Publishing and Open Access
Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences has been operating the institutional open access repository OPUS for more than a decade, where students, researchers and employees of the university have the opportunity to publish their work under open access conditions. The publication server thus offers the technical and organisational prerequisites for the permanent archiving of scientific electronic publications.
University document server OPUS
You can search directly in OPUS here
Research in OPUS (external link, opens in a new window)
Publication process on OPUS
Would you like to publish your work?
Information for students can be found here.
Information for researchers/employees can be found here.
Counselling
Do you have any questions or would you like to find out more?
Advice on all questions relating to OPUS and electronic publishing is available in the library.
Contact the publication advisory service
Open Access
Federal Ministry of Education and Research:
"With the Digital Agenda 2014 - 2017, the Federal Government has set itself the task of improving the framework conditions for an unhindered flow of knowledge in science and research. Free access to scientific publications is an important component of this: Open Access.
Scientific information without barriers
In the past, scientific publications focussed on printed publications, but today texts are almost always published electronically. Open Access makes it possible to utilise scientific texts in completely new ways. Whether sharing in social networks, automated analysis or inclusion in databases - texts under a free licence can be used in a variety of ways. This opens up completely new opportunities for dealing with scientific publications.
The core of the open access principle is that scientific publications are made available to the general public free of charge on the Internet. Two models are usually used for open access publications in science and research: In addition to publication in print format, publications can also be placed in a freely accessible online database (green route). The publication is then placed in a repository - i.e. on a document server of the university or research institution. On the other hand, it is also possible to publish a scientific article directly and freely accessible. In this case, we speak of the golden road.
The most important driver of Open Access: the scientific community
Open Access was developed by the scientific community itself in order to improve the handling of publications. Researchers around the world have launched numerous initiatives, resulting in broad support for the open access movement. However, not only scientists benefit from open and free access through Open Access, but anyone can use Open Access publications.
Advantages of open access publication for authors
- better visibility and higher citation frequency
- the results of increasingly important international and interdisciplinary collaboration can be published easily and accessible worldwide
- good and fast findability via academic search engines (Google Scholar specifically analyses repositories) - new publications can therefore be found quickly
- all documents can be searched in local, regional and national library catalogues and reference services such as Google Scholar, BASE or the German National Library
- The exploitation rights remain with the author. In contrast to traditional publishing, not all rights are transferred exclusively to a publisher. There is nothing to prevent additional publication in journals or monographs, provided that they agree to the existing OA publication and the licence granted.
- A second publication after the expiry of an embargo period (6 months or 12 months) is also possible - Green Open Access - and fulfils the Open Access conditions of the funding bodies
Open Access is becoming increasingly important
Anyone who receives third-party funding from the EU, DFG (German Research Foundation) or the BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research) must publish the results in Open Access. The (possibly) resulting publication fees are paid by the funders, often retrospectively.
The guidelines for university development of the state of Lower Saxony as well as the Lower Saxony University Development Contract explicitly mention support for Open Access. In addition, there is the digitisation offensive of the state of Lower Saxony, which also provides for the establishment of a Lower Saxony publication fund to financially support pure OA publications with publication fees.
More and more universities and research institutes have OA strategies, including universities of applied sciences in Lower Saxony. But traditional publishers are also recognising the advantages and are increasingly offering opportunities to publish OA.
Why do third-party funders want Open Access?
There is currently a threefold financing of research with public funds:
- The research itself is publicly funded.
- The peer review process is publicly funded (publicly funded professors review publications during their working hours).
- Access to this publicly funded research is in turn financed with public funds via the libraries.
It is precisely the financing of access to the results of publicly funded research that consumes a lot of money and puts a strain on library budgets.
Funding
Open Access publications are usually financed via publication fees (Article Processing Charges). These are paid either by the authors or their institution.
- Third-party funders such as the DFG etc. include the publication fees.
- Many universities or federal states set up publication funds. Negotiations are currently underway in Lower Saxony. Teachers at Ostfalia may then also be eligible.
However, there are also OA publishers that are financed by professional societies and often charge no or only low publication fees.
The golden path: publishing via Open Access publishers
- First publication of an article with an Open Access publisher, for example BioMed Central or Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- These Open Access publications are financed by publication fees paid by the authors or their institutions.
- First publication is also possible on a repository such as OPUS. This is free of charge.
Green route: a second publication in a repository (in addition to an earlier publication in a traditional publishing house)
- (Second) publication of scientific publications on an institutional or subject-specific document server.
- Fulfils the OA requirements of third-party funders
- More and more universities and other research institutions are issuing recommendations or mandatory statements on OA publication
The majority of publishers allow secondary publications, sometimes under certain conditions. We would have to clarify with you on a case-by-case basis whether secondary publication is possible. Since an amendment to the Copyright Act (§31, 4 UrhG), authors have an indispensable right to secondary publication if various conditions are met (at least 50% public funding), which cannot be cancelled out by an existing publishing contract.
Legal differences
Traditional publishers generally demand exclusive rights of use. This means that the publisher has the sole right to use the article in the manner authorised (usually forever and for all known and unknown types of use). Open access publishers only require a simple right of use. Authors can continue to exercise the exploitation rights themselves and may grant any number of third parties rights of use to an article. In the case of a first publication, the article is published under a CC Licence.
Creative Commons Licences
DOIs
What are DOIs?
The availability and referenceability of digital scientific resources are an essential feature of current scientific practice. In order to fulfil the requirements of citation in a scientific context, the content must be findable in the digital world in the long term. The reference to a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is not ideal for this purpose, as the access location of cited content can change and the corresponding URL can therefore become invalid.
The DOI system counteracts this problem. A DOI is permanent, unique and directly linked to the object. Regardless of where the resource is stored, descriptive information about the object and its digital access location remain available.
The DOI system is an ISO standard (26324:2012) and common practice in the scientific publication process.
DOIs can be assigned for: PDFs, datasets, software, conference papers, simulations, videos, images, research reports and open access articles.
Advantages of DOI registration:
- makes objects clearly referenced and easier to access
- makes it easier to cite and link objects to a publication
- is the standard in science for the publication of scientific articles
- improves access to scientific data and thus avoids duplication
- increases the visibility of research data, motivates new research and promotes scientific collaboration
- makes digital objects such as scientific films and film segments as easy to cite as texts
Who can apply for DOIs and how?
Only the Ostfalia Library. We receive our DOIs from the German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB) in Hanover, with whom we have a consortium agreement for the allocation of DOIs. The TIB is a member of DataCite (International Data Citation Initiative e.V.), one of nine DOI registration agencies worldwide.