ENABLE!-Werkstatt-Gespräch: Fachrepositorien als OA-Akteure
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Gemeinsamer Workshop mit der Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht Berlin: Einführung in Open Access und das Urheberrecht
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Online-Workshop am 09. Februar 2022
Wir wollen mehr Open Access wagen! Wege, Modelle und Services für die Politikwissenschaft Der Online-Workshop "Wir wollen mehr Open Access wagen! Wege, Modelle und Services für die Politikwissenschaft" findet am 9. Februar 2022 von 10:00 bis 14:30 Uhr statt. Veranstaltet wird er im Rahmen des BMBF-geförderten Projekts open-access.network gemeinsam vom Open-Access-Büro Berlin und dem Fachinformationsdienst Politikwissenschaft - Pollux . Ob Aufsatz, Buchpublikation oder die Veröffentlichung einer Dissertation - die Möglichkeiten im Open Access zu publizieren sind so breit aufgestellt wie die Politikwissenschaft selbst. Der Workshop soll darüber informieren, welche Möglichkeiten es gibt, die eigenen Publikationen in den Open Access zu überführen bzw. diese barriere-, kostenfrei und rechtssicher online zur Verfügung zu stellen. Was bedeutet es, ob als Professor*in oder Nachwuchswissenschaftler*in, im Open Access zu publizieren? Welche Beispiele und Angebote bieten Orientierungspunkte? Welche Bedarfe, Vorbehalte und Wünsche der Unterstützung gibt es? Gemeinsam blicken wir auf die Wege des Publizierens, die Chancen, aber auch die Herausforderungen des Publikationsprozesses. In zwei thematischen Blöcken möchten wir eine Möglichkeit zum Austausch für Wissenschaftler*innen und wissenschaftlich Publizierende in der Politikwissenschaft bieten. Jun.-Prof. Arndt Leininger , Ph.D. (Politikwissenschaftliche Forschungsmethoden, TU Chemnitz) und Dr. Philipp Schulz (Institut für Interkulturelle und Internationale Studien der Universität Bremen) gewähren Einblicke in Ihre Erfahrungen mit dem Thema Open Access. Praktische Umsetzbarkeit und Unterstützungsangebote werden vorgestellt sowie die Gelegenheit zum Netzwerkaufbau geboten. Um Anmeldung über unten stehendes Anmeldeformular wird gebeten. Zielgruppe Der Workshop richtet sich an Wissenschaftler*innen und Publizierende der Politikwissenschaft. Vorerfahrungen im Bereich Open Access sind nicht erforderlich. Agenda 9:45-10:00 Ankommen 10:00-10:20 Begrüßung & Warm-Up 10:20-10:30 Einführende Impulse 10:30-11:10 Open Access - Erfahrungsberichte (Jun.-Prof. Arndt Leininger, Ph.D., TU Chemnitz & Dr. Philipp Schulz, Uni Bremen) 11:10-11:40 Peer-to-Peer-Austausch 11:40-12:00 Alles was Recht ist (Dipl.-Wirt.Jur. Thomas Hartmann, LL.M., FIZ Karlsruhe) 12:00-12:10 Bewegte Pause mit Noemi 12:10-13:00 Pause 13:00-13:45 Open-Access-Publizieren - Wo & Wie? (Dr. Agathe Gebert, SSOAR & Stefanie Hanneken, transcript Open Library PoWi & Dr. Kurt Salentin, IJCV) 13:45-14:15 Ask the expert - Publikationswege 14:15-14:30 Wrap-Up & Feedback Veranstaltungsort Die Veranstaltung wird online in Zoom (bereitgestellt durch die Universität Bremen) stattfinden. Die Zugangsdaten erhalten Sie kurz vor der Veranstaltung via Email. Mit Ihrer Anmeldung stimmen Sie den Nutzungsbestimmungen von Zoom zu. Anmeldung geschlossen. Beiträge Impulse open-access.network & Einführung in Open Access (Linda Martin, open-access.network) Fachinformationsdienst Politikwissenschaft - Pollux (Regina Pfeifenberger, Pollux) Alles was (Urheber-)Recht ist (Dipl.-Wirt.Jur. Thomas Hartmann, LL.M., FIZ Karlsruhe) Publizieren Publizieren mit SSOAR (Dr. Agathe Gebert, SSOAR) Publizieren in der transcript Open Library Politik (Stefanie Hanneken, transcript) International Journal of Conflict & Violence (Dr. Kurt Salentin, Universität Bielefeld) Organisation Fachinformationsdienst Politikwissenschaft - Pollux Projekt open-access.network Open-Access-Büro Berlin...
