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Editing Open Access Journal

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...

OASPA Webinar: Policy into Action. The UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science under the spotlight - actions for publishing

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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...

Online-Workshop: Wir wollen mehr Open Access wagen! Wege, Modelle und Services für die Politikwissenschaft

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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...

Open Access Preprints

Intro What are Preprints? Preprints are preliminary versions, or manuscript versions, of scholarly works – especially journal articles – that are made available to the (professional) public. As a rule, they are non- peer-reviewed versions whose public release primarily serves to expedite the sharing of research findings. Preprints are made freely available to the public on preprint servers, thereby also making an important contribution to green open access . Quelle: Becklas, Carolin; Hauss, Jonas (2025): Was sind Preprints? av.tib.eu/media/69857 The key takeaways from this article are 1 Preprints are early versions of scholarly publications that are made available to the (professional) public – as a rule without prior peer review. 2 Preprints, which are particularly common in physics and other natural sciences, are made freely available to the public on preprint servers and make an important contribution to green open access. 3 Preprint servers enable the publishing of so-called overlay journals – that is, online journals that use the infrastructure of a preprint platform for submissions and publication. Characteristics of Preprints Many months may elapse between the submission of a manuscript and its publication in a journal. According to one study ( Huisman & Smits, 2017 ), the average duration of the peer-review process is 17 weeks. In addition, time is needed for typesetting and, if applicable, copy-editing and printing. In order to expedite the dissemination of research findings, preprints are shared in many disciplines. However, cultures differ greatly across disciplines. In physics , preprints are an indispensable communication tool – depending on the subfield, preliminary versions of over 90% of all journal articles are made available to the public on the preprint server arXiv prior to publication of the final version ( Gentil-Beccot et al., 2009 ). By contrast, authors in other disciplines have not yet adopted a comparable preprint culture. It may be that not all journals in these disciplines accept manuscripts that have previously been posted as a preprint. As a rule, preprints have not yet undergone any scholarly quality assurance processes. Substantively, they may therefore differ considerably from the published versions, or they may not even be accepted for publication. While scholars and scientists are aware of this, problems may arise if, for example, the media pick up findings from preprints and disseminate them to a large audience without indicating that they are preliminary and have not been peer reviewed. To enable non-scientific readers to better understand the nature of preprints, medical preprint servers display caution statements. Source: Based on: Shafee, Thomas (2020). Typical publishing workflow for an academic journal article (preprint, postprint, and published) with open access sharing rights per SHERPA/RoMEO. Own work; adapted from diagram by Ginny Barbour Wikimedia Commons ( CC BY 4.0 International ) Preprint Servers There are numerous preprint servers. The following figure shows some commonly used ones: Source: Khurana, S. (2020). Commonly used pre-print servers for researchers Zenodo Zenodo is a universal data repository. Much of the material on this website is also accessible here in the Zenodo collection open-access.network . In principle, preprints can be disseminated through all possible channels, for example, email, institutional repositories , or research institution websites. As a rule, they are uploaded to preprint servers, which are usually dedicated to one or more specialist fields. Although no peer review takes place on these plat­forms, uploaded publications usually undergo a basic screening process to ensure that they are scientific and fit the disciplinary scope of the server. Pre­print servers have often emerged from and are financed by scientific commu­nities. Some are operated by research institutions or professional societies. Only rarely are they operated by publishers. The oldest and largest preprint server is arXiv , an open access repository for scholarly articles in eight subject areas, including physics , mathematics , and computer science , that was founded in 1991. As of April 2021, arXiv hosted over 1.8 million documents. Other important preprint platforms are bioRxiv ( biology ), SocArXiv ( social sciences ), EarthArXiv ( geosciences ), medRxiv ( medicine ), and ChemRxiv ( chemistry ). Functionalities differ across platforms. As a rule, revised versions of papers can be uploaded – for example, after acceptance by a journal – and a link can be provided to the final published version ( version of record ). Some platforms also offer a comments function so that authors can receive feedback, and findings can be discussed in the community. History As early as the 1960s, there was a system in biology whereby reports of current research findings – especially in the form of preprints – were reproduced and circulated by postal mail by a central registry ( Cobb, 2017 ). A similar system also existed in the field of high-energy physics ( Gentil-Beccot et al., 2009 ). With the advent of the Internet, the sharing of manuscripts became much easier, as they could be circulated via email. In 1991, Paul Ginsparg founded arXiv at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a server for preprints from high-energy physics ( Ginsparg, 2017 ). The manuscripts were thus freely available to all interested parties. The scope of arXiv was later extended to include other areas of physics, as well as mathematics, computer science, and neighbouring fields such as quantitative finance and quantitative biology. It was only after the turn of the century that other fields followed arXiv’s lead. For example, in 2013, bioRxiv was launched as a preprint server for biology, thereby making preprint sharing more popular in the life sciences . The initiative ASAPbio advocates the use of preprints in biology. Boosted by the success of the Open Science Framework (OSF) – an open source infrastructure that, inter alia, enables preprints to be uploaded and searched for – there has been a veritable boom in preprint servers for the most diverse subject areas since 2016. Nonetheless, the acceptance of preprints and the willingness to share them varies greatly across disciplines. During the COVID-19 pandemic, preprints have played an important role in the rapid dissemination, checking, and correction of research findings on the SARS-CoV-2 virus ( Fraser et al., 2020; Gianola et al., 2020 ). This chart on preprints in the life sciences illustrates how strongly the importance of preprints has increased in recent years: Source: Polka, Jessica K., & Penfold, Naomi C. (2020). Biomedical preprints per month, by source and as a fraction of total literature (3.