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How do I operate a repository?
Intro Publishing in Repositories Source: based on Koch, M. (2015). Publizieren über das Repositorium der Leibniz Universität Hannover. TIB Blog The key takeaways from this article are 1 To create a repository , you need, among other things, suitable software. Most software options are open source and usable free of charge. 2 You should publicise and anchor your repository well in your institution. 3 It is important that you integrate your repository well in order to meaningfully embed it into value-added services. This integration is also of central importance for the findability and visibility of the deposited documents. Key Questions A number of things must be considered when building and operating repositories . The present article addresses the following key questions: How do I create the basis for a repository? How can I publicise a repository and recruit content? What legal requirements must I observe? How do I integrate my repository with other services? Creating the Basis What are Repositories? Find an introduction here. Focus group Self-Archiving Feel free to discuss developments in Self-Archiving with experts. Helpdesk Our helpdesk team will be happy to advise you on questions about Open Access. Plan S Repository Self-Assessment Tool Using this tool from OpenDOAR, repository operators can verify that their repository complies with Plan S requirements. Beringer and Arning's (2020) German-language guide to building open access publication platforms provides a good initial overview of how to build repositories. To start a repository, you basically need a server and suitable software. What setting up and operating a repository entails – especially from a technical point of view – should not be underestimated. If the institution at which the repository is to be located does not have IT staff who are qualified to build a repository, it is advisable to use external service providers such as libraries or library consortia. In the German state of Baden-Württemberg, for example, various repositories are hosted by BSZ and in the states of Berlin und Brandenburg by KOBV. The library network GBV is active in this field in the states of Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg Western-Pomerania, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, and Thuringia. In addition, there are commercial providers, such as OpenRepository. In Germany, most repository software options are open source, available free of charge, and have similar basic functionalities: They can make materials available after uploading and assign metadata to them. They can harvest metadata via various standardised interfaces (e.g., OAI-PMH ) and make them available. Commonly used applications for open access and research data repositories, university bibliographies, and digital collections include, for example, DSpace, EPrints, OPUS, Invenio/CDSware, and MyCoRe, whereas e-journal repositories work mostly with OJS (Weimar, 2020). The Deutsche Initiative für Netzwerkinformation (German Initiative for Network Information, DINI) provides an overview of which publication service is used by which platform. Moreover, in its DINI Certificate , it describes the technical and organisational requirements that repositories must meet (for more on this, see the section entitled How do I integrate my repository with other services? ). Although DINI certification might seem a long way off, especially in the initial phase of a repository, alignment with these requirements is expedient. Publicising a Repository & Recruiting Content The usefulness of repositories is not immediately clear to all researchers ( Euler, 2018 ). Especially in cases where authors are encouraged but not obliged to provide open access to their works, persuasion is necessary. So what can you do to motivate them to use your repository? Target researchers specifically Experience shows that public relations and open communication with researchers are suitable ways of publicising repositories and recruiting content ( Rodrigues et al., 2017 ). The more targeted the address is, the greater the prospects for success are ( Euler, 2018 ). Reach out to researchers who are making their work publicly available on their own homepages. Experience shows that they will quickly grasp the advantages of repositories. Moreover, these researchers are suited to the role of multipliers and can thus convince others to use the repository. The same goes for researchers who already have experience of open access. Many of them may not be aware of the role of multiplier, so reach out to them directly. The higher the reputation of the multiplier is, the greater their success tends to be. Anchor your repository within your institution or in specialist circles The attractiveness of an institutional or disciplinary repository increases when it is perceived as a networked service with added value for various target groups, for example, authors ( Müller & Scholze, 2012; Euler, 2018; Macgregor, 2020; Rodrigues et al., 2017 ). So, advertise your repository. Theoretically, the best way to fill repositories is for institutions to mandate that their scholars and scientists self-archive their research output in the institution’s repository. In Germany, as