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  1. Publishing 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...

  2. Scholar-Led and Community-Driven Publishing

    Intro The main takeaways from this article are: 1 Scholar-led and community-driven publishing are promising alternatives to publishing with a commercial publisher and make a valuable contribution to bibliodiversity. 2 Scholar-led and community-driven journals are characterised by particular potential for experimentation and critical questioning of scholarly publishing. 3 Scholar-led and community-driven journals face particular challenges when it comes to funding, positioning themselves within the respective scientific community, and activating important stakeholders. Definition The challenges of scholarly publishing are diverse. There are various formats and access possibilities, complex quality assurance processes, and several administration and governance models. The monopoly over the distribution of knowledge enjoyed by large commercial publishers is being increasingly confronted by researchers who are successfully mastering these challenges and publishing and distributing their research results themselves. The idea of quality-assured publishing by scientists themselves is actually not new. Rather, it goes back to professional associations and scholarly societies, which have always promoted and guided scholarly publishing. In the current open access ecosystem, two alternatives to the commercial publisher model can be distinguished: community-driven and scholar-led publishing. This distinction is purely descriptive and does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about the quality or relevance of publishing projects. The two models are simply subject to different circumstances and dynamics and, thus, possibly to a different action and values system (see Steiner, 2022 ). In addition, the dividing lines between the two models vary depending on the context (see Steiner, 2023 , on the divergent use of the terms in different publication cultures). At the same time, both models have great science policy relevance and contribute to important bibliodiversity in the scholarly publishing system. Further reading: Statements by science policymakers German Science and Humanities Council paper entitled "Recommendations on the Transformation of Academic Publishing: Towards Open Access" (January 2022). EUA Open Science Agenda 2025 (February 2022). The Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI): 20th Anniversary Recommendations (February 2022). Action Plan for Diamond Open Access (March 2022). Thesen zur Zukunft des wissenschaftsgeleiteten Open-Access-Publizierens [Theses on the Future of Scholar-Led Open Access Publishing] (September 2023). Community-driven Publishing Non-commercial publishing projects and initiatives that operate outside the realm of large publishers are subsumed under the term “community-driven publishing”. They usually avoid author-side publication charges (article processing charges [APCs], book-processing charges [BPCs]), which are commonly levied by commercial publishers, and instead give preference to consortial funding models. Primary responsibility, (trademark) rights, and organisational sovereignty are retained by the scientific community – that is, the scientific editors, the scientific institutions (universities, centres, scholarly societies, professional associations), or research infrastructures. Technical responsibility (i.e., the hosting of the web offerings, technical production, and distribution) is assumed by non-commercial infrastructures and service providers, and increasingly also by university presses and small and medium-sized publishers (see Schlosser, 2019 ). Scholar-led Publishing Besides this understanding of academic-led publishing as “community-driven publishing” (see Wrzesinski, 2023 ), various publishing projects and initiatives have established themselves as "scholar-led publishers". As a matter of principle, these publishers see themselves as non-commercial and independent. In addition, they often have a DIY character and organise the entire publishing process themselves. Not only do scholars take on the content-related work, but they also contribute the technical, practical, and administrative expertise needed to publish quality-assured contributions (see Moore, 2019 ). In this way, these self-administered projects avoid as far as possible participation by a superordinate publisher, a research institution, or institutional societies or associations. Practices and Principles: Suggestions and Tips for Publishers and Editors Scholar-led or community-driven journals are subject only to a limited extent to the constraints that apply to journals in the hands of commercial publishers. As they do not have to make a profit, they can be flexible and unconventional, for example when it comes to trying out new ways of publishing and disseminating scholarly content. In addition, thanks to their own form of governance, they can question certain basic assumptions of scholarly publishing. In what follows, we have compiled some suggestions and tips for publishers and editors of scholar-led and community-driven journals. Publishing Practices There are various areas in which scholar-led and community-driven journals try out new models. For example, they look for new publication formats that can be used instead of or in addition to the classical research article to disseminate scientific results. This includes, for example, the publication of preprints , research materials (e.g., field journals, notes, sketches) or other supplements. With these more experimental formats, greater transparency can be created for the actual research, reproducibility can be made easier, and the participation of third parties can be guided, and thus scientific discourse as a whole can be promoted. Other scholar-led and community-driven journals are trying out new and inclusive processes of quality assurance . Under the headings "open review" and "collaborative review", they are trying to open up the traditional anonymous peer-review system both in terms of naming and recruiting. Would it be possible to try out such a process of quality assurance for your journal? If so, your journal would contribute to transforming the review culture into one that puts collegial exchange and productive