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3819276 ( CC BY 4.0 International ) History of Open Access Find an introduction here. Preprints and Open Science Click on the picture to watch the video. Video about Preprints. Source: Youreka Science (2016). What Are Preprints? YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zMgY8Dx9co In contrast to journal articles, which are often behind paywalls, preprints are freely accessible in the long term and are thus a key component of green open access. When a journal article is not freely accessible, the preprint version can be found via services like Unpaywall provided it is linked to the publisher’s version (the version of record). Preprints also make the process of gaining and communicating scientific knowledge more transparent. They enable critical discussion of works in the community before final publication Thus, authors can receive and take into account feedback in addition to the actual peer reviews. Preprints thus form the basis for informal or formalised open peer review ( Frick, 2020 ). Overlay Journals Preprint servers enable the publishing of so-called overlay journals ( Gowers, 2015 ) – that is, online journals that use the infrastructure of a preprint platform, especially arXiv, for submissions and publication. Authors post their papers on arXiv and submit a link to the arXiV preprint to the journal in question, which then organises the review process. If the paper is accepted, it is included in the journal – that is, it is linked from the journal website and assigned a DOI and possibly a comment from the editor. In this way, the advantages of arXiv (cost-effective, freely accessible, well-known infrastructure) are combined with those of a journal (peer-review, reputation, possibly an Impact Factor). Successful examples of overlay journals are SIGMA (Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications) , Logical Methods in Computer Science (LMCS) , Discrete Analysis , and Quantum . open-access.network ( CC BY 4.0 International ) References Cobb, M. (2017). The prehistory of biology preprints: A forgotten experiment from the 1960s. PLOS Biology , 15 (11). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2003995 Fraser, N., Brierley, L., Dey, G., Polka, J. K., Pálfy, M., Nanni, F., & Coates, J. A. (2021). Preprinting the COVID-19 pandemic . bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.22.111294 Frick, C. (2020). Peer-Review im Rampenlicht. Ein prominentes Fallbeispiel. Informationspraxis , 6 (2). https://doi.org/10.11588/ip.2020.2.74406 Gentil-Beccot, A., Mele, S., & Brooks, T. (2009). Citing and reading behaviours in high-energy physics. How a community stopped worrying about journals and learned to love repositories . arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/0906.5418 Gianola, S., Jesus, T. S., Bargeri, S., & Castellini, G. (2020). Characteristics of academic publications, preprints, and registered clinical trials on the COVID-19 pandemic. PLoS ONE , 15 (10). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240123 Ginsparg, P. (2017). Preprint déjà vu: An FAQ . arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.04188 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/ Huisman, J., & Smits, J. (2017). Duration and quality of the peer review process: The author’s perspective. Scientometrics , 113 , 633–650. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-017-2310-5 Further Reading Ettinger, C., Sadanandappa, M. K., Görgülü, K., Coghlan, K., Hallenbeck, K. K., & Puebla, I. (2022). A guide to preprinting for Early Career Researchers [OSF Preprints]. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/e59tk...

Open Access Publication

Intro The Path a Publication Takes Source: based on Rücknagel, J. & Schmeja, S. (2021). Open Access Basics - How to publish and What to Consider? (S.4). Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4530414 ( CC BY 4.0 International ) The key takeaways from this article are 1 Authors can make their publications freely available by publishing them open access or by self-archiving them in an open access repository. 2 When choosing a publication venue, criteria such as thematic focus, quality, and costs should be considered. 3 When self-archiving, authors should grant third parties rights of use in the works. Scientific Publishing Only when authors publish their research results do their findings achieve visibility and can thus be adequately recognised and cited. For a long time, publishing works in print media – for example, as journal articles, monographs, or contributions to collections – was the most common way of permanently recording and disseminating scholarly and scientific information. Through the possibility of electronic publication, and especially through open access , a large number of alternative publication options have arisen. This significantly increases the citation frequency, and thus also the visibility, of research results ( Swan, 2010; Li et al., 2018 ). The aspects that should be considered when publishing open access or when self-archiving in an open access repository are outlined in what follows. Scientists can actively support the change to open science through their own publishing behavior. This practical tip "Supporting Open Access" explains how. Practical Tip What variants of open access publishing are there? Which ones are suitable for me? Where can I publish in accordance with the principles of open access? How do I find a suitable journal? What do research funders expect? You can find the answers in the presentation " Open Access Basics – How to Publish and What to Consider? " Practical Tip The AuROA catalogue of services ( Leistungskatalog ) offers a compilation of possible individual tasks and services in the open access publishing process. AuROA (Authors and Legal Certainty for Open Access) is a project that between 2021 and 2023 addressed the heterogeneous and complex needs, perspectives and demands of open access publishing in book-oriented disciplines. Publication Routes 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 road to publication usually starts with the decision as to how the research results should be published. There are many reasons in favour of open access publishing; they are summarised on the Reasons and Reservations page. Basically, two different open access strategies can be distinguished: gold open access and green open access . Gold open access refers to the publication of scholarly works as articles in open access journals , as open access monographs , or as contributions to open access collections or conference proceedings. This literature is freely available and reusable immediately, without an embargo period . Green open access means making research results freely available by self-archiving them in an institutional or disciplinary repository . This can also be done in parallel with or after