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Open Access Books
Intro Open Access in 60 Sekunden Quelle: Brinken, H., Hauss, J. & Rücknagel, J. (2021). Open Access in 60 Sekunden, open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/50831 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) The key takeaways from this article are 1 Open access has developed into a highly dynamic field in the area of book publications in recent years. 2 As the publication landscape in the area of scholarly books is very heterogeneous, the established open access models for journals cannot simply be transferred. 3 An efficient infrastructure with various publication and funding options has now also developed in the area of open access books. A Dynamic Field Open access for books – this long-neglected topic has gained enormously in importance in recent years. Until well into the 2010s, the open access activities of research funders , libraries and authors focused mainly on the area of scholarly journals. However, the stakeholders in the scholarly publishing system have now also recognised the enormous potential of open access for books, and have initiated transformation measures ( Bargheer et al., 2017; Ferwerda et al., 2017; Stone & Marques, 2018 ). This is impressively demonstrated by the numerous studies and projects conducted at national and international level; by improved funding structures and new funding models ; and by dynamic initiatives, working groups, and discussion forums. open-access.network (2021) ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Scholarly Books open-access.network (2026) ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Monographs, Collections and Co. You can find a map of terms on open access and books here (in German). Book publications still play an important role, especially in the humanities and social sciences . The text-oriented disciplines favour the more extensive book format in the interests of long argument , where the theoretical approach must be comprehensively set out. Furthermore, the results of inter- and transdisciplinary research can be published only to a limited extent in the research report format possible in journal articles. Common types of scholarly books are monographs, edited collections, and conference proceedings. As a rule, scholarly books appear in different editions: as a digital publication, or e-book, and, in addition, as a print volume. They are published either in a series or as a single publication. Substantively and technologically, a large proportion of open access books are digital counterparts of print books. In addition to their content, they also usually contain navigation elements such as tables of contents and figures. However, providing the work in digital form enables in-depth content analysis through multiple apparatuses (footnotes, endnotes, critical editions), as well as enrichment through links to further stocks of knowledge, such as Wikipedia, specialised databases, or primary sources and digitisations. In addition, the e-book format allows the incorporation of research data, virtual research environments, and dynamic objects such as scripts, visualisations or software. What Are Open Access Books? A book is open access when access to the e-book is not restricted by licence or payment barriers, but rather it is available free of charge and re-usable in the long term immediately upon publication. Publishers of open access books can earn revenue through publication fees ( book processing charges, BPCs ) and the sale of the print edition ( dual publishing ), which is often produced using digital print-on-demand technology. Other publishers finance the basic costs of their open access segment via crowdfunding (e.g., Knowledge Unlatched, transformative agreements negotiated by consortia) or institutional memberships (e.g., Open Book Publishers [OBP], the Open Library of Humanities [OLH], Language Science Press). As in the case of open access journals , authors and editors of edited collections should not have to grant exclusive rights of use to the publishers or publication platforms. For licensing purposes, it is recommended to use an open Creative Commons licence , such as CC BY or CC BY-SA. Studies suggest that books published in open access gain a larger and more diverse readership ( Lucraft, 2021 ). Besides being made available in open access immediately upon publication ( gold open access ), books, too, can be self-archived in an open access repository ( green open access ; see Green and Gold ). Open Access Books in Specific Subjects Find out here how common open access books are in individual disciplines. Common Myths There are still some common myths about open access publishing. The Open Access Books Toolkit helps dispelling them. Open Access Helpdesk Our Open Access Helpdesk is happy to help with all questions open access. Serials Crisis and Monograph Crisis You Would Like to Know More About the History of Open Access? We have gathered the most important milestones for you here. The reasons why open access for books was neglected for many years date back to the beginnings of the open access movement . Sparked by the serials crisis in the 1990s, the movement emerged in the natural sciences, where book publications traditionally play at