General Information on the topic of Open Access
What is Open Access (OA)?
„The author(s) and right holder(s) of such contributions grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, right of access to, and a licence to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works, in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship“ (Berlin Declaration on Open Access, 2003)
Advantages of Open Access
... for authors
- Increased visibility of publications
- Easier finding through search engines
... for research and teaching
- Easier access to the latest research data
- Makes the open discussion of research results easier
- Supports international collaboration
... for society
- No double financing of science
- Free access to knowledge for everyone
You can find more information on the advantages of Open Access here.
Differences between Diamond, Gold and Green Open Access
The publications can be read by anyone worldwide without any cost for the person reading nor the author. You can find more information here.
The publications are published in an Open Access media and can be accessed for free by people all around the world. The authors have to pay a publishing fee which can vary depending on the publishing house and media. You can find more information here.
In addition to being published in a fee-based journal the publications are also uploaded into an institutional or disciplinary repository and are freely accessible there. Depending on the contract with the publisher this can happen either simultaneous with the publication in a journal or only after a defined blocking period. You can find more information here.
Berlin Declaration on Open Access
The Berlin Declaration on Open Access was written and published by the Max-Planck-Institut in 2003 and is to this day a milestone for the Open Access movement and a benchmark for the handling of research data and literature. It was signed by the University of Applied Sciences Wismar in 2023.
