In a guest post on the blog of science journalist Jan-Martin Wiarda, Petra Sitte, spokesperson for research, technology and innovation policy of the parliamentary group DIE LINKE, and her research assistant Simon Weiß criticise the non-implementation of the national OA strategy that the previous federal government had set out in its 2018 coalition agreement. Among other things, open access clauses were to be introduced in the funding of all ministries beyond the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
Inconsistent and ineffective
Internal BMBF documents assess the fact that open access could not be established as a cross-departmental standard for publications from funded research projects as "inconsistent and ineffective implementation of the OA goal". The authors Sitte and Weiß hold the former head of department Anja Karliczek responsible for the lack of implementation: "Here one can only speak of a political leadership failure: The old BMBF leadership did not make the issue its own, as the coalition agreement would have required – and thus sabotaged it." At the same time, the authors emphasise positively that many efforts have been made, especially at the working level, to advance the topic of OA. The latter assessments are in line with the positive experiences that our colleagues from the open-access.network project have had in the very productive cooperation with the BMBF.
Everything open with the traffic light coalition?
The authors of the guest article are disappointed with the coalition agreement (in German) of the current federal government, consisting of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP, with regard to the lack of concrete commitments to the implementation of OA (open-access.network reported). The goal formulations for a national OA transformation are "far less concrete than what was agreed in the previous coalition agreement and then not kept".
Read the complete guest article here (in German): https://www.jmwiarda.de/2022/04/26/inkonsequent-und-wirkungsschwach/