publication in a journal or with a publisher. Choosing a Publication Venue Several parameters play a role when choosing a publication venue. These parameters are largely the same for closed access and open access publications. They include the thematic focus of the venue; the type of quality assurance it employs; its reputation in the field; and, if applicable, the licensing conditions under which the publications are made available and the level of any publication fees that may be charged. In the context of open access, research funders’ requirements increasingly play a role. Among funders, one finds not only regulations whereby grant holders should provide open access to the scholarly publications arising from funded research, but sometimes also specific requirements with regard to publication venues ( Dreher, 2020; Rücknagel, 2021 ). Further information on research funders’ policies and a list of funding organisations can be found on the Financing page . Die Vorteile einer Open-Access-Dissertation Quelle: Becklas, C., Hauss, J. (2024): Die Vorteile einer Open Access Dissertation. open-access.network, Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB) et al. https://doi.org/10.5446/68305#t=00:00,01:15 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) Source: Translation of a flowchart by Brinken, H. & Rücknagel, J. (2021). Open Access – Das sind Ihre Möglichkeiten für die Publikation von Artikeln. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5045255 ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ). 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 ) Gold Open Access Finding Suitable Journals/Publishers If the intention is to publish a work open access (gold OA), for example, as a journal article, a monograph, or a contribution to a collection, it is advisable to first search for thematically suitable journals or publishers with open access offerings. On our web page Subject-Specific Open Access , we provide discipline-specific information that can offer helpful introductory pointers. Open access journals can be searched via the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) or the Electronic Journals Library (EZB) . For open access books, the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) and the online library and publication platform OAPEN are first ports of call. Suitable publication venues can also be found in conversation with colleagues. If a publisher does not offer a gold open access option, it is often worthwhile enquiring specifically whether it would allow the article to be self-archived in a repository. Quality Criteria Open access publications undergo the same quality assurance proce­dures as traditional publications. The review procedures do not differ either: from classical peer review and editorial review to open review procedures – everything can be found here. The German-language publication Qualitätsstandards für Open-Access-Monografien und -Sammelbände ( AG Universitätsverlage, 2018 ) offers guidance when choosing a suitable publisher for open access books. When choosing a journal, the German-language checklist on the quality of open access journals provided by Brinken et al. (2021) can help when assessing its quality. Further information in this regard can be found on the Open Access Journals and Open Access for Monographs pages. The impact and visibility of scholarly publications play an important role for the reputational gains and thus for the career prospects of individual scholars and scientists. Studies show that the citation frequency of open access publications is usually much higher than that of their closed access counterparts. Overviews in this regard are provided by the Open Access Citation Advantage Service and by Piwowar and colleagues’ Large-Scale Analysis of the Prevalence and Impact of Open Access Articles ( Piwowar et al., 2018 ). Journal Impact Factors , a metric of the citation frequency of articles in scholarly journals, are published in the annual publication Journal Citation Reports , which also covers open access journals. So-called altmetrics have emerged as an alternative to the traditional bibliometric indicators. They capture the diverse reactions to a scholarly publication on the Web. Financing In contrast to closed access, where libraries and users pay for access, open access publications are financed in a different way. The so-called author-pays model, whereby authors pay article processing charges (APCs) or book processing charges (BPCs) to have their works published, is very common in the open access context. To find out whether, or what level of, author fees are charged, it is usually helpful to check the website of the journal or publisher. If a journal indexed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) charges APCs, details are deposited in the journal record. However, a large percentage of open access journals indexed in DOAJ are free of charge both for readers and authors ( Morrison, 2018 ). These journals are financed, for example, by professional societies, academic institutions, library consortia, or – in kind – by voluntary work. For open access books, university presses run by universities or their libraries, and publishing initiatives established by scholars and scientists (e.g. the consortium ScholarLed ) are an affordable and high quality alternative to commercial publishers. Detailed information on financing open access articles and books can be found on the Financing page. Many research institutions have a publication fund from which open access publication fees can be paid. The management of the funds is usually located at the institutions’ libraries. In addition, some open access publishers offer institutional membership, which is similar to a discount model. Institutions pay an annual membership fee, thereby enabling their members to publish their works in the journal in question free of charge or for a reduced fee. Moreover, via transformative agreements with commercial publishers, such as those negotiated by the German initiative Projekt Deal , contractually agreed fees for individual hybrid open access articles in subscription journals are increasingly borne by library consortia. Information on this is provided by the open access officers at the respective institutions . The funding of genuine open access models by consortia is increasingly moving into focus: the costs are borne by a consortium, and no publication fees are payable by authors, irrespective of whether their institutions participate in the financing. In addition to funding research, some funding organisations also bear publication costs for articles in scholarly journals and other publications. When submitting a funding proposal to the German Research Foundation (DFG) , application can also be made for a publication grant. The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) have established dedicated funding programmes to finance open access articles and books. The Volkswagen Foundation also bears the publication costs incurred by the projects it funds and expects grant recipients to publish open access. International funding organisations, such as the Wellcome Trust , as well as the EU framework programme Horizon 2020 , reimburse publication charges for open access articles within the framework of their funding. In addition, the Open Access Books Toolkit provides a l ist of funding sources for open access books . Practical Tip An overview of the requirements that open access journals must fulfil and concrete criteria that authors can use as a guide when choosing a suitable publication venue, can be found in the presentation " Publishing Open Access: How to evaluate a journal's quality ". Research Funders and Open Access Find an introduction here. Video on the Funding of Open Access Articles Source: Becklas Dorow, C., Hauss, J. (2026). Funding Open Access Articles – What Are the Options?. Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB), open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/73596 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) 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 ) Self-Archiving (Green Open Access) It is not always possible to publish open access, for example, when no suitable open access journal is available. A publication can nonetheless be made freely available by self-archiving it in an open access repository. In this way, the author can comply with the open access mandate of a funding organisation or their own institution, and the publication can be made freely accessible to everyone worldwide. Finding a Suitable Repository The self-archiving of publications can take place in institutional or disciplinary repositories. The Information for Different Disciplines page lists the repositories available in the respective disciplines. The Open Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) and the Registry of Open Access Repositories (ROAR) also provide overviews. Authors do not have to pay any charges to make their publications available in an institutional or disciplinary repository, nor do readers have to pay to access these publications. What specifically needs to be considered when (self-)archiving can be read by country in our legal section . Self-Archiving Rights Most publishers allow their authors to make their works available in repositories in parallel with publication. The Sherpa Romeo database provides an overview of the open access policies of many journal publishers. Publishers often allow the author’s final version after peer-review (author’s accepted manuscript, AAM) or the published version to be self-archived. Publishing agreements should be drafted in such a way that the authors reserve the right to self-archive their works online in a freely accessible way. Ideally, authors should grant the publisher only non-exclusive rather than exclusive rights of use for the intended types of use. If this is not possible, and no alternative publishing option is available, authors can consider attaching an addendum to the publishing agreement in order to reserve a non-exclusive right to use the work online in a repository. Various possible solutions to this problem are available on the Publishing Agreements page. Under Section 38 of the German Act on Copyright and Related Rights (UrhG) , authors of scientific contributions that result from research activities at least half of which were financed by public funds, and that were published in a collection that appears periodically at least twice a year, have the right to self-archive them in an open access repository upon expiry of 12 months after publication. According to this statutory provision on self-archiving , it is therefore possible in these cases to make these works available in a repository even if the publishers have been granted exclusive rights of use ( Brehm, 2021 ). A German-language guide issued by the Communication, Information, Media Centre (KIM) at the University of Konstanz provides an overview of the topic of self-archiving. Self-archiving is easier when a work is published in an open access journal or with an open access publisher. As a rule, they allow the work to also be made available in a repository provided the place of publication is credited. Find Repositories on OpenDOAR Click here. Legal Questions Find an introduction here. Legal Parameters Wie genau funktionieren Creative-Commons-Lizenzen? Quelle: Brinken, H., Hauss, J. & Rücknagel, J. (2021). Wie genau funktionieren Creative-Commons-Lizenzen? open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/52952 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) Source: Foter (2015). How To Attribute Creative Commons Photos ( CC BY-SA 3.0 ) Authors who wish to make their works available in open access should observe several legal parameters. Of central importance is that the authors themselves have the right to exploit their works online. However, this is not necessarily a given in standard publishing agreements. An overview of the legal situation in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland can be found on the Legal Issues page, which provides information on copyright, making documents available in repositories, publishing agreements, licences, liability law, and data protection. Open Access Licences One important aspect of open access is the reuse of publications. In order to make it clear what rights third parties have when (re-)using research results, user licences are granted. It is up to the authors themselves to decide what degree of freedom of use of their works they wish to allow. It is recommended that they allow a free worldwide right of access to and reuse of the publication. The granting of open licences by authors should take place in consultation with the respective publishers or, if applicable, in compliance with the repositories’ licensing requirements. In the area of science and research, the open Creative Commons (CC) are the most common. An overview of various open content licensing models can be found on our Licences page . The use of licences to grant specific rights of use facilitates law enforcement in the case of misuse and gives users explicit indications as to how the document in question may be reused. At the same time, the author reserves the right to permit in separate agreements further uses that go beyond those specified in the licence. Predatory Journals Unfortunately, there are also journals that exploit publication charges. These predatory journals , which are founded by so-called predatory publishers, try – sometimes massively – to attract researchers to publish in their journals. However, they do not observe the usual standards of good scientific practice. Hence, there is no quality assurance, for example, in the form of peer review, nor is there adequate editing. Thus, predatory journals damage science and scholarship because they also publish poor-quality contributions whose compliance with academic or ethical standards has not been checked. As publications in these dubious journals can cause substantial damage to the reputations of scholars and scientists, they are urgently advised against submitting manuscripts to them. Source: Monash Health Library. Predatory Publishing A-Z Elements ( CC BY-NC 4.0 ) Online course Find the online course Predatory Journals: Identify, Avoid, and Publish Safely here Practical Tip Recognising Predatory Journals It is not always easy for authors to recognise whether a journal is predatory or not, because the providers often go to a lot of trouble to make their journals appear trustworthy. On professional-looking websites, sometimes entire editorial boards are given false names or well-known researchers are listed as editors without their knowledge. The German-language checklist on the quality of open access journals provided by Brinken et al. (2021) can help authors to make informed decisions. Other criteria for the assessment of the trustworthiness of a journal are provided by the website Think. Check. Submit. It can also be helpful to ask colleagues whether they have ever heard of the journal in question. In case of suspicion, attention should definitely be drawn to the journal. By keeping their eyes open and being the properly aware, authors can avoid publishing with predatory publishers by mistake. The Monash Health Library has published the useful Predatory publishing A-Z elements . Further German-language information on predatory journals and predatory publishers can be found in an overview provided by Helmholtz Open Science and in a fact sheet published by the Science Media Center Germany . In addition, there is a catalogue of criteria for recognising high-quality journals and so-called fake journals. References AG Universitätsverlage. (2018, September 11). Qualitätsstandards für Open-Access-Monografien und -Sammelbände . https://ag-univerlage.de/?p=1974 Brehm, E. (2021). Zweitveröffentlichungsrecht für Wissenschaftler*innen. https://doi.org/10.5446/51789 Brinken, H., Rücknagel, J., & Wenninger, A. (2021). Checkliste zur Qualität von Open-Access-Zeitschriften . Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4643853 Dreher, L. (2020, August 27) . Open-Access-Vorgaben in EU-Projekten . OpenAccessTalk. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4048489 Li, Y., Wu, C., Yan, E., & Li, K. (2018). Will open access increase journal CiteScores? An empirical investigation over multiple disciplines. PLOS ONE , 13 (8), e0201885. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0201885 Morrison, H. (2018, January 31). DOAJ APC information as of Jan 31, 2018. Sustaining the Knowledge Commons / Soutenir Les Savoirs Communs. Open Access Scholarship / Littérature Savante En Libre Accès . https://sustainingknowledgecommons.org/2018/02/06/doaj-apc-information-as-of-jan-31-2018/ 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 Rücknagel, J. (2021, April 15). Fördererauflagen zu Open Access - was gilt es zu beachten? OpenAccessTalk. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4694320 Rücknagel, J., & Schmeja, S. (2021, January 28). Open access basics – How to publish and what to consider? OpenAccessTalk. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4530414 Swan, A. (2010). The Open Access citation advantage: Studies and results to date . https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/268516/ Further Reading Forschungszentrum Jülich, Zentralbibliothek (2022). Predatory Publishers. "Schwarze Schafe" im Wissenschaftsbetrieb. Checkliste. URL: https://www.fz-juelich.de/de/zb/open-science/predatory-publishers Reimer N., & Halbherr, V. (2021). Kriterienkatalog zur Erkennung von qualitativ hochwertigen Journals und von sogenannten Fake-Journals. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5031928 Schmitz, J., & Schmeja, S. (2019). Bericht zum Workshop "Was tun, wenn es passiert ist? Umgang mit Publikationen, die bei einem Predatory Journal eingereicht wurden." https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3553616 Solomon, D. J., & Björk, B.-C. (2012). A study of open access journals using article processing charges. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology , 63 (8), 1485–1495. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.22673...

Open Access business models for journals

Intro 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 ) KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS ARTICLE 1 There are various business and funding models for open access journals. 2 Three basic types of funding models can be distinguished: APC-based, institutional, and consortial models. 3 Within the framework of the open access transformation, efficient, transparent, and fair models should preferably be used. Journal Costs Open access means free access to and reuse of scientific information. Because open access journals can be accessed by readers free of charge, the production costs ( Borrego 2023 ) cannot be recovered through subscriptions but rather must be funded through alternative business models. The serials crisis and the associated large profits earned by scholarly publishers from public funds were key reasons for the emergence of the open access movement . When discussing business models, it is therefore meaningful to distinguish between covering costs and making a profit, especially in cases where it is a matter of reallocating costs for the purpose of converting journals to open access . In all cases, the operating and personnel costs required to receive, manage, publish, and distribute works must be financed. In addition, there are infrastructural costs, for example for server capacities and websites. Added to this are new cost demands for the publication of research data or multimedia content. In the area of gold open access , there are a number of different business models ( Keller, 2017 ; Russell, 2019 ; Waidlein et al., 2021 ). Basically, open access journals can be financed through article processing charges ( APCs ), by institutions, or by consortia. Models that manage entirely without APCs are referred to as diamond open access . Practical Tip Here you can find the slides of the open access talk Open-Access-Finanzierung: Fragen und Probleme (Funding Open Access: Issues and Problems). 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 ) Alternative Business Models for Open Access Publications Source: Strauß, H., Rücknagel, J., & Hauss, J. (2022). Alternative Geschäftsmodelle für Open-Access-Publikationen. https://doi.org/10.5446/60353 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) Author-Pays Model Article Processing Charges (APCs) The central feature of the author-pays model is that in the interval between manuscript acceptance and article publication, APCs are payable by the authors or their institutions. The availability of funds for and the acceptance of such payments depends also on the publication culture of the discipline in question. Other factors include access to third-party funding and the authors’ professional status. APCs are therefore often viewed critically . It is feared that they create access barriers, especially for authors from countries in the Global South or for early career researchers. On the other hand, many commercial open access journals offer fee waivers in individual cases (e.g. for authors from low- and medium-income countries; Lawson, 2015) and pass on these costs to APC-paying authors. Many research funding organisations require that publications resulting from the