criticism centre stage. The diversity of formats and quality-assurance processes is reflected also in editorial workflows . Do you see possibilities for adapting your workflows to a diverse editorial team at various locations? This is becoming increasingly possible through the deployment of digital tools that are already widely used by scholar-led and community-led journals. They include editorial management systems (e.g., Open Journal Systems ), collaborative writing and editing tools (e.g., CryptPad, Etherpad), and cloud services (e.g., mostly local, institutional solutions). Last but not least, many scholarly publishing projects are actively involved in promoting digital sovereignty – that is, self-determination and autonomy over own data (see Pohle & Thiel, 2020 ). Within your journal, you can support and promote this desire for independence, for example by giving preference to open source services and tools that enable control over the (meta)data of persons and publications. In addition, you can critically question the widely used systems for measuring and evaluating relevance (e.g., the Impact Factor ), use alternative models (e.g., altmetrics ), or participate in new forms of measurement. The greatest possible openness and transparency of reuse also contributes to this. Are the contents of your journal licensed as freely as possible (e.g., under a "free licence", or a " licence approved for free cultural work ", which makes sense for scholarly literature)? Are the possibilities for reuse clearly communicated (e.g., easily findable on your website)? Practice Tip In the Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society series "Wissenschaftsgeleitete Zeitschriften: Workflows, Finanzierung und Governance" (Scholar-Led Journals: Workflows, Funding, and Governance), there are webinars on the topics "Nachhaltige Finanzierung und Organisation von Zeitschriften" (Sustainable Funding and Organisation of Journals) and "Workflows von Zeitschriften - von der Einreichung bis zur Kommunikation" (Journal Workflows – From Submission to Communication). Principles of Journal Administration Scholarly journals need a robust concept of organising and assuming responsibility. In the case of purely scholar-led or community-driven journals, these principles are based more on the scientific ethos of cooperation and collaboration than, for example, on competition for authors, citation frequencies, or consistent growth. These forms of publishing are also guided more strongly by values such as reliability and the common good. This identification of common ground or a common goal makes it easier in practice to involve your scientific community (see Moore & Adema, 2020 ). For example, you could consider whether your journal could become (more) actively involved in journal networks. The scholar-led.network in Germany or the international Free Journal Network offer their members a space for exchange and networking. In addition, alliances with other stakeholder groups in the wider environment of your journal may be useful. Do you have links to your scholarly society? To regional and supraregional scholarly libraries? To foundations that are sympathetic to your journalistic values and goals? And finally, various scholar-led and community driven journals are already showing how good and sustainable financial management is currently possible. You could examine in your respective context whether different sources of funding can make your journal more independent (see Waidlein et al., 2021 ). Can you integrate consortial models (see KOALA ), micro-funding (see Quartz OA ; SciPost ), association structures, or publishing partnerships into your business model? This succeeds all the better if synergies can be created and used through collaborative work, for example by building joint research infrastructures (see Bosman et al., 2021a ). In Germany, efforts are being made to build up and strengthen publishing infrastructures (see CRAFT-OA ). Particular Challenges As a scholar-led or community-driven journal, you will encounter particular challenges, especially compared with journals published by a publishing house and with commercial actors (see Fokusgruppe scholar-led.network 2021 ). These challenges start, first, with funding: there are financial, infrastructural, and non-material gaps in the funding landscape, which are being filled only hesitantly and often as a result of intensive efforts on the part of the journals themselves (see above). Second, you will also have to make an active effort to strategically occupy your place within the research community and the other publishing projects. This relates both to the content and the administrative and technical set-up of your journal. And finally, third, you will encounter responsibility deficits in disciplines and institutions. Especially as a new and interdisciplinary journal, you will have to invest more time in order for essential stakeholders to feel committed to you. Ultimately, it is the task of the research institutions, the research infrastructures, the research funders, and the scholarly societies to build up capacities for scholar-led and community-driven publishing (see Bosman et al., 2021b ) and to strengthen their effectivity and economic efficiency. Links https://graphite.page/scholar-led-manifesto/ https://open-access.network/vernetzen/open-access-projekte https://diamasproject.eu/ The scholar-led.network Manifesto The focus group scholar-led.network has published a manifesto that summarises its central critique of the current system of scholarly publishing in the German-speaking area and identifies fields of action for fair, systematic, and diverse publishing. Pratice Tip The following publication provides practical tips for scholar-led publishing: Wrzesinski, M. (2023). Wissenschaftsgeleitetes Publizieren. Sechs Handreichungen mit Praxistipps und Perspektiven [Scholar-Led Publishing. Six Guides With Practice Tips and Perspectives] . Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8169418 References Bosman, J., Frantsvåg, J. E., Kramer, B., Langlais, P.-C., & Proudman, V. (2021a). OA Diamond Journals Study. Part 1: Findings . Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4558704 Bosman, J., Frantsvåg, J. E., Kramer, B., Langlais, P.-C., & Proudman, V. (2021b). OA Diamond Journals Study. Part 2: Recommendations. Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/record/4562790 Fokusgruppe scholar-led.network. (2021). Das scholar-led.network-Manifest. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5521553 Moore, S. (2019). Open *by* whom? On the meaning of ‘scholar-led’. ScholarLed Blog, 24 . October. https://blog.scholarled.org/on-the-meaning-of-scholar-led/ Moore, S., & Adema, J. (2020). Community governance explored . Community-Led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs (COPIM). https://doi.org/10.21428/785a6451.20a5c646 Pohle, J., & Thiel, T. (2020). Digital sovereignty. Internet Policy Review , 9 (4). https://doi.org/10.14763/2020.4.1532 Schlosser, M. (2019). Academy-owned? Academic-led? Community-led? What’s at stake in the words we use to describe new publishing paradigms. Library Publishing Coalition Blog . https://librarypublishing.org/alpd19-academy-owned-academic-led-community-led/ Steiner, T. (2022). Pluralities: Scholar-led publishing und Open Access. Open-Media-Studies-Blog. https://zfmedienwissenschaft.de/online/open-media-studies-blog/pluralities-scholar-led-publishing-und-open-access Steiner, T. (2023, 4 July). Lost in translation? Revisiting notions of community- and scholar-led publishing in international contexts. ScholarLed Blog . https://blog.scholarled.org/lost-in-translation-revisiting-notions-of-community-and-scholar-led-publishing-in-international-contexts/ Waidlein, N., Wrzesinski, M., Dubois, F., & Katzenbach, C. (2021). Working with budget and funding options to make open access journals sustainable . Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4558790 Wrzesinski, M. (2023). Wissenschaftsgeleitetes Publizieren. Sechs Handreichungen mit Praxistipps und Perspektiven . Alexander von Humboldt Institut für Internet und Gesellschaft. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8169418 Further Reading Adema, J., & Moore, S. A. (2018). Collectivity and collaboration: imagining new forms of communality to create resilience in scholar-led publishing. Insights 31 (0), 3. https://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.399 Adema J., & Moore S. A. (2021). Scaling Small; Or How to Envision New Relationalities for Knowledge Production, Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 16 (1), 27-45. doi: https://doi.org/10.16997/wpcc.918 Hopf, D., Dellmann, S., Hauschke, C., & und Tullney., M. (2022). Wirkungen von Open Access. Literaturstudie über empirische Arbeiten 2010–2021 . Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB). https://doi.org/10.34657/7666 Ottina, D. (2013). From Sustainable Publishing To Resilient Communications. TripleC, 11 (2), 604-613. https://doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v11i2.528 Shearer, K., Chan, L., Kuchma, I., & Mounier, P. (2020). Fostering Bibliodiversity in Scholarly Communications: A Call for Action. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3752923 ,...

  3. What is Open Access?

    Intro Open Access in 60 Sekunden Quelle: Brinken, H., Hauss, J. & Rücknagel, J. (2021). Open Access in 60 Sekunden, open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/50831 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) The Key Takeaways From This Article Are 1 Open Access is an alternative (and better) type of scientific publishing. 2 There are various funding and licensing models for Open Access. 3 Open Access is a central aspect of Open Science. Definition In a nutshell: open access means free access to scholarly literature on the Internet. The most commonly invoked definition of open access comes from the so-called Budapest Declaration (2002) . Thus, the aim of open access is to make scholarly literature freely accessible and reusable for everyone – that is, free of charge and, as far as possible, free of technical and legal barriers. The Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003) requires that, to qualify as open access, a contribution must not only be usable free of charge, but also users must be permitted "to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution." (Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, 2003) . "By open access to this literature, we mean its free availability on the public internet , permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribu­te, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose , without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited." Budapest Open Access Initiative Declaration, 2002 ; emphasis added Why Open Access? Open access offers numerous benefits: Source: based on Brinken, H. (2021). 10 Gründe für Open Access. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4643859 ( CC BY 4.0 International ) It is important to know that scholarly research is for the most part publicly funded. The results of this publicly funded research should therefore also be publicly accessible. Open access publications are immediately and easily accessible free of charge and reusable. This free and fast access to scientific findings expedites the scholarly communication process, thereby enhancing efficiency in research and innovation. This also fosters the international and interdisciplinary collaboration between and the networking of researchers. Open access significantly increases the citation frequency and thus also the visibility of research findings ( Swan, 2010; Li et al., 2018 ). Another important factor is that, in the case of open access publications, authors retain their rights to exploit the works instead of assigning these rights exclusively to a publisher. Thus, an open access publication can be redistributed and reused easily by others. Open Access Publication Find an introduction here. Finding Open Access Publications Numerous search engines specialise in Open Access. Here is an overview of how to find free scientific literature. Paths to Open Access There are two basic strategies for implementing open access: green and gold . 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. Green open access – also known as self-archiving – refers to making preprints or post-prints of works published with a publisher or in a journal available to the public by depositing them in a repository . 