On 6 June 2023, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (KMK) have published the paper Open Access in Germany – Joint Guidelines of the Federal Government and the Länder. With this document, they declare, in line with the recommendations of the German Council of Science and Humanities, that open access should become the standard for publicly funded research. In their guidelines, the Federal Government and the Länder reaffirm, among other things, their joint and lasting commitment to supporting the open access movement – especially in the area of legal frameworks and the financial challenge of converting the publication system. The cooperation aims to complete the open access transition within the next few years.
Strengthening the role of science in the transformation process
In order to significantly increase the proportion of freely accessible scientific knowledge, the Federal Government and the Länder reaffirm their joint support for the open access transformation. In this context, the document calls for the involvement of science as the driving force of the OA movement in the transformation processes, as well as the strategic responsibility of university and institution heads, as already recommended by the German Council of Science and Humanities. In addition, the BMBF and KMK want to continuously review the legal framework and remove legal hurdles, as has already been done in the context of the right of self-archiving (Zweitveröffentlichungsrecht). Support measures – including for OA publications and OA transformation – are to be continued until OA is an integral part of the science system. Furthermore, the federal and state governments encourage academic institutions to establish and further develop their own science-based services and infrastructures. In doing so, they share the assessment of the German Council of Science and Humanities that diamond open access, in which no publication fees are charged to authors, can contribute to diversity in the publication system.
Cost transparency and less commercialisation
In addition to the transformation contracts, a rethink of scientific institutions and funding organisations is called for in the restructuring of the system, according to the guidelines paper – especially in the establishment of central publication cost centres. For the creation of cost transparency and thus for the success of the transformation process, the Federal Government and the Länder emphasise the importance of the complete recording of all existing funds used at scientific institutions. In this context, the BMBF and the KMK see the task of setting up transparent information budgets for the latter. Another goal is to counteract the commercialisation of publicly funded scientific publications and to recognise the diversity in the publication system, to which small and medium-sized scientific publishers make a decisive contribution. The Federal Government and the Länder want to set a good example and publish their own publications in open access and ensure their permanent availability.
- Further information can be found in the BMBF's Digitale Zukunft blog (in German):
https://www.bildung-forschung.digital/digitalezukunft/de/wissen/digitalisierung-und-gesellschaft/beitrag_bund_laender_leitlinien/beitrag_bund_laender_leitlinien_node.html - The KMK press release (in German) can be accessed via the following link: https://www.kmk.org/aktuelles/artikelansicht/leitlinien-von-bund-und-laendern-zu-open-access.html