projects they fund be published open access; in return, they cover the cost of APCs. However, the spread of APC models may lead to a burden on research budgets. Publication Funds Publication funds are one instrument for the institutional support of authors in paying APCs. Many universities and non-university research organisations have such publication funds, from which they pay APCs on their authors’ behalf ( Bruch et al., 2014 ; see the overview in the Open Access Directory). In many cases, funds earmarked for the procurement of literature, and especially for journal subscriptions, also flow into the publication funds. In this way, although the research organisations still pay for the publications, they are now freely accessible worldwide. In Germany, the establishment of publication funds has long been associated with institutional funding programmes of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft , DFG) . Since 2020, higher education institutions and non-university research organisations can apply for a fixed allowance for the open access publication of research results from the realigned DFG funding programme Open Access Publication Funding . With this partial funding of individual publications, the operation of publication funds continues to be supported. Subsidies for open access publication fees are possible inter alia for journal articles, including articles published under transformative agreements such as those negotiated by Projekt Deal . Some German federal states, for example Schleswig-Holstein (until 2024), provide state support for open access by making funding available for publication funds. Furthermore, agreements concluded between open access publishers and research organisations can regulate the payment of APCs and possible discounts. Hybrid Journals: Open Access as an Exception Fee-based open access options for individual articles in subscription journals (which are then often known as hybrid journals ) are a very controversial business model,as the journal not only earns revenue from subscriptions but also from articles that are made open access against payment of APCs. The costs per article are generally much higher than in the case of gold open access journals, although revenue is obtained from two sources. Often referred to as double dipping , this double financing is practised mainly by commercial journals and applied to existing journals that are not earmarked for conversion to open access . Other reservations against hybrid models relate to the fact that they do not contribute to the transformation of the scholarly publishing market to open access, that costing is not transparent, and that individual open access articles in closed access journals do not achieve adequate visibility.In negotiations with publishers (e.g. in the case of individual subscriptions, but also in the case of national licences and consortial models), public institutions usually urge publishers to take measures to counter double dipping, for example by offsetting APCs for open access articles against subscription fees. In Germany, the DEAL Konsortium has concluded transformative agreements with the scholarly publishers Springer Nature, Wiley, and Elsevier to effectively address this problem. The author-pays model is now widespread and is often erroneously used as a synonym for open access business models. However, even before the emergence of the open access movement, journals required their authors to contribute to the financing. Conversely, very many open access journals do not charge their authors any fees. Of the 20,949 journals listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) as of August 2025, 13,824 did not levy any article processing charges ( APCs ). Institutional Funding Business models that rely on direct payments by authors create a large administrative burden. Moreover, it is feared that APCs give rise to unequal prerequisites for access to publishing opportunities. Hence the interest in models that rely directly on funding by institutions. Institutions can, for example, provide publishing services or fund open access journals completely, so that other authors also benefit. One traditional variant is the (partial) funding of publications via professional associations or other institutions of a discipline. Some professional associations traditionally fund their publishing activities from membership fees. Thus, their members are usually both users and authors of the articles published, so that the costs of publishing open access are shared by both groups. One example of a community-funded journal is Documenta Mathematica , which was founded by the Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung (German Mathematical Society). The digital edition is open access; a print edition is available for a small fee. According to the society, the costs of producing the journal are low and are covered mainly by the society. Ultimately, many open access journals rely on the commitment of those involved, who either work on the journal as part of their employment or on a voluntary basis. Support by staff, and possibly the assumption of material costs, can be regarded as an important form of institutional support. Furthermore, nowadays, many academic institutions invest in their own publishing services, for example platforms and services for the production of journals with the help of the open source software Open Journal Systems (OJS) . In this case, the institution subsidises the costs of making the content available and may be responsible for parts of the publishing process. Practical Tips The OA Journals Toolkit provides practice-oriented tips for setting up new open access journals. In addition, the guides published [MG1] [PSM2] by the project Scholar-led Plus offer valuable support in further developing and professionalising scholar-led publishing activities at your institution and making them sustainable in the long term. Since May 2025, these offerings have been supplemented by the Servicestelle Diamond Open Access (SeDOA) . As a DFG-funded project, SeDOA is taking a coordinating role with the aim of sustainably increasing the efficiency of diamond open access (DOA) publishing in Germany through the optimisation of hitherto decentralised services, the centralised provision of relevant information, and the targeted promotion of structural and technical innovations Publishing Open Access Journals Find an introduction here. Editorial process at Open Journal Systems (OJS) Quelle: OJS-net.de Community Funding: Consortial Funding, Membership Models, and Crowdfunding Source: Wrzesinski, M. (2023). Nachhaltige Finanzierung und Organisation von Zeitschriften. https://doi.org/ 10.5446/62588 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) KOALA – Establishing, Expanding and Anchoring Consortial Open Access Solutions The KOALA consortial model enables sustainable funding for diamond open access publications. KOALA creates bundles of thematically focused journals, which are then offered to academic institutions – especially libraries and research institutions – for community funding. The level of the contributions depends on the