most a marginal role. It was only in the mid-2000s that the advent of a monograph crisis ( see Herb, 2015 ) precipitated by the serials crisis became the subject of increasing discussion. Rising book prices, gaps in the supply of scholarly literature in the libraries, and authors who during the publication process performed more and more tasks themselves yet still had to pay sometimes high publication cost subsidies: the problems of closed access now became evident in the area of scholarly books. Open Access Books Versus Open Access Journals Against the backdrop of the monograph crisis and the increasing establishment of open access in the area of scholarly journals, calls for open access in the humanities and social sciences also became louder. However, compared with scholarly journals, the publication landscape in the area of books has a number of particularities, the most important of which will be mentioned here (see also Snijder, 2019; Open Access Books Toolkit, 2020 ): In the humanities and in parts of the social sciences, an important role is played by small and medium-sized book publishers that are highly regarded in their specialist areas. Close relationships between authors and publishers are not uncommon. Both groups have in part adopted attitudes to open access that range from wait-and-see to critical, also because the participants in this setting find it harder to maintain the necessary competencies in the rapidly changing publishing landscape. For example, knowledge of the self-archiving rights of authors is sometimes lacking, and authors often have to negotiate with publishers to secure their rights to self-archive their works in a repository . In contrast to scholarly journals, print editions of books are of continuing importance despite generally declining sales figures, and are desired not least by the authors themselves. The dissemination channels and reception processes continue to be geared towards the processing of physical and fee-based objects. Not all books are alike: they range from unostentatious edited collections and conference proceedings, through elaborately designed several-hundred-page monographs, to experimental, multimedia-enriched publication projects. Submission, peer-review, and editorial processes are less standardised than in the area of journals. Especially in the German-speaking area, responsibility for quality assurance lies with editors or publishing house staff (editorial review). The costs of publishing open access books vary greatly. However, because of the larger size of the works, publishing costs are, as a rule, higher than those for articles in open access journals. Furthermore, certain book types, such as handbooks, lexica, or editions, require elaborate editorial processes that are factored in by the publishers. This does not mean, however, that open access books are less cost-efficient than open access journals. In the case of the high-priced open access journals of commercial publishers, the price per page is even several times higher than that of the overwhelming majority of book projects. All these factors make it clear that in order to develop their full potential, the models and tools developed for journals must be adapted to the specific requirements of open access books. This is true not least with a view to developing sustainable business models for small and medium-sized publishers (see also the international project Community-led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs, COPIM ), building suitable publication infrastructures, and developing adequate funding instruments. Both the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the German Research Foundation (DFG) have recently drawn up programmes to address these challenges (BMBF: Richtlinie zur Förderung von Projekten zur Beschleunigung der Transformation zu Open Access [Directive on the Promotion of Projects to Accelerate the Transformation to Open Access] , 2020; DFG: Funding Programme: Open Access Publication Funding , from 2021 onwards). open-access.network (2021) ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access Journals Find an introduction here. Open Access and Research Funders Find an introduction here. Why is Open Access so Complicated with Books? The Open Access Books Toolkit explains how open access books and journals differ. Zukunftsmusik oder State of the Art – Experimentelle Formate für Bücher?" Bericht zur Erhebung" [Pipe Dream or State of the Art – Experimental Formats for Books?] The report summarises key results of a survey conducted within the framework of the project open-access.network. Services for Books Video zum Publizieren von Open-Access-Büchern Quelle: Stern, N. (2020). Publishing your book in Open Access?, open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/52108 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) Working Group Universitätsverlage Learn more about the members and principles of the working group on university publishers. ScholarLed Learn more about the members and principles of the ScholarLed initiative. Practical Tip Valuable information about community-led publication infrastructures for monographs – for example a report on resources, technical workflows, tools, and platforms – can be found on the website of the COPIM project. Although