is declining, it still exists, for example, in the humanities, although even there it is declining further. Bear in mind that printing even a few copies makes demands on administrative capacities that should not be underestimated, and consider whether it is worth the effort. Consider also that some of the added value of the digital publication (e.g. the direct linking with data) will be lost, and that therefore the question arises of whether a print edition is in keeping with the times. How do I increase awareness of my journal? It is essential that the content of your journal is easily findable via indexing services and search engines. Contributions and comprehensive metadata should be exposed via interfaces such as OAI-PMH or SWORD immediately after publication, so that they can be automatically processed at repositories. This is not only in the interests of long-term preservation but also of visibility. Within the framework of the DOI registration of an article (addressed in detail in the Editorial Planning section ), Crossref and DataCite each provide a metadata schema. Metadata may be reused under a CC0 licence. Only with such visibility is there a prospect that the articles in your journals will be frequently cited, which is essential especially for the reputation of early career researchers. This is the only way of sustainably establishing the journal in professional circles. In addition, the following ways of increasing the visibility of your journal exist: News: Publish regular news relating to your journal. Newsletter: Many readers like to keep up to date by newsletter. Social media: Twitter and possibly Facebook are suitable platforms for publicising your content. Post-publication tools: These tools (e.g. the comments function) encourage your readers to interact with each other and to discuss your content. RSS feeds: With the help of RSS feeds, interested users can collect current notifications. This option is directly included in most content management systems, and just has to be configured. Blogs: Blog articles can supplement journal contributions and report on current topics. To facilitate the exchange of views, the inclusion of a comments function is recommended. Moreover, if appropriate, blog articles can be linked to journal contributions. It is important that communication with the scientific community functions well – concerns and interests of readers and authors should be collected and incorporated time and again into the substantive concept of the journal. It is advisable to publish the handling of readers’ concerns and interests on the website. All these measures result in (potential) readers and authors feeling that they are being addressed. These measures should be prepared in good time because potential staff members and funders will make their participation contingent upon your position on these points. In addition, the concept has an impact on all framework conditions and work processes and must therefore be defined so that the editorial process flows smoothly. What will happen to the content in the worst case? You should make a plan as to what will happen to the content should your journal cease to exist. For authors, readers, and the scientific record, it is extremely important that published content should remain available in the long term. This aspect was addressed as early as 2003 in the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities. When registering DOIs, journals undertake to ensure that metadata and content will remain accessible via these identifers. Should a journal cease to operate, it should therefore be made clear whether the journal infrastructure can continue to make the published content available or whether this is possible via a long-term archive or repository. In any case, a situation where the content disappears overnight must be avoided. Editorial Planning Before work can begin on the texts, several editorial framework conditions should be defined (Blechl et al., 2016; van Edig & Rücknagel, 2021; K, 2021) : Editorial Roles and Responsibilities Responsibilities and decision-making competences should be defined: What roles and levels exist in my/our journal (e.g. editorial board; editorial staff; copy editors and proofreaders; typesetters; main contact persons for the authors; if applicable, review board)? Besides the linguistic quality of the articles, attention should be paid to their visual appearance so that the journal will be perceived as reputable. Standard layouts should be specified for all file formats – various typesetting systems, for example LaTeX , provide support with this. Moreover, you should keep an eye on current developments, so that the layout of the journal remains contemporary. In principle, it is possible to outsource the typesetting, but that costs money. And finally, guidelines must be established for peer reviews, conflicts of interest, and scientific misconduct. The Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE) Guidelines can serve as a guide in this regard. Planning the Number of Contributions The number of contributions that will be published per year should be specified. To be recognised as a proper journal, at least five contributions a year are advisable. Even though, in many respects, open access journals without print editions have fewer constraints than