Information about Open Access
Open access refers to free access to scientific research results and their unrestricted reuse. Neither technical nor legal barriers should impede this access.
Forms of Open Access
There are various forms of Open Access (OA). We provide a brief overview below. Further information can be found on the information platform open-access.network.
Diamond Open Access
Diamond Open Access (DOA) refers to publications and publication platforms that do not charge readers or authors. DOA is the simplest and fairest form of OA for everyone involved, as no one is prevented from participating in scientific discourse by payment barriers. DOA infrastructures are often operated at scientific institutions or financed via memberships. The topic of DOA has close links to scholar-led publishing.
The University of Göttingen's Open Access Policy encourages university members to take responsibility for OA publication channels and particularly supports OA publication infrastructures that do not incur any costs for the authors.
The SUB Göttingen is involved in projects and committees to formulate criteria for DOA journals (Operational Diamond Open Access Criteria for Journals) and contributes to the standardization of DOA (The Diamond Open Access Standard - DOAS). It is also involved in setting up DOA infrastructures for the Göttingen Campus. This includes the possibility of first publishing via GRO.publications and the development of a journal service. External DOA infrastructures are also supported via memberships.
Green Open Access
Green Open Access is also referred to as the green way or self-archiving. Green OA refers to the secondary publication of a publisher's publication in an institutional or subject-specific repository. The secondary publication can take place parallel to the publisher's publication or subsequently or after a time embargo has expired. The possibility of secondary publication is regulated by the policies of the publishers, the licenses used and the statutory secondary publication right.
The University of Göttingen's Open Access Policy calls on university members to publish their publications in GRO.publications, the University of Göttingen's publication management system. In addition to the operation of GRO.publications, the SUB Göttingen supports green OA with an advisory service.
Gold Open Access
Gold Open Access refers to direct publication in OA, for example in OA journals or OA books. The publication is thus directly accessible to everyone free of charge. As a rule, these publications are provided with open content licenses (e. g. Creative Commons licenses), which allow both read-only access and subsequent use of the content.
The University of Göttingen's Open Access guidelines recommend OA publication and thus the greatest possible public availability of one's own results.
The SUB Göttingen supports gold OA with its own publication services (GRO.publications, GRO.journals, Göttingen University Press) as well as the publication funds and publishing agreements.
Open-access.network
Information platform on all aspects of Open Access: forms of Open Access, legal aspects, positions from politics and research funders etc.
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Reasons for Open Access
There are many reasons in favor of Open Access publication:
- Free and fast access to scientific information
- Easy to find and permanent access
- Good supply of information
- Greater visibility and better subsequent use (e. g. citations)
- Many research funders and institutions recommend open access publication in their guidelines
- Retention of rights for authors through the use of open licenses
- Collaboration and networking through freely accessible research results
- Efficient research and innovation
- New methods and new knowledge (e. g. improved automatic text analysis through open access)
- Fair and transparent use of public funds
The information platform open-access.network offers a checklist for open access publishing.
- Freier und schneller Zugang zu wissenschaftlichen Informationen
- Gute Auffindbarkeit und permanenter Zugang
- Gute Informationsversorgung
- Höhere Sichtbarkeit und bessere Nachnutzung (z. B. Zitierungen)
- Viele Forschungsförderer und Institutionen empfehlen in ihren Richtlinien eine Open-Access-Veröffentlichung
- Beibehaltung der Rechte für Autor*innen durch Verwendung offener Lizenzen
- Zusammenarbeit und Vernetzung durch frei zugängliche Forschungsergebnisse
- Effiziente Forschung und Innovation
- Neue Methoden und neues Wissen (z. B. verbesserte automatische Textanalysen durch die freie Zugänglichkeit)
- Faire und transparente Nutzung von öffentlichen Geldern
Häufige Einwände zu Open Access – Faktencheck
Neben vielen guten Gründen für das Open Access-Publizieren gibt es auch Vorbehalte und Zweifel an OA. Die Informationsplattform open-access.network hat diese zusammengetragen und Gegenargumente ausgeführt.
Mangelndes Renomée
Dies war in den Anfängen von OA ein berechtigter Vorbehalt, weil viele OA-Publikationsorgane neu waren und dementsprechend noch keine Reputation hatten. Inzwischen ist OA ein so weit verbreitetes Zugriffsmodell, dass es keinen Einfluss mehr auf die Reputation eines Publikationsorgans oder Verlags hat.
Mangelnde Qualitätssicherung
Qualitätsunterschiede können unabhängig vom Geschäftsmodell auftreten und kommen auch bei Publikationen hinter einer Bezahlschranke vor. Außerdem haben sich durch OA weitere Qualitätssicherungsverfahren entwickelt (z. B. Open Peer Review). Nichtsdestotrotz sind Autor*innen dazu angehalten, die Qualitätssicherung und Seriosität des ausgewählten Publikationsorgans zu berücksichtigen, unabhängig davon, ob die Publikation im OA erfolgt oder nicht.