numerous challenges in transforming books to open access have yet to be mastered, authors already have a wide range of options when it comes to publishing an open access book. Many established publishers have incorporated open access models into their portfolios, and offer gold open access publications using CC licences. Publishers are often also willing to discuss the possibility of self-archiving a work in an open access repository after an embargo period (green open access). The fear frequently voiced by publishers that open access leads to serious shortfalls in the sales of print editions has been refuted in various studies ( Graf et al., 2020; Snijder, 2019; Collins & Milloy, 2016 ). Academic presses operated by universities or their libraries are an affordable and high-quality alternative to commercial publishers. The majority of the German-language university presses have joined together in the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Universitätsverlage (working group of the German-language university presses). They have collaboratively produced a variety of materials on publishing books in open access, including a paper on quality standards ( AG Universitätsverlage, 2018 ) that is also helpful when examining an open access offering and choosing a publisher. And finally, as in the case of journals, there are now a number of publishing initiatives founded by scholars and scientists (e.g., the consortium ScholarLed ). These initiatives are committed to fair open access and stand out because they demonstrate a high degree of transparency with regard to their business models ( see Nordhoff, 2018; Barnes & Gatti, 2020 ). Scholarly books are now increasingly published via institutional publishing platforms ( Open Monograph Press [OMP] , PubPub , Janeway ). These platforms do not use publishing house business models, but rather are funded as a common good, which entails specific challenges. Funding Possibilities In order to relieve the financial burden on authors and editors, many institutions now make specific funds available for open access books. Publication funds are also being established at federal state level in Germany. The DFG funding programme Open Access Publication Funding , which was established in 2021, grants institutions an allowance of up to 5,000 euros towards the costs of the open access publication of books resulting from DFG-funded projects. The same amount can be drawn down annually for book publications via project-related publication expenses within the framework of DFG project funding. In addition, DFG publication grants can be awarded for editions of primary texts and manuscript material as well as for works of exceptional scientific importance. For some time now, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) have had dedicated programmes in place for funding open access books. Via the Open Access Monograph Bursary for early career researchers in digital humanities launched by the EU Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities (DARIAH-EU) in 2021, up to 7,000 euros per book can be made available. Video zur Finanzierung von Open-Access-Monographien Quelle: Brinken, H. (2020). Finanzierung von Open-Access-Monographien, open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/49535 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) Finding Open Access Books Practical Tip Numerous search engines specialise in open access publications and provide free access to full texts There are also special search services for finding open access books. You can find an overview in our Practical Tip for finding open access literature (in German). Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) DOAB is the central data base for open access books, searchable by subject. Open access books are indexed at many locations and are often searchable in the usual databases and search engines. The Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE) , which also enables a targeted search for books or book chapters, specialises in open access content. In addition, open access books can also be easily found via the popular search engines, for example, Google Scholar. An important role in relation to findability and visibility is played by the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) , the central database for open access books, which can be searched by subject, language, and publisher. The metadata of books indexed in DOAB are harvested for inclusion in diverse library catalogues. The combined online library and publication platform OAPEN (Open Access Publishing in European Networks) as well as disciplinary repositories for the humanities and social sciences, such as media/rep/ and SSOAR , are suitable for searching for open access books. In addition, the discipline-specific pages on open-access.network offer an introduction. Conclusion and Outlook For decades, open access for books was systematically implemented only by a very small number of protagonists, and thus remained a peripheral phenomenon. Although these pioneers recognised the scientific potential of open access for book-friendly disciplines at an early stage, comprehensive practices, approaches, and providers were lacking. However, although there is still a need to catch up, the area of open access books is