their closed-access counterparts, it makes sense in terms of staff capacity to plan the number of contributions. It should be considered whether traditional, discrete, issues should be published, or whether contributions should be published on a rolling basis – that is, as soon as the editorial process is completed. If you decide against publishing discrete issues, the individual contributions should be consecutively numbered, and at least one contribution should be published per quarter. Manuscript Submission Guidelines The desired manuscript length should be specified for each contribution category. A policy that gives the authors precise manuscript submission guidelines and explains what must be observed (e.g. file format, structure, referencing style) is advisable. Ideally, publications should be provided in the following formats: HTML for good on-screen readability PDF/A for printing (by users themselves) XML for machine processing ePUB for ebook readers Furthermore, you have to decide whether multimedia presentations, tables, graphs, images, or audio materials will be possible. It must also be decided whether it will be possible to enrich texts with data or link them to data on other servers. Technical Implementation and Design of the Website It is advisable to choose a domain name that is easy to remember (possibly in consultation with the IT department of your institution). In order to be perceived as a reputable journal, a professional web design should be used (if necessary with the support of external partners). If you are publishing your journal with a publisher or at your institution, talk to them about this. When designing the website, it is essential to ensure that is barrier free, so that it can be used easily by people with hearing, visual, or motor disabilities. It is advisable to use the technical standard Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, Level AA . At least one of the formats used (HTML, PDF, etc.) should comply with this standard. Workflows of the Publication Process The editorial team should define internal workflows, including a timeline for editorial work (calls for submissions, peer reviews, copy editing, etc). Core elements should be clearly communicated to the authors. In addition, the authors should be kept informed of the current status of their submissions. Journal management software, such as OJS, provides support with this. Indexing and Integration into Value-Added Services To ensure the findability of content, your journal should be successfully integrated into value-added services such as the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) , the Web of Science , Scopus and Sherpa Romeo . To this end, you should submit an application to these services. If evaluation is successful, your journal will be indexed. For successful evaluation by these services, the respective criteria for acceptance must be observed. Bear in mind that it can take a long time for the evaluation process to be completed. It is important to provide transparent information on the journal, the publishers and editors, the website, and – in the case of non-English-language journals – metadata. Information on DOAJ compliance can be found her e. Information on other services can be found on their respective websites and in Chapter F of Blechl et al.’s German-language guide ( 2016 ). Some indexing services require that non-English-language contributions should also include an English-language title and abstract. You should apply for an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) for your journal via ISSN.org . If the title of your journal changes, you will have to request a new ISSN. As a rule, an ISSN is not assigned until the first issue has been published. It is advisable to enquire in advance whether the ISSN will be listed in the ISSN International Portal. If a regular print edition is not planned, you should apply only for an ISSN (Online). The ISSN assigned to the online version can also be used for print-on-demand issues. It is important that all contributions are assigned metadata, DOIs, and keywords. Further details can be found on page 7 and seq. of Blechl et al.’s German-language guide ( 2016 ). In order to achieve a maximum reach, all metadata should be OAI-PMH compliant , thereby enabling them to be harvested by disciplinary databases and search engines. Journal management systems, such as OJS, provide plugins for the automatic generation of OAI-PMH-compliant metadata. ORCiD IDs enable authors to be uniquely identified. Besides unique identification in the research context, this unique identification is also important for internal processes at the institutions where the authors work. You should therefore give authors the possibility of linking their articles to their ORCiD ID. ORCiD IDs can be registered free of charge. Via the Research Organization Registry ( ROR ), institutional affiliations can be uniquely identified by means of a persistent identifier. ROR IDs can be applied for free of charge. Metrics and Statistical Data In the interests of transparency, readers should be given access to journal-level citation metrics, such as the Journal Impact Factor (JIF), the Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP), and the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR). Moreover, it is advisable