The number of publications from the ZBW increases along with the rising share of application-oriented research at the ZBW. Between 2003 and 2012, the publication output increased fourfold. At the same time, the ZBW is committed to the principles of Open Access. At LeibnizOpen, the Open Access portal of the Leibniz Association, it provides the infrastructure for publications from economics and expert advice on digital publishing and usage rights for member institutes of the Leibniz Association.
This expert advice is now to be offered to authors at the ZBW itself. To this purpose, the ZBW has adopted an Open Access policy to ensure that ZBW authors safeguard the best possible usage rights for their contributions and thus enable a direct or at least early publication in Open Access.
Professor Klaus Tochtermann, director of the ZBW, says: "Lately we have begun to investigate questions of new publication and research processes within the context of Science 2.0. Free and open access to research findings, including our own, plays a major role in this and requires a clear positioning within scholarly communication. Our Open Access policy provides such a positioning."
Olaf Siegert, head of Electronic Publishing, adds: "For many years, we have been providing Open Access services for economics such as our publication server, EconStor, which bundles the publications from German research in economics and makes them available in Open Access. The intensification of our research activities has increased the number of our own publications and thus also the need to position ourselves within scholarly communication. Our Open Access policy is a clear statement of this."