Open Access Publishing

Open Access Publishing

Open Access Publishing

The Presidential Chair of the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg strongly supports Open Access publishing and has passed an Open Access Policy as well as signed the "Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (German version). The Open Access Publication Fund is an additional element of its open access strategy.

B!SON: Open Access Journal Finder

B!SON Recommender Service for Open Access Journals

B!SON is the acronym for 'Bibliometric and Semantic Open Access Recommender Network'. The service—developed by the TIB Hannover and the SLUB Dresden—is intended to facilitate a successful open access transformation. The poject partners cooperate with OpenCitations and DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals), all recommended journals are gold open access journals.

The Journal Finder offers a selection of possible journals, but all results should in every case be double checked on the resp. journals’ websites or with the open access office, as there are a (growing) number of different pricing tiers, financing options and procedures.

Find more info on the service at B!SON Project.

Open Access Publication Fund

Since 2016, the Library and Information System (BIS) financed more than 650 open access publications through the German Science Foundation (DFG)-supported Open Access Publication Fund. As of January 1, 2022, a new financing model based on the DFG program "Open Access Publication Cost" applies.

 

NiedersachsenOPEN

NiedersachsenOPEN is the state’s new central open access publication fund to support open access publishing in Lower Saxony. Libraries act as intermediaries and facilitators for the researchers and are respopnsible for the submission and administration of their researchers’ proposals.

Funded by the Ministry of Science and Culture within the framework of the zukunft.niedersachsen program, NiedersachsenOPEN encompasses three funding lines:

  • Line 1: Funding of book publications (also in combination with publishers’ commercial book publications), compilations, scientific editions or book series;
  • Line 2: Journal articles and proceedings publications;
  • Line 3: Innovative projects, e.g. cross-media and infrastructure projects to develop or enhance open access services, but also consulting and support of researchers to strengthen the open access transformation.

more info

Info on Open Access Publishers

Open access publishing in scientific journals often entails costs for the author, so-called "article-processing charges" (APC) or "publication fees". We have a number of agreements with publishers to facilitate the publishing process or reduce APC:

As the number of different publishing models, pricing categories and procedures is constantly increasing, we advise you to contact us before submitting a publication „when in doubt”.

On "Predatory Publishers"

Peer review and editorial work are integral parts of all scientific publications. That scientific journals—be they Open Access or subscription based—offer this should go without saying. However, a growing number of publishers pretend to be reputable but in truth are not. The term "predatory" describes their "business model."

  • A peer review only appears to take place;
  • Editorial boards oder peers are either invented or the persons listed are not aware of this and have not necessarily agreed to it;
  • What appears to be a cost-free publication, does after submission of a paper suddenly require a publication charge;
  • The web design of well known and respectable publishers are copied for appearances sake.

"Predatory" publishers cannot be readily identified at first glance.

What you can do

Carefully evaluate the publisher and/or journal of your choice before submitting a paper:

  • Are the journal and/or publisher well known and respectable?
  • Look out for similar sounding journal titles: is it truly the journal you have in mind?
  • Take a look at the average time the peer review takes in a journal: is one week really enough?
  • Check if the impact factor is realistic and true.
  • Is the journal listed in the relevant citation indexes: make sure if it actually is e.g. SCOPUS and not SOPUS.

Additionally, the following websites can be helpful:

  • The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), DOAJ, OASPA and  the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) published the "Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing" that offer important criteria for the selection of a publisher.
  • Journals listed in the Directory of Open Access (www.doaj.org) are selected according to strict quality criteria.
  • The Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (www.oaspa.org) requires fulfillment of an extensive list of requirements to become (and stay) a member.
  • On "Think! Check! Submit!" (thinkchecksubmit.org/check/) a checklist helps you determine whether or not your selected journal is "safe."

The university library's Open Access Officer will answer questions you might have regarding this topic and Open-Access publishing in general (contact data see above).

Predatory Publisher uses AI

The portal Inside Higher Ed warns of the predatory publisher Prime Scholars.
Listing reputable scientists and scholars as editors of their journals without the knowing this let alone having agreed to it, is a well-known practice of predatory publishers.
The pseudo publisher uses existing peer-reviewed articles, applies a language-scraping algorithm and (probably) AI to piece together new short texts. These appear under the names of respectable and known scholars and scientists – identity theft, copyright infringement and (at least) a danger to the authors’ reputations.

See below „On Predatory Publshers” for information and help on how to avoid these publishers.

Insitutional Repository /oops/

/oops/ the Oldenburg Online Publication Server offers Oldenburg University faculty a quick and simple procedure for publishing their scientific papers online.

/oops/ also allows undergraduates, postgraduate and post-doc students to publish their final thesis (BA, MA, doctoral or habilitation thesis) online.

Open Journal Systems (OJS)

The publication software Open Journal Systems (OJS) of the Public Knowledge Project helps Oldenburg scientists and scholars to publish scientific journals through the university press. The university library operates OJS for the university.

OJS is an important element of the university's Open-Access activities. The BIS and the university press "BIS-Verlag" support you when planning and setting up journals in OJS (e.g. ISSN and DOI assignment).

Online since March 2018:

Open Access in EU-Projects

The European Commission and the European Research Council have determined that all the results obtained in the framework of HORIZON 2020 projects should be readily available to the public. The Common Guideline of the Library and Information System (BIS) and of the Department for Research and Technology Transfer describes how you meet the open access requirements.

Additional info:

Additional Info

Additional info on open access (German language sites):

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