to also make article-level metrics (ALMs) available to enable readers to find out how many accesses or downloads an article receives. In addition, via so-called altmetrics, mentions of the contributions in social media and scholarly networks can be statistically analysed. Provided you use DOIs, OJS has a plugin for this. And finally, it is advisable to communicate the number of submitted, accepted, and rejected manuscripts, as well as the average time from submission to publication, so that authors know what processing time to expect. Notifications to Collecting Societies Authors of articles in digital journals can also receive royalties from collecting societies. In Germany and Austria, contributions must be assigned a counter from the collecting society VG Wort and must achieve a high number of accesses (e.g. VG Wort ). If you are interested, you can contact Literar Mechana in Austria or VG Wort in Germany. Practical tip Here you can find the slides of the Open Access Talk Founding journals - what do I need to think about? (in German) Practical tip Supporting Open Access – Practical Tips for Publishers and Journals (in German) gives concrete advice on how publishers can support open access. Practical tip The Wellcome Trust's Society Publishers Accelerating Open Access and Plan S toolkit provides tips on implementing Open Access and Plan S compliance. For OJS journals, the Public Knowledge Project provides the very useful Guide to Plan S compliance in OJS . Practical Tip The Open Access Journals Toolkit produced by DOAJ and OASPA is a good support for publishers of open access journals. It "covers topics across the entire journal development lifecycle and everyday operation, such as journal creation, costs, staffing, policy development, through to indexing and other technical aspects". Affiliation of the Journal Open access journals can be run within the framework of an existing offering or (largely) independently ( scholar-led publishing) . Affiliation with a publisher is one possibility; other options are to run the journal with the help of a university or a library or to publish it independently. Journals can also be published as so-called overlay journals (see below). When choosing a provider, the following aspects should be taken into account: Technical aspects Is there an editorial system? Are there possibilities to preserve content in the long term? Can the desired manuscript formats be processed? Financial aspects What does usage cost? What direct and indirect costs will arise (e.g. server operation, DOI assignment, personnel costs, external service providers)? Are the desired forms of financing supported? Service-related aspects What services are provided? What is the nature of the infrastructural integration with regard to metadata and the traceability of the content? Organisational and legal aspects Who will control the journal? Who will hold the rights in the journal title? If a publisher is involved: Will the publisher limit the open access orientation of the journal? Is separation from the publisher possible (e.g. regulation of the transfer of metadata and full texts)? When choosing a provider, you should critically assess your own resources – both in financial terms and with regard to the amount of work to be done ( van Edig & Rücknagel, 2021 ). You should not only ask yourself what and how much you can do yourself, but also how much freedom you wish to retain. If you want to publish your journal via a publisher, you should bear in mind that many things will be prescribed by the publisher – for example, the software, the funding model, and minimum standards that the quality assurance procedure must fulfil. If the publisher’s requirements are in line with your ideas, cooperation may be beneficial. In other cases, cooperation with a publisher can severely restrict the freedom of the editors. Scholar-led publishing is an alternative to cooperation with a publisher. If you wish to publish your journal at an institution, it is advisable to find out whether the journal can be hosted on the institution’s web server, whether the institution can make journal management software available to you, or whether a professional hosting service would be an option ( Blechl et al., 2016 ). Some institutions offer a specialised advisory service for these questions (e.g. CeDiS , Freie Universität Berlin). Hosting services are also provided by some specialised information services, for example the Specialised Information Service Linguistics , the Specialised Information Service Germanistik im Netz , the Specialised Information Service Comparative Literature , and the Specialised Information Service Classics, Propylaeum ( van Edig & Rücknagel, 2021 ). Practice Tip: Scholar-Led Publishing Scholar-led publishing can be implemented cost-effectively by means of open source software such as Open Journal Systems (OJS) . OJS undergoes continual further development; the source code is freely available; and the software, which is also available in German, can be used free of charge. The application supports the entire process of online publishing (submission, review, copy editing and proofreading, publication, commenting on published articles). Numerous templates, for example for communication with reviewers and authors, support the editorial work. Moreover, the software