legislation stands, this is not feasible. However, the Higher Education Act of the State of Baden-Württemberg (section 44 subsection 6) entitles higher education institutions to oblige the members of their academic staff by statute to avail of the right to make scientific contributions that have been produced in the course of their official duties and have been published in a collection that appears periodically at least twice per year available to the public for non-commercial purposes upon expiry of one year after first publication. Thus, this form of mandate can be used by institutional repositories, at least in some cases. The situation is different in Switzerland and Austria, and in the case EU-funded projects. Institutions such as the University of St. Gallen and the University of Zurich oblige their researchers to provide open access to their works provided there are no legal impediments to doing so. Since 2020, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) requires grantees to make all the results of the projects it funds available to the public in open access. The same principle applies to results of projects funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and to publications that result from EU-funded projects ( European Commission, 2021, p. 108 ). As a manager of an institutional repository, you should inform the university management on a regular basis about the current status of your repository. University managers who support open access are important strategic partners for managers of institutional repositories. Make sure that your repository has as wide an online presence as possible – institutional repositories should be visibly embedded in the institution’s website, while disciplinary repositories should be mentioned at web locations that are of central importance for the discipline in question. Use convincing arguments Base your arguments on the reasons in favour of open access (e.g., citation frequency, visibility, long-term availability). Also be aware of reservations towards open access, so that you can put forward convincing counter-arguments. Many institutions and organisations support open access. Mention this in conversation with researchers; also mention advocates who are relevant in the respective research contexts. Take advantage of the fact that project funding approvals are often subject to the condition that project-related publications must be made accessible free of charge. Repositories are ideally suited for this purpose. Make using the repository a pleasant experience Researchers often find keying data – especially metadata – into repositories laborious. You should therefore design these processes to be as time-effective as possible for researchers – or you should take the work off their hands. This will increase their willingness to use the repository ( Euler, 2018; Tobias, 2018; Voigt & Dittmann, 2019 ). Another possibility is to integrate the repository with services in which the information has already been deposited (see also Müller & Scholze, 2012; Macgregor, 2020; Rodrigues et al., 2017 ), for example, the university’s annual bibliography or a research information system. In this way, less data, or no data at all, have to deposited manually. To support their researchers, many institutions, including the University of Augsburg and the University of Konstanz, offer a self-archiving service. Self-archiving guides can also be of help to researchers. Make the repository attractive for researchers Make it possible for personal publication lists to be generated from the repository for reuse in other services. As researchers can use these lists in different contexts (e.g., to raise third-party funding), their willingness to use the repository will increase. Organise information and training events Talks and workshops are important for creating an awareness of open access. So, deliver presentations on your open access services in committees, at institutes, or in colloquiums, as well as at symposia and conferences. Events during Open Access Week can also be useful. Address also the technical aspects of relevance to researchers, for example, the uploading of documents. Video über das Zeitveröffentlichungsrecht Quelle: Brehm, E. (2021). Zweitveröffentlichungsrecht für Wissenschaftler*innen, open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/51789 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) Legal Aspects Legal Questions Find an introduction here. Open Policy Finder An overview of publishers' open access archiving rules can be found here. Offene Lizenzen für offene Wissenschaft Quelle: Brinken, H., Hauss, J. & Rücknagel, J. (2021). Offene Lizenzen für offene Wissenschaft, open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/52864 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) Documents may be deposited in repositories in a pleasingly large number of cases. Open Policy Finder provides information on the policies of many publishers with regard to the self-archiving of the texts that they publish ( Tobias, 2018; Voigt & Dittmann, 2019 ). Note that when permitting self-archiving, publishers often differentiate between the making available of preprints and post-prints . The publisher’s version may not always be made available online; in many cases, only the author’s accepted