Schlechte Auffindbarkeit und mangelnde Langzeitarchivierung
Die Verantwortung hierfür liegt bei den Verlagen und Repositorienbetreibern. Um eine gute Auffindbarkeit zur gewährleisten, haben sich in den letzten Jahren Standards im Bereich der erfassten Metadaten entwickelt. Außerdem erhalten OA-Publikationen oftmals persistente Identifikatoren, mit denen die Publikation auch nach einer Änderung der URL wiedergefunden werden kann. Um die Langzeitarchivierung sicherzustellen, gibt es Kooperationen mit Nationalbibliotheken und Langzeitarchivierungsdiensten.
Rechtliche Vorbehalte hinsichtlich Verwertungs- und Nutzungsrechten
Auch für OA-Publikationen gilt das Urheberrecht, indem sog. Open-Content-Lizenzen die erlaubte Nachnutzung regeln. Urheber*innen bleiben im OA zumeist im Besitz ihrer vollen Verwertungsrechte, weil sie Verlagen oder Zeitschriften nur einfache Nutzungsrechte einräumen müssen.
Finanzierbarkeit und hohe Publikationsgebühren
Die Finanzierung von Informationsversorgung und Publizieren im OA ist derzeit komplex und nicht ohne Konflikte. Gerade gewinnorientierte Verlage rufen hohe Preise für OA auf, während es parallel dazu kostengünstige oder kostenlose (siehe DOA) Publikationsmöglichkeiten gibt, die eine vergleichbare Qualität aufweisen. Beim OA entfallen aber stets die Kosten für den lesenden Zugriff und die Aufwände der zugangsbeschränkten Bereitstellung. Um die Preissteigerungen im kommerziellen OA zu kontrollieren, schließen sich Bibliotheken zu Konsortien zusammen und können so mit Verlagen vergünstigte Konditionen aushandeln. Auch Forschungsförderer unterstützen die Finanzierung. Die verstärkten Aktivitäten im Bereich DOA und wissenschaftsgeleitetem Publizieren sollen dazu beitragen, die Kosten von OA dauerhaft zu senken.
Zeitaufwand
OA hat die Publikationsmöglichkeiten für wissenschaftliche Forschungsergebnisse erweitert, sodass die Auswahl des Publikationsorgans und der Publikationsprozess komplexer geworden sind. Die SUB Göttingen unterstützt Sie bei Ihrem Publikationsvorhaben mit einem umfangreichen Beratungsangebot.
Be Careful when Choosing a Publisher
The free choice of publisher is guaranteed by academic freedom. However, when submitting manuscripts, authors should pay attention to the reputiability and quality assurance of publishers, journals and publication platforms in their own interest.
The OA publication market is highly competitive in the for-profit sector. As a result, even established publishing groups are launching new ventures with inadequate scientific quality assurance, and there are publishers offering dubious or even fraudulent products. The latter are often referred to as predatory publishers and cannot always be identified as such straight away. For example, a website may contain fake journal impact factors or list people on the editorial board who are not even active there. Aggressive advertising measures, extremely short payment periods and similar practices are also not uncommon.
The following checklists can help you recognize problematic publishers:
- Checklist journals (Initiative Think - Check - Submit)
- Checklist books (Initiative Think - Check - Submit)
- Checklist for journals (information platform open-access.network)
Please be especially careful with publishers and platforms you are not familiar with. You are also welcome to contact us if you are unsure about the assessment.
Newsletter Publishing
Everything about publishing: Open Science, Open Access, funding options and events.
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Free Publication Channels and Diamond Open Access
A number of free publication channels have now been established for OA first publications that guarantee quality assurance, such as
- Open Library of Humanities: platform for journals from the humanities and cultural sciences
- SciPost: platform for journals from various subject areas
- Open Book Publishers: publisher of OA books that are free of charge for both authors and readers
- Language Science Press: OA books in the field of linguistics with a peer-review process
- Open Research Europe (ORE): Freely accessible, free and high-quality publication platform for scientific papers. The platform offers fast publication and open peer review for research papers produced within the framework of European funding programs such as Horizon 2020 or Horizon Europe.
This and other publication platforms are based on the Diamond Open Access model. The SUB Göttingen supports DOA platforms through institutional memberships. Furthermore, institutional repositories, subject-specific repositories and preprint servers offer the opportunity to make research results available and visible worldwide free of charge.
Finding Open Access Journals and Publishers
DOAJ
The Directory of Open Access Journal (DOAJ) lists pure OA journals. The journals listed there are therefore generally eligible for funding from the publication fund (exceptions: mirror journals and the publisher MDPI). Among other things, it is possible to search by journal title, publisher, and subject area.
B!SON
B!SON is an open-source recommendation tool for quality-assured OA journals. Based on the manuscript title, abstract, or references, B!SON suggests suitable open-access journals. The tool also provides information on the publication process.
oa.finder
With oa.finder, you can search for a suitable OA journal or OA publisher for your upcoming book publication. The search can be linked to your own institution to obtain results tailored to the University of Göttingen, for example.