contains interfaces, so that metadata can easily be delivered to services such as the Directory of Open Access Journals ( Mruck et al., 2018 ). The German-language OJS Information Platform is the first contact point for German-speaking users when they have questions; it is also a place where OJS users interact. Further information can be found in the User Guide , which also includes an FAQ page. According to Martin Paul Eve ( 2012 ), inexperienced OJS users with average technical competence should “budget in a fair few hours” to install and configure the software. You should also bear in mind that the amount of time needed to actually publish a journal should not be underestimated. In particular the preparation of the content is a challenge for scholar-led journals. Scholar-led projects that operate the technical infrastructure themselves should engage with formal standards (see Section 3.3 in Bosman et al., 2021 ). Alternatives to OJS are Janeway and PubSweet ( van Edig & Rücknagel, 2021 ). The focus group scholar-led.network also deals with the topic; members jointly search for suitable models, and share experiences. Editorial process at Open Journal Systems (OJS) Source: OJS-net.de Focus group: Scholar-led.network Feel free to discuss developments in Scholar-led.network with experts. Overlay Journals A further option is to publish the journal as an overlay journal. Overlay journals use the infrastructure of preprint servers , such as arXiv , that are already well established in some disciplines, for example mathematics and physics ( Schmeja, 2016 ). Authors deposit their papers (in the usual way) on arXiv or another preprint server and submit them from there to the overlay journal, which takes care of peer review. If the paper passes peer review, it is included in the journal – that is, the journal posts a link from its website to the preprint server, assigns a DOI, and, if applicable, attaches an editor’s comment to the article ( Schmeja, 2016 ). One of the first overlay journals was the mathematics journal Discrete Analysis , which was founded in 2015 ( Gowers, 2015 ). open-access.network ( CC BY 4.0 International ) In any case, when establishing an open access journal, it is very advisable to seek the advice of your institution’s open access officer. The Fair Open Access Alliance (FOAA) is a further suitable point of contact. FOAA is a group of scholars and librarians that propagates and promotes the principles of Fair Open Access. It provides support – financially and otherwise – for the establishment of new journals. The FOAA can be contacted here . Moreover, the TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology and University Library , for example, provides the open access platform TIB Open Publishing , on which open access journals and conference proceedings can be published. And finally, it is advisable to engage with other publishers. The Free Journal Network (FJN) promotes scholarly journals run according to the principles of Fair Open Access , for example by sharing best practices and obtaining funding for its journals. By updating its acceptance criteria, it further aims to ensure that journals in the network continuously improve in quality. Open Access Helpdesk Ask your specific questions about Open Access here. Legal Aspects Find an introduction here. Open Access and funding organisations Find an introduction here. Covering Costs The production of open access journals in general, and overlay journals in particular ( Ball, 2015 ), is in part cheaper than print journals or toll-access electronic journals (Swan, 2016) . Besides savings from not having to print the journal, open access publishers also have savings, for example, from not having to handle subscriptions or identify (non-)authorised users. Because open source software, such as OJS, is often used to run the journal, or, in the case of overlay journals, the infrastructure of preprint servers is used, the software costs are usually low. Options for Covering the Costs of an Open Access Journal The options for covering the costs of an open access journal are as follows (Budapest Open Access Initiative, 2002; Blechl et al., 2016, van Edig & Rücknagel, 2021) : Funding from private, state, or disciplinary research funding organisations Funding from the institutions (e.g. universities) at which the authors are employed Cross-financing, for example by conferences Consortial funding (see Knowledge Unlatched or projects such as KOALA) Donations (e.g. from institutions, individuals, crowdfunding) Advertising revenue (to this end, draw up an advertising policy) Article processing charges (APCs) payable by authors or their institutions. As these charges create barriers for authors, other funding options should be chosen where possible. It is important to provide exact details of how the costs arise and of the APC per contribution. Moreover, the time point of invoicing should be clearly communicated. Discounts, for example for authors from low-wage countries, should be considered. Especially when you want to avoid costs for authors, it is very advisable to seek support from research funding organisations or consortial funding. Details of the funding model used by the journal should also be provided on the website. References Ball, P. (2015). The journal that publishes no papers. Mathematics journal ‘overlays’ arXiv preprint server . Nature. 