size and type of the institution, the number of academic staff members, and the number of students. As soon as the pledging target for a journal bundle has been reached, the titles it contains are securely funded and made freely accessible for a period of 3 years. Regular Operations at the TIB Hanover The Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology University Library ( TIB ) acts as a central service provider and coordinator for the KOALA model and operates the service for journals in its subject range (natural sciences and engineering) as part of its regular operations. It is responsible for hosting, consortial management, and communication with the publishers and partner institutions. This organisational framework guarantees stable, transparent, and fair funding of open access journals in the STEM fields. KOALA at the SLUB Dresden Since 2024, the KOALA model is also being piloted at the Saxon State and University Library Dresden (SLUB). Under the name KOALA-SLUB , several subject-specific journal bundles have been established. The SLUB Dresden is responsible for organising the KOALA funding solution – a role equivalent to that of the TIB Hanover. OLEcon Open Library Economics (OLEcon ) supports diamond open access journals of economics by organising consortial co-funding for journals that are either already open access, that are just getting started , or that want to flip (i.e. convert from a subscription model to open access) The OLEcon journal bundle is growing steadily. Journals can apply for funding within the framework of regular calls for applications. Already funded journals are evaluated after 3 years. In addition to the desired institutional participation, OLEcon is establishing a success monitoring system to ensure that the consortium can operate in the most stable and sustainable way possible. edu_consort_oa The project network edu_consort_oa aims to sustainably fund open access publications in educational science, educational research, and subject didactics through crowdfunding and consortial funding. In edu_consort_oa, libraries can participate in annual funding rounds for the financing of open access monographs and diamond open access journals. At present, a package of around 20 e-books, and – for the first time – up to five diamond open access journals (individually, not as part of a package) per year are currently funded for a period of 2 years. An overview of the funded e-books can be found on the Education Research Portal (Fachportal Pädagogik) website. All funded titles can be accessed via peDOCS and the German Education Index (FIS Bildung Literaturdatenbank ). OACIP The Open Access Community Investment Program (OACIP) aims to support non-commercial diamond open access journals in the long term through a consortial funding model. Academic institutions can provided targeted support for quality assured publications, which are evaluated based on standardised transparency and sustainability criteria. The funding period is 3 years. Institutions can either co-fund all the journals or individual journals in the OACIP bundle. A further option is to contribute to the OACIP General Fund, which is used to fill any funding gaps at the OACIP journals. In 2024, OACIP funded eight journals from the STEM fields and the humanities and social sciences. SCOAP³ (Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics) SCOAP³ is an international consortium dedicated to funding open access in high-energy physics. It aims to make high-energy physics articles freely accessible worldwide – without article processing charges for authors. The funding is provided by over 3,000 libraries, research performing organisations, and research funding organisations from over 40 countries. SCOAP³ is coordinated by CERN (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research) in collaboration with scholarly publishers. The partners’ contributions are based on their publication output and are centrally administered. SCOAP³ transforms existing subscription models into a community-funded open access model. In the current funding phase (2025–2027), 11 high-energy physics journals are freely accessible worldwide. Community funding models for open access publications eliminate both article processing charges ( APCs ) and subscription fees ( diamond open access ). To enable researchers to publish their works free of charge, academic institutions join forces and share the costs. Various approaches exist for this. They include consortial funding, membership models, and crowdfunding. These models cannot always be clearly distinguished from one another. However, each model has certain basic characteristics. Consortial funding is a collaborative model in which several academic institutions – typically libraries, higher education institutions, or research funding organisations – jointly fund open access journals, books, or infrastructures ( Reinsfelder & Pike, 2018 ). Examples include KOALA , OLEcon , and Scoap3 . Membership models, for example the Open Library of Humanities (OLH) , enable academic institutions to fund the infrastructure, editorial work, quality assurance, and long-term archiving of diamond open access journals through a fixed annual membership fee. In the case of crowdfunding, a specific project – for example certain journal or book packages – is usually put out to tender. One well-known platform for the crowdfunding of open access publications is Knowledge Unlatched . Crowdfunding campaigns usually have a time limit. If the funding target is reached, the project can be realized. Although crowdfunding is often project related, many initiatives aim to create longer-term structures. Successful crowdfunding can, for example, lay the foundations for a membership funding model or consortial funding. Another model is Subscribe to Open (S2O) , in which open access journals are funded through existing subscriptions. Each year, libraries and other institutions are invited to renew their subscriptions on the same conditions as before, with the aim of making the content of the journal freely accessible for everyone. If the funding target is achieved, the entire volume is published in open access. If the target is not reached, access remains restricted as before. S2O thus offers a gentle transition to open access without structural changes for libraries or additional costs for researchers. Praxistipp Der Diamond Funding Navigator von der TIB bündelt Angebote für die kollektive Finanzierung von Diamond-Open-Access-Publikationen weltweit - laufende und zurückliegende. Dies soll insbesondere Personen, die in der Literaturerwerbung und Lizenzierung tätig sind, sowie Fachreferent:innen dabei unterstützen, passende Finanzierungsangebote zu finden. Further Funding Options Another way of funding open access publications is the parallel sale of content in separate (print) editions. In the area of digital publishing, there have been various attempts to implement the so-called freemium model, where the fee-based variant provides more benefits than the cost-free variant. For example, this may involve making the HTML version of an article freely available to all Internet