version may be used. It must be borne in mind that when documents are unlawfully deposited, liability mechanisms are brought into play. Thus, the question arises as to who is liable for the making available of the content to the public. It is best to have the authors commission you to deposit the document in question in the repository ( Voigt & Dittmann, 2019 ). This deposit licence should indicate the legislative basis on which the document is held in the repository. An example of such a licensing agreement can be found on the Osnabrück University Library website . In any case, in order to be able to assess and contractually limit the risk in advance, you should be aware of the legal liability consequences of a potential infringement (see also: Country-specific info on liability law in our legal section ). Documents that are released under an open content licence are legally more unambiguously defined than documents where the rights are (possibly) held in part by a publisher. Because open content licences are standardised, the extent to which the document can be made available in your repository is easily understandable to you. This is particularly true of the Creative Commons licences , which are very widely used in academia. Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) It is advisable to have your repository listed in the Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) . In OpenDOAR, aggregators find relevant repositories in a targeted way and analyse the technical information for reuse. Interconnecting with other services It is important that you integrate your repository with other services in order, for example, to successfully embed it into value added services ( Müller & Scholze, 2012; Rodrigues et al., 2017 ). Integration is also of central importance for the findability and visibility of the deposited documents ( Müller & Scholze, 2012 ). How exactly this integration can be implemented is explained in what follows on the basis of initiatives and projects that are committed to it. Search Engines: BASE and Google Bielefeld Academic Search Engine ( BASE ), which is operated by Bielefeld University Library, specialises in academic web resources, inter alia texts in repositories. As it is currently one of the largest specialised search engines, it is important that the documents in your repository can be found via BASE. You can check here whether your repository is already indexed as a content provider by BASE. If this is not the case, you can suggest that it be indexed. One essential prerequisite for indexing is that the metadata of the documents be provided via a valid OAI-PMH interface. Last but not least, your repository should also be optimised for popular search engines, such as Google ( Rajski, 2018 ), so that documents are easily findable. After all, Google Scholar, in particular, is an important starting point when searching for scholarly articles ( Rajski, 2018 ). In this connection, the repository sitemap should be understood as a machine-readable table of contents. It is important that this table of contents contain all the links that you wish to be indexed by search engines. It is also important to indicate when the pages were last updated. Moreover, they should be assigned descriptive metadata, which should be concealed together with the link to the full text in the machine-readable < head > section of the HTML page. The more comprehensive these meta tags are, the more reliably the search engine can aggregate different resources. In this way, full texts of up to 5 MB in size can also be discovered and indexed via Google Scholar ( Rajski, 2018 ). DINI Certificate The Deutsche Initiative für Netzwerkinformation (German Initiative for Network Information, DINI) has set itself the goal of improving information and communication services at academic institutions. This goal is to be realised inter alia by further developing the institutional information infrastructures. In this connection, DINI supports the building of repositories. The aim is to qualitatively improve scholarly communication nationally and internationally by means of publications that are accessible worldwide and stored on a long-term basis. The DINI Certificate for the quality assurance of open access repositories and publication services was created within this framework. It pursues three main aims with regard to repositories ( Müller & Scholze, 2012 ): It describes in detail the requirements that repositories are expected to fulfil. Repositories are understood as scholarly publication services. These services comprise the following components: technology, personnel, organisation, and processes. It demonstrates how repositories can develop themselves further – technically and organisationally. It documents whether standards have been met and recommendations implemented. This documentation is accessible to repository users and managers. Because electronic publishing and the standards associated with it are subject to rapid changes, the certificate is updated regularly. OpenAIRE Compliance and the Visibility of Repositories Documents can be discovered and indexed much more easily when they are deposited in repositories that comply with certain standards. These standards were originally developed in the project OpenAIRE (Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe) , which started in 2009. In this context, metadata elements were defined, with the help of which repositories can tag documents in order to link them with other resources in accordance with the principle of enhanced publication ( Kaiser & McNeill, 2019 ). In this way, for example, documents can be linked with research data or project funding information. Information about researchers can also be embedded. Various software solutions for repositories now provide interfaces to ensure OpenAIRE compliance. If, for example, a local repository does not implement the necessary metadata schemas for DSpace or EPrints in accordance with OpenAIRE standards, the linking of documents with other resources can be carried out manually via the OpenAIRE portal . This portal enables targeted searches for publications, data, projects, or persons. Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) The Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) also pursues the objective of making repositories more attractive for researchers. This is to be achieved by enhancing the visibility, dissemination, und usability of scholarly materials in open access repositories by means of organisational and technical agreements ( Rodrigues et al., 2017 ). In contrast to the DINI Certificate, this is taking place on an international level. Of central importance in this regard is the integration of repositories with the existing infrastructure ( Rodrigues et al., 2017 ). Moreover, exchanges among repository managers and the development of content recruitment models and strategies are of great importance ( Rodrigues et al., 2017 ). BASE BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine) is one of the world's largest search engines for academic web documents. The index includes over 240 million documents from over 8,000 data providers. Practical Tip Find helpful tips and advice on how to operate a repository in the COAR Community Framework for Best Practices in Repositories . References Beringer, C., & Arning, U. (2020). Leitfaden zum Aufbau von Open-Access- Publikationsplattformen für den Goldenen und Grünen Weg. Publisso. ZB MED-Publikationsportal Lebenswissenschaften. https://doi.org/10.4126/FRL01-006419770 Euler, E. (2018). Repositorien und ihre Bedeutung für die Wissenschaftler und Wissenschaftlerinnen. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1204919 European Commission. (2021). Horizon Europe (HORIZON). Euratom Research and Training Programme (EURATOM). General Model Grant Agreement. EIC Accelerator Contract. https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/common/agr-contr/general-mga_horizon-euratom_en.pdf Kaiser, O., & McNeill, G. (2019). OpenAIRE für RepositorymanagerInnen - Wie Repository ManagerInnen Open Science unterstützen können. Mitteilungen der VÖB, 72 (2), 373–382. https://doi.org/10.31263/voebm.v72i2.2815 Macgregor, G. (2020). Enhancing Content Discovery of Open Repositories: An Analytics-Based Evaluation of Repository Optimizations. Publications, 8(1) (8). https://doi.org/10.3390/publications8010008 Müller, U., & Scholze, F. (2012, November 14). Aufbau und Vernetzung eines Repositoriums. das bibliothekswesen. Erfolgreiches Management von Bibliotheken und Informationseinrichtungen. https://www.dasbibliothekswissen.de/Aufbau-und-Vernetzung-eines-Repositoriums.html Rajski, B. (2018). ABI Technikfrage. Wie kommt das Repositorium in die Suchmaschine? ABI Technik, 38 (1), 116. https://doi.org/10.1515/abitech-2018-0017 Rodrigues, E., Bollini, A., Cabezas, A., Castelli, D., Carr, L., Chan, L., Humphrey, C., Johnson, R., Knoth, P., Manghi, P., Matizirofa, L., Perakakis, P., Schirrwagen, J., Selematsela, D., Shearer, K., Walk, P., Wilcox, D., & Yamaji, K. (2017). Next Generation Repositories: Behaviours and Technical Recommendations of the COAR Next Generation Repositories Working Group. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1215013 Tobias, R. (2018). Optimierung der Workflows für Zweitveröffentlichungen – der „Grüne Weg“ am Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT). O| bib. Das offene Bibliotheksjournal, 5 (4), 71–83. https://doi.org/10.5282/o-bib/2018H4S71-83 Voigt, M., & Dittmann, S. (2019). Zweitveröffentlichungsservice der TU Berlin – Automatisierungsmöglichkeiten für den Workflow. LIBREAS. Library Ideas, 35 . https://libreas.eu/ausgabe35/voigt/ Weimar, A. (2020, September 17). Aufbau und Betrieb eines Open-Access-Repositoriums am Beispiel OPUS. Open-Access-Tage 2020. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4032208 Further Reading Arning, U. (2021, März 15). Aufbau einer qualitätsgesicherten Open-Access-Publikationsplattform – die drei wichtigsten Überlegungen aus Sicht einer Publikationsmanagerin. FIS & EPUB. Gemeinsamer Blog der DINI AG Forschungsinformationssystem und Elektronisches Publizieren . https://blogs.tib.eu/wp/dini-ag-blog/2021/03/15/aufbau-oa-publikationsplattform/ Demetres, M. R., Delgado, D., & Wright, D. N. (2020). The Impact of Institutional Repositories: A Systematic Review. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 108 (2), 177–184. https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2020.856 . Graf, K. (2017). Wie füllt man die Open-Access-Dokumentenserver? Archivalia. https://archiv.twoday.net/stories/3264283/...