526 , 146. https://www.nature.com/news/polopoly_fs/1.18444!/menu/main/topColumns/topLeftColumn/pdf/526146a.pdf Blechl, G., Ferus, A., Gorraiz, J., Haas, I., Haslinger, D., Holzner, B., Schiller, R., Schmidt, N., & Stöger, H. (2016). Checkliste zur Herausgabe von Open Access Zeitschriften an Forschungseinrichtungen (Version 2) . Open Access Netzwerk Austria (OANA). https://www.akbild.ac.at/de/forschung/open-access/die-ag-open-access/OANAChecklisteOAJournals_Version2.pdf Bosman, J., Frantsvåg, J. E., Kramer, B., Langlais, P.-C., & Proudman, V. (2021). The OA Diamond Journals Study. Exploring collaborative community-driven publishing models. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4558704 Budapest Open Access Initiative . (2002). https://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/translations/german-translation Eve, M. P. (2012, July 11). Starting an Open Access Journal: a step-by-step guide part 2. Eve.Gd . https://eve.gd/2012/07/11/starting-an-open-access-journal-a-step-by-step-guide-part-2/ Gowers, T. (2015, September 10). Discrete Analysis - an arXiv overlay journal. Gowers’s Weblog . https://gowers.wordpress.com/2015/09/10/discrete-analysis-an-arxiv-overlay-journal/ Hrynaszkiewicz, I., Simons, N., Hussain, A., Grant, R., & Goudie, S. (2020). Developing a research data policy framework for all journals and publishers. Data Science Journal , 19 (1), 5. https://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2020-005 K, S. (2021, July 7). How to Start an Open-Access Journal. Typeset.io . https://typeset.io/resources/how-to-start-an-open-access-journal/ Kaier, C., & van Edig, X. (2020). Publizieren in wissenschaftlichen Zeitschriften. In K. Lackner, L. Schilhan, & C. Kaier (Eds.), Publikationsberatung an Universitäten (pp. 53–78). transcript. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839450727-004 Lange, J. (2021, July 28). Scholarly Journal Publishing Guide. Resources for McGill journal editors . https://libraryguides.mcgill.ca/journalpublishing/typesofreview Mruck, K., Mey, G., & Muhle, F. (2018). Wissenschaft als Publikationspraxis. In Eigenregie verlegte Zeitschriften: das Beispiel Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research (FQS). Erziehungswissenschaft , 57 (29), 43–51. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3224/ezw.v29i2.06 Pilaar Birch, S. (2014, September 18). Essential Guide: How to start an Open Access journal in five steps. LSE Impact Blog . https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2014/09/18/how-to-start-an-open-access-journal/ Ross-Hellauer, T. (2017). What is open peer review? A systematic review. F1000 Research . https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.11369.2 Schmeja, S. (2016). arXiv-Overlay-Journals: Das Beste aus zwei Welten. TIB Blog . https://blogs.tib.eu/wp/tib/2016/08/17/arxiv-overlay-journals-das-beste-aus-zwei-welten/ Swan, A. (2016). The costs and benefits to the research community of Open Access: A briefing paper . PASTEUR4OA. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.51867 van Edig, X., & Rücknagel, J. (2021, May 27). Open-Access-Zeitschriften gründen – woran muss ich denken? Open Access Talk. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4836220 Further Reading Bakker, C. (2012). Developing open access journals: a practical guide by David J. Solomon. Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication 1(1). https://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.1028 Birch, S.P. (2014, September 18). Essential guide: how to start an Open Access journal in five steps. Impact of Social Sciences. http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2014/09/18/how-to-start-an-open-access-journal/ Hansen, C. R., Thestrup, J. B., Riise, R. R., Iversen, R. K. M., & Johnsen, S. S. (2023). An offer the journal couldn’t refuse. How a Danish collaborative project paves the way for DOAJ inclusion. Nordic Perspectives on Open Science , 8 . https://doi.org/10.7557/11.7001 Henkes, L. M., & Holscher Blackman, K. (2025). Wissenschaftliches Publizieren neu denken. Blaupause für gemeinschaftliches und faires Diamond Open Access . ELADOAH. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17240865 Jamali, H. R., Wakeling, S., & Abbasi, A. (2022). Why do journals discontinue? A study of Australian ceased journals. Learned Publishing , 35 (2), 219–228. https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1448 Mruck, K., Mey, G., & Muhle, F. (2018). Wissenschaft als Publikationspraxis. In Eigenregie verlegte Zeitschriften: das Beispiel Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research (FQS). Erziehungswissenschaft, 29(2), 13-14. https://doi.org/10.3224/ezw.v29i2.06 Open Access Directory (2019). OA journal business models. http://oad.simmons.edu/oadwiki/OA_journal_business_models Shieber, S. (2013, November 21). Thoughts on founding open-access journals. The Occasional Pamphlet. http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/pamphlet/2013/11/21/thoughts-on-founding-open-access-journals/ Wenaas, L. (2021). Attracting new users or business as usual? A case study of converting academic subscription-based journals to open access. Quantitative Science Studies , 2 (2), 474–495. https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00126...