users but making the premium version in PDF format accessible only to subscribers. One example is the OpenEdition Freemium programme for the development of open access publishing in the humanities and social sciences. OpenEdition OpenEdition is a digital publishing platform that specialises in the humanities and social sciences. It was established in France and is supported by the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). OpenEdition offers researchers and institutions infrastructure and services for publishing scientific content open access and making it visible. The platform comprises four key offerings: OpenEdition Journals (scholarly journals) OpenEdition Books (monographs) Hypothèses (scholarly blogs) Calenda (scholarly event calendar) OpenEdition aims to promote free access to high-quality scientific information and to provide a sustainable, non-commercial publishing environment for the academic community. Transformation und Transparency In the area of business models, the transformation of a scholarly journals landscape shaped by subscriptions to a landscape oriented mainly towards open access is very challenging. In Germany, the DEAL Konsortium is trying to contribute to the transformation of journals by negotiating transformative agreements with an open access component ( publish and read ). Whereas it appears to be possible to convert journals completely to open access while covering operational costs, the high fees charged under the author-pays model may lead to an increase in research organisations’ overall costs (Mittermaier, 2025). With ESAC (Efficiency and Standards for Article Charges) , an international initiative has been established that aims to ensure that the processing of publication costs within the framework of transformative agreements is efficient and transparent. References Borrego, A. (2023). Article processing charges for open access journal publishing: A review. Learned Publishing: Volume 36 (3), 359-378. https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1558 Bruch, C., Fournier, J., & Pampel, H. (2014). Open-Access-Publikationsfonds: Eine Handreichung (Arbeitsgruppe Open Access der Schwerpunktinitiative Digitale Information der Allianz der deutschen Wissenschaftsorganisationen, Ed.). https://doi.org/10.2312/allianzoa.006 Keller, A. (2017). Finanzierungsmodelle für Open-Access-Zeitschriften. Bibliothek Forschung und Praxis, 41(1), 22–35. https://doi.org/10.1515/bfp-2017-0012 Lawson, S. (2015). Fee waivers for open access journals. Publications, 3(3), 155–167. https://doi.org/10.3390/publications3030155 Mittermaier, B. (2025). Transformationsverträge sind eine Sackgasse. O-Bib. Das Offene Bibliotheksjournal, 12(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.5282/o-bib/6117 Reinsfelder, T. L., & Pike, C. A. (2018). Using library funds to support open access publishing through crowdfunding: Going beyond article processing charges. Collection Management, 48(3). https://doi.org/10.1080/01462679.2017.1415826 (Author’s accepted manuscript: https://hdl.handle.net/1805/15059 ) Russell, B. (2019, October 23). Guest post — The future of open access business models: APCs are not the only way. The Scholarly Kitchen Blog. https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2019/10/23/guest-post-the-future-of-open-access-business-models-apcs-are-not-the-only-way/ Waidlein, N., Wrzesinski, M., Dubois, F., & Katzenbach, C. (2021). Working with budget and funding options to make open access journals sustainable (HIIG Discussion Paper No. 2021–1). HIIG. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4558790 Links for Further Reading Bickel, L., Clasen, N., & Flohr, R. (2019, November 13). Open-Access-Tage 2019: Geschäftsmodelle und ihre finanziellen Folgen für die Open-Access-Transformation. ZBW MediaTalk. https://www.zbw-mediatalk.eu/de/2019/11/open-access-tage-2019-geschaeftsmodelle-und-ihre-finanziellen-folgen-fuer-die-open-access-transformation/ Björk, B.-C., & Korkeamäki, T. (2020). Adoption of the open access business model in scientific journal publishing: A cross-disciplinary study. College & Research Libraries, 81(7). https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.81.7.1080 Bosman, J. & Kramer, B. (2018, Mai 16). Linking impact factor to ‘open access’ charges creates more inequality in academic publishing. Times Higher Education Blog. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/linking-impact-factor-open-access-charges-creates-more-inequality-academic-publishing Budzinski, O., Grebel, T., Wolling, J., & Zhang, X. (2020). Drivers of article processing charges in open access. Scientometrics, 124(3), 2185–2206. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-020-03578-3 Demeter, M., & Istratii, R. (2020). Scrutinising what open access journals mean for global inequalities. Publishing Research Quarterly, 36(4), 505–522. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-020-09771-9 . Frick, C., & Kaier, C. (2020). Publikationskosten für Zeitschriftenartikel abseits von Open-Access-Publikationsfonds – Lost in Transformation? o-bib – das offene Bibliotheksjournal, 7(2), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.5282/o-bib/5586 Ginsparg , P. (2021). Lessons from arXiv’s 30 years of information sharing. Nature Review Physics, 3, 602–603. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-021-00360-z Grossmann, A., & Brembs, B. (2021). Current market rates for scholarly publishing services. F1000Research, 10. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.27468.2 Jahn, N., & Tullney, M. (2016). A study of institutional spending on open access publication fees in Germany. PeerJ 4. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2323 Kändler, U., & Tullney, M. (2019, October 15). Jenseits von APC: Kriterien für Geschäftsmodelle. Open-Access-Tage 2019, Hannover. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3490914 Michael, A. (2020, August 27). Sustainable open access – what’s next? The Scholarly Kitchen Blog. https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2020/08/27/sustainable-open-access-whats-next/ Oberländer, A., & Dreher, L. (2019, September 30). Jenseits von APC: Überblick über alternative Open-Access-Modelle. Open-Access-Tage 2019, Hannover. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3490737 Schönfelder, N. (2018). APCs—Mirroring the impact factor or legacy of the subscription-based model? Bielefeld University. https://doi.org/10.4119/UNIBI/2931061 Shamash, K. (2016). Article processing charges (APCs) and subscriptions: Monitoring open access costs. Jisc. https://www.jisc.ac.uk/sites/default/files/apc-and-subscriptions-report.pdf Tautz, D., Holzer, A., Schmidt, K. M., Buchner, J., Grötschel, M. & Jurburg, S. (2025). Ein neues Verfahren zur direkten Finanzierung und Evaluation wissenschaftlicher Zeitschriften. Diskussion Nr. 38, Halle (Saale): Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften Leopoldina. https://doi.org/10.26164/leopoldina_03_01261 Tobschall, E. (2021, October 27). ArXiv ist 30! TIB-Blog. https://blogs.tib.eu/wp/tib/2021/10/27/arxiv-ist-30/...

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