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Online-Workshop am 09. Februar 2022
Wir wollen mehr Open Access wagen! Wege, Modelle und Services für die Politikwissenschaft Der Online-Workshop "Wir wollen mehr Open Access wagen! Wege, Modelle und Services für die Politikwissenschaft" findet am 9. Februar 2022 von 10:00 bis 14:30 Uhr statt. Veranstaltet wird er im Rahmen des BMBF-geförderten Projekts open-access.network gemeinsam vom Open-Access-Büro Berlin und dem Fachinformationsdienst Politikwissenschaft - Pollux . Ob Aufsatz, Buchpublikation oder die Veröffentlichung einer Dissertation - die Möglichkeiten im Open Access zu publizieren sind so breit aufgestellt wie die Politikwissenschaft selbst. Der Workshop soll darüber informieren, welche Möglichkeiten es gibt, die eigenen Publikationen in den Open Access zu überführen bzw. diese barriere-, kostenfrei und rechtssicher online zur Verfügung zu stellen. Was bedeutet es, ob als Professor*in oder Nachwuchswissenschaftler*in, im Open Access zu publizieren? Welche Beispiele und Angebote bieten Orientierungspunkte? Welche Bedarfe, Vorbehalte und Wünsche der Unterstützung gibt es? Gemeinsam blicken wir auf die Wege des Publizierens, die Chancen, aber auch die Herausforderungen des Publikationsprozesses. In zwei thematischen Blöcken möchten wir eine Möglichkeit zum Austausch für Wissenschaftler*innen und wissenschaftlich Publizierende in der Politikwissenschaft bieten. Jun.-Prof. Arndt Leininger , Ph.D. (Politikwissenschaftliche Forschungsmethoden, TU Chemnitz) und Dr. Philipp Schulz (Institut für Interkulturelle und Internationale Studien der Universität Bremen) gewähren Einblicke in Ihre Erfahrungen mit dem Thema Open Access. Praktische Umsetzbarkeit und Unterstützungsangebote werden vorgestellt sowie die Gelegenheit zum Netzwerkaufbau geboten. Um Anmeldung über unten stehendes Anmeldeformular wird gebeten. Zielgruppe Der Workshop richtet sich an Wissenschaftler*innen und Publizierende der Politikwissenschaft. Vorerfahrungen im Bereich Open Access sind nicht erforderlich. Agenda 9:45-10:00 Ankommen 10:00-10:20 Begrüßung & Warm-Up 10:20-10:30 Einführende Impulse 10:30-11:10 Open Access - Erfahrungsberichte (Jun.-Prof. Arndt Leininger, Ph.D., TU Chemnitz & Dr. Philipp Schulz, Uni Bremen) 11:10-11:40 Peer-to-Peer-Austausch 11:40-12:00 Alles was Recht ist (Dipl.-Wirt.Jur. Thomas Hartmann, LL.M., FIZ Karlsruhe) 12:00-12:10 Bewegte Pause mit Noemi 12:10-13:00 Pause 13:00-13:45 Open-Access-Publizieren - Wo & Wie? (Dr. Agathe Gebert, SSOAR & Stefanie Hanneken, transcript Open Library PoWi & Dr. Kurt Salentin, IJCV) 13:45-14:15 Ask the expert - Publikationswege 14:15-14:30 Wrap-Up & Feedback Veranstaltungsort Die Veranstaltung wird online in Zoom (bereitgestellt durch die Universität Bremen) stattfinden. Die Zugangsdaten erhalten Sie kurz vor der Veranstaltung via Email. Mit Ihrer Anmeldung stimmen Sie den Nutzungsbestimmungen von Zoom zu. Anmeldung geschlossen. Beiträge Impulse open-access.network & Einführung in Open Access (Linda Martin, open-access.network) Fachinformationsdienst Politikwissenschaft - Pollux (Regina Pfeifenberger, Pollux) Alles was (Urheber-)Recht ist (Dipl.-Wirt.Jur. Thomas Hartmann, LL.M., FIZ Karlsruhe) Publizieren Publizieren mit SSOAR (Dr. Agathe Gebert, SSOAR) Publizieren in der transcript Open Library Politik (Stefanie Hanneken, transcript) International Journal of Conflict & Violence (Dr. Kurt Salentin, Universität Bielefeld) Organisation Fachinformationsdienst Politikwissenschaft - Pollux Projekt open-access.network Open-Access-Büro Berlin...
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Open Access 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...