now highly dynamic: Extensive studies (e.g., in projects such as COPIM and OPERAS-P ) are being conducted, publication funds are being established or expanded, new business models are being developed, and new publishing projects are being initiated. Moreover, networks like the Open Access Books Network , ENABLE! , or the Focus Group Open Access Books are being founded; manuals are being produced and recommendations are being formulated ( see Adema, 2019; Godel et al., 2020 ); and information platforms, such as the Open Access Books Toolkit initiated by OAPEN, are being created. Further impulses for the transformation of scholarly books to open access are to be expected from the 20 projects to promote the acceleration of the transformation to open access that are being funded by the BMBF from 2021 onwards. Select Projects and Initiatives for Networking COPIM OPERAS-P Open Access Books Network ENABLE! Fokus Group "Open Access Books" Feel free to discuss developments in Open Access Books with experts. Focus Group "Open Access Monograph Funds" Feel free to discuss development in Open Access Monograph Funds with experts. References Adema, J. (2019). Towards a roadmap for open access monographs . Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3238545 Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Universitätsverlage. (2018). Qualitätsstandards für Open-Access-Monografien und -Sammelbände (Version 1). Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3562239 Bargheer, M., Dogan, Z. M., Horstmann, W., Mertens, M., & Rapp, A. (2017). Unlocking the digital potential of scholarly monographs in 21st century research. LIBER Quarterly , 27 (1), 194–211. http://doi.org/10.18352/lq.10174 Barnes, L. & Gatti, R. (2020, May 28). The cost of open access books: A publisher writes. Open Book Publishers. https://blogs.openbookpublishers.com/the-cost-of-open-access-books-a-publisher-writes/ Collins, E., & Milloy, C. (2016). OAPEN-UK final report: A five-year study into open access monograph publishing in the humanities and social sciences (p. 94). https://oapen.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/7a65d73f1087444d80807833a320fa36.pdf Ferwerda, E., Pinter, F., & Stern, N. (2017). A landscape study on open access and monographs: Policies, funding and publishing in eight European countries . Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.815932 Godel, R., Herb, U., Hillenkötter, K., Holzer, Angela, Nordhoff, S., Schäffler, H., Siegert, O., & Arbeitsgruppe “Wissenschaftliches Publikationssystem” der Schwerpunktinitiative „Digitale Information“ der Allianz der deutschen Wissenschaftsorganisationen. (2020). Förderung wissenschaftlicher Buchpublikationen im Open Access (Open-Access-Bücher): Standards und Richtlinien für die Gestaltung infrastruktureller Rahmenbedingungen und die Vergabe von Fördermitteln durch wissenschaftliche Einrichtungen: Handreichung der AG Wissenschaftliches Publikationssystem im Rahmen der Schwerpunktinitiative „Digitale Information“ der Allianz der deutschen Wissenschaftsorganisationen . 13 p. https://doi.org/10.3249/ALLIANZOA.014 Graf, D., Fadeeva, Y., & Falkenstein-Feldhoff, K., (Eds.) (2020). Bücher im Open Access. Ein Zukunftsmodell für die Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften? Verlag Barbara Budrich. https://www.doi.org/10.17185/duepublico/72237 Herb, U. (2015). Open Science in der Soziologie: Eine interdisziplinäre Bestandsaufnahme zur offenen Wissenschaft und eine Untersuchung ihrer Verbreitung in der Soziologie. Schriften zur Informationswissenschaft 67. Verlag Werner Hülsbusch. https://doi.org/10.22028/D291-23737 Lucraft, M. (2021, March 3). Open Access to academic books creates larger, more diverse and more equitable readerships. LSE Impact Blog . https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2021/03/03/open-access-to-academic-books-creates-larger-more-diverse-and-more-equitable-readerships/ Nordhoff, S. (2018). Cookbook for open access books . Language Science Press. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1286925 Open Access Books Toolkit (2020, October 29). The difference between an open access book and an open access journal . https://oabooks-toolkit.org/the-oabooks-landscape/1323435-oa-books-vs-oa-journals;jsessionid=08F1DF2737084E6DAD2E12BE59C55FD0 Snijder, R. (2019). The deliverance of open access books. Examining usage and dissemination . Amsterdam University Press. https://www.doi.org/10.26530/OAPEN_1004809 Stone, G., & Marques, M. (2018). Knowledge Exchange survey on open access monographs . Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1475446 Further Reading Neylon, C., Ozaygen, A., Montgomery, L., Huang, C.-K. (Karl), Pyne, R., Lucraft, M., & Emery, C. (2021). More readers in more places: The benefits of open access for scholarly books. Insights , 34 (1), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.558 Snijder, R. (2023). Measured in a context: making sense of open access book data. Insights the UKSG Journal , 36 , 20. https://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.627 Taylor, M. (2020). An Altmetric Attention Advantage for Open Access Books in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Scientometrics , 125 (3), 2523–43. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-020-03735-8 ....