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 ) Funding 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 ) Whereas open access publications are similar to conventional publications in many respects – for example, with regard to peer review – the big difference between them is the way they are funded . In the conventional publishing system, a publication benefits from public funds three times: As mentioned above, researchers are usually paid from public funds. During the publication process, works undergo quality assurance procedu­res, for example, peer review. Peer reviews are conducted by other resear­chers, who are not as a rule paid for doing so by the publishers or journals. And finally, libraries and institutes have to subscribe to the journals or purchase the books from the publishers in order to be able to make them available to their members. By contrast, open access meets the demand to make the results of publicly funded research freely accessible for everyone. Researchers who work at institutions with more limited budgets also benefit from this, as do interested parties who are not affiliated with an institution. Because readers can use open access publications free of charge, these publications must be funded elsewhe­re. The so-called author-pays model, whereby authors pay article processing charges (APCs) or book processing charges (BPCs) for the publication of their works, is widely used. Many institutions now offer to pay these costs for their members, for example, via publication funds or participation in consortia. However, the majority of open access journals (over 70% of the journals indexed in the Directory of Open Access Journals, DOAJ ) are free of charge both for readers and authors. These journals are financed, for example, via professional associations, academic institutions, or – in kind – by voluntary work ( Morrison, 2018 ). Especially against the backdrop of the sometimes horrendous prices that conventional publishers charge for journal subscriptions, open access can make an important contribution to sustainably easing the pressure on strained library budgets, while at the same time considerably improving the literature supply. Licensing In addition to toll-free access to scholarly findings, the second key component of open access is their widest possible reuse. It is up to the authors themselves to decide what degree of freedom of use of their works they wish to allow. By granting usage licences, authors specify the rights that third parties have when using their research findings. The now widely used Creative Commons (CC) licences are well suited for this purpose. The use of the CC BY licence is particularly recommended. It grants everyone a free, worldwide right of access to the publication as well as the right to reuse it, for example, by copying, distributing, transmitting, publicly displaying, or adapting it. Those who reuse content must give appropriate credit to the author of the work. Note, however, that it is not possible for authors to grant open licences if they have already granted the rights of use in question exclusively to a publisher. How exactly do Creative Commons licenses work? Source: Brinken, H., Hauss, J. & Rücknagel, J. (2021). How exactly do Creative Commons licenses work? open-access.network. https://doi.org/ 10.5446/53471 ( CC BY 3.0 DE ) Political Standpoints Find an introduction here. Open Access Policies Find an introdution here. Practical Tip Scientists can actively support the change to open science through their own publishing behavior. This practical tip "Supporting Open Access" explains how. Who Supports Open Access? Open access is promoted and requested or demanded both by policymakers at European and national level (top down) and on the initiative of committed scholars and scientists, professional societies, infrastructure facilities, and publishers (bottom up). Thus, universities and research institutions have adopted open access policies in which they encourage their members to publish their works open access. Open access is also often enshrined as an obligation, or at least as a request, in the grant conditions of third-party funders . In a diverse landscape of open access journals, publishers, and repositories, most conventional scholarly publishers now offer open access models or are pursuing transformative aspirations. Open Science Open access is an element of much of what can be subsumed under the umbrella term open science ( Watson, 2015 ). Following Neuschäfer (2015) , open science bundles strategies and procedures that aim to make all elements of the scientific process openly accessible, transparent, and reusable. This means that not only scholarly publications should be freely available in accordance with the open access model but also, among other things, research data (through open access and research data management ), research software, and teaching materials (through open educational resources, OER). An exact description of the elements of open science can be found on the German-language website openscienceASAP . Open science is based on the principles of transparency, reproducibility, reusability, and open communication ( Open Science AG, n.d. ). Thus, open science is an important element of ensuring good scientific practice. open-access.network ( CC BY 4.0 International ) References Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities. (2003). https://openaccess.mpg.de/67605/berlin_declaration_engl.pdf Budapest Open Access Initiative. (2002). Budapest Open Access Initiative Declaration . (2002). https://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read 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). 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/ Neuschäfer, M. (2015, November 18). Mission Statement der deutschsprachigen Open Science AG. Ag-OpenScience.De. https://ag-openscience.de/ag-mission-statement/ 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 Open Science AG. (n.d.). Open Science . https://ag-openscience.de/open-science/ Swan, A. (2010). The Open Access citation advantage: Studies and results to date. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/268516/ Watson, M. (2015). When will ‘open science’ become simply ‘science’? Genome Biology, 16 (1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-015-0669-2 Further Readings Suber, P. (2012). Open Access . The MIT Press. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/open-access , Open Access https://archive.org/details/9780262517638OpenAccess...

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