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Open Access Journals
Intro Facts about Open Access Journals open-access.network (2026) ( CC BY 4.0 International ) The key takeaways from this article are 1 Open access journals are journals whose articles are available and reusable worldwide free of charge and without restrictions immediately on publication. 2 Most open access journals do not charge their authors for publishing articles. In other cases, the author-pays model is common. 3 The content published in open access journals is searchable in the usual databases and search engines – the Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE) specialises in open access content. Definition Open access journals are journals whose articles are available and reusable worldwide free of charge and without restrictions immediately on publication. As a rule, contributions in journals that meet this definition are published under a Creative Commons licence granted by the authors. The publishers of these journals are granted only a non-exclusive right of use by the authors. Open access journals are the primary medium for what is known as gold open access to scholarly articles. If a journal does not levy article processing charges (APCs) , this is often referred to as diamond open access . Through gold or diamond open access, articles achieve the widest possible dissemination and are available to and reusable by researchers and all other interested parties as fast as possible. In this way, the visibility of research results is enhanced and their citation frequency is often increased ( Piwowar et al., 2018 ). open-access.network ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Open Access and Closed Access Practical Tip An overview of the requirements that open access journals must satisfy, and concrete criteria that authors can use as a guide when choosing a suitable publication venue can be found in the slides of a German-language presentation on the topic of " Quality of open access journals – Where to publish and where not to publish? ". Practical Tip The following tools can be helpful in finding suitable OA publication venues for your own manuscript: oa.finder (a tool for searching for scholarly publication venues; developed as a project by open-access.network ) B!SON (Open Access journal recommender, developed by TIB and SLUB Dresden ) Quality Assurance and Impact Measurement Find an introduction here. In terms of quality, there is no difference between open access and closed access (i.e., subscription-based ) journals. As is the norm in the case of scholarly journals, manuscripts undergo a quality assurance procedure – mostly peer review – before publication. In the context of open science and the idea of a transparent scientific process, some open access journals even go one step further and offer open peer review . By making the identities of all participants open, quality assurance becomes a community process, thereby ensuring constructive criticism. Moreover, the free availability of the full texts has the advantage of making it easier to detect plagiarism and errors. Where customary in the discipline in question, some open access journals occasionally also practise a form of editorial review. 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 ) Funding The main difference between open and closed access journals lies in the free availability and reusability of the former and in the way they are funded . In the case of traditional closed access (subscription-based) journals, the readers, or their institutions and scholarly libraries, pay high fees for access to the articles. Open access publications, by contrast, can be used free of charge. Hence, funding must take place via a different channel. The so-called author-pays model, where authors pay article processing charges (APCs) to publish their contributions, is very widespread. However, the majority of open access journals do not charge APCs ( Morrison, 2018 ). Rather, they are funded by professional societies, scientific institutions or library consortia, or through volunteer work. By now, many closed access journals offer authors the option of paying a high fee to make individual contributions freely available. The publishers of these so-called hybrid journals thus generate additional revenues without there being a corresponding decrease in subscription prices. Because of this so-called double dipping on the part of publishers, hybrid open access is quite controversial. Via transformative agreements with commercial publishers – for example, those negotiated by the German initiative Projekt DEAL – the costs of these hybrid APCs are increasingly being covered in a contractually specified amount by library consortia with the aim of transforming the hybrid journals into open access journals in the long run. Many research funders and institutional publication funds refuse to fund OA publication fees for contributions to hybrid journals (see e.g. Plan S ). To circumvent these exclusion criteria, some major publishers have founded so-called "mirror journals" , i.e. OA versions of subscription journals whose thematic focus, editorial boards and peer review processes are largely identical to those of the corresponding subscription journal. Both the cOAlition S and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) consider such journals to be de facto hybrid journals whose articles are not eligible for funding ( Voigt, 2022 ). open-access.network ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Source: altmetric.com Self-Archiving Green open access can also be provided to publications in closed access journals by making them available free of charge in repositories . Under German copyright law (UrhG), scientific contributions published in conventional journals may, under certain conditions, be self-archived in a repository. Impact The Journal Impact Factors , a metric for the citation frequency of articles published in a given journal, are published in the Journal Citation Reports , which also covers open access journals. However, the misuse of the Journal Impact Factor to evaluate outputs of scholarly research has been strongly criticised (see the Declaration on Research Assessment, DORA ). Altmetrics have emerged as an alternative to the traditional bibliometric indicators. They capture the diverse reactions to scholarly publications on the Web. Finding Content The content published in open access journals is indexed in many locations and is searchable in the usual databases and search engines. The Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE) specialises in open access content. In journal and article databases, filter options offer the possibility of limiting the search to open access content. This is the case, for example, in the Electronic Journals Library (the option "free for everyone") or in the Web of Science. GoTriple is an interesting discovery platform for open access content from the social sciences and humanities. A useful open source tool for finding open access versions of scholarly publications is Unpaywall , which is available as a browser extension for Firefox and Chrome ( Piwowar et al., 2018 ). Finding Open Access Publications Numerous search engines specialise in open access. This presentation provides an overview of how to find free scientific literature. Open Access in Specific Disciplines The introductions to open access in specific disciplines on open-access.net are also a good starting point. Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) The central database for open access journals is the DOAJ, which can also be searched by field. Publishing Open Access Journals Find an introduction here. German-Language Presentation on “Founding Open Access Journals” The slides of this presentation entitled “ Open-Access-Zeitschriften gründen – woran muss ich denken? [Founding open access journals – What should I bear in mind] provide valuable tips about the things that editors should consider before launching an open access journal. Founding A Journal Do you see a need for a new journal in your field, and would you like to publish it as an open access journal? Many open access journals are set up by scholars and scientists. Because there are now a large number of options from a discipline-specific, technical, and financial perspective, we would recommend, as a first step, that you talk to the open access experts at your institution. Many institutions offer their researchers the possibility of supporting the creation and management of independent open access journals, for example, via the software application Open Journal Systems (OJS) . One example is the TIB – Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology and University Library, which operates a publication platform, TIB Open Publishing , on which open access journals can be hosted with OJS. Although open to all fields, the focus is on the technical sciences and the natural sciences. In addition, there are also a number of open access publishers – and also conventional publishers, which are increasingly switching to open access publications – under whose umbrella you could set up your journal. We recommend that you take a look at our discipline-specific pages to see which publishers in your field already have open access offerings. The Open Access Journals Toolkit can also provide helpful guidance on founding and operating an open access journal. If you want to convert an existing subscription-based journal to open access rather than founding a new journal, you can find further information on how to do so on our Converting Journals to Open Access page. References Kaden, Ben (2023): OA Takeaways: Die Kritik am DEAL-Vertrag mit Elsevier in der FAZ vom 29.11.2023. https://doi.org/10.59350/dzrhw-yb070 Mittermaier, B. (2025). Transformationsverträge sind eine Sackgasse: In Erinnerung an Irene Barbers (1966–2025). O-bib , 12 (1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.5282/o-bib/6117 Piwowar, H., Priem, J., Larivière, V., Alperin, J. P., Matthias, L., Norlander, B., Farley, A., West, J., & Haustein, S. (2018). The state of OA: A large-scale analysis of the prevalence and impact of Open Access articles. PeerJ, 6 , e4375. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4375 Ross-Hellauer, T. (2017). What is open peer review? A systematic review [Version 2; peer review: 4 approved]. F1000Research, 6 , 588. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.11369.2 Voigt, M. (2022, August 15). Spieglein, Spieglein an der Wand… Mirror Journals gezielt erkennen. FIS & EPub – Gemeinsamer Blog der DINI AG Forschungsinformationssystem und Elektronisches Publizieren . https://blog.dini.de/EPub_FIS/2022/08/15/spieglein-spieglein-an-der-wand-mirror-journals-gezielt-erkennen/ Ziegler, G. M., & Dirnagl, U. (2024, August 29). Pro & Contra: Warum die „Deal“-Verträge (k)ein Gewinn für die Wissenschaft sind. Forschung & Lehre. https://www.forschung-und-lehre.de/politik/warum-die-deal-vertraege-kein-gewinn-fuer-die-wissenschaft-sind-6595...
