Library Publishing and Open Access

Advantages

Open Access means unrestricted and free access to 1. science and scholarshop (allg.) publications.

Interested parties should be able to read, download, copy, print, search and refer to them within the framework of the applicable copyright.

• Free access to publications supports knowledge transfer
• Research results become more visible
• Reception and citation frequency increase
• Electronics publications are published faster than print versions
• Authors' rights are protected
• Contents can be reused with legal certainty

Open access models

Golden road: 1. science and scholarshop (allg.) publications are freely accessible upon publication. This requires publications to be published in open access journals, periodicals, magazines in particular. The publication costs incurred are often covered by library consortia or specialist societies. The authors usually grant users far-reaching rights. Recognized open access journals, periodicals, magazines can be found in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOJ).

Green route: Here, 1. science and scholarshop articles are first published in an academic journal and are additionally published via institutional or specialist platforms. Depending on the publisher, this can happen parallel to the first publication or after an embargo deadline and depends on the license agreement and the legal framework.

Hybrid journals: "Hybrid" journals are conventional subscription journals in which individual articles can be published open access for an additional fee. This model is attractive for researchers because they can publish in established journals, prestigious, well-known publishers and the publications are still freely accessible.

Creative Commons licenses

If contents are published outside of a publishing house, it makes sense to use Creative Commons licenses. These allow the author to make a commitment as to how third parties may utilize; utilization of the contents. There are currently six different Creative Commons licenses, as the image from Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand illustrates.

You can find more information about the advantages and the meaning of individual licenses in this video. A short summary of the topic can be found in this PowerPoint presentation.

Presentation582 KBPDF

As with subscription journals, the quality of open access journals can vary. In contrast to so-called predatory or fake journals, high-quality open access journals are characterized by various quality standards, such as a peer review process, highly-respected, prestigious, well-known publishers, long-term availability via persistent identifiers (e.g. DOI) or the provision of license information.

Before publication in an open access journal, it is therefore advisable to check the trustworthiness with the help of Think Check Submit. You can also check whether the journal, periodical, magazine is listed in the DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) or in databases such as the Web of Science or Scopus.

Further Information

• Criteria catalog Fake Journal
• Official report of the German Rectors' Conference on Predatory Publishing
   

Author's contract

Authors hold the intellectual property rights to their own papers. If such a paper is published by a publishing house, the author's contract governs the rights transferred to the publisher. A distinction is made between two different rights of use:

• Exclusive rights of use - all rights are assigned to the publisher
• Non-exclusive rights of use - meaning that use by the author is still permissible

Recommendation

For new publishing contracts referring to electronic publications, only assign the non-exclusive right of use to the publisher so that you may additionally publish your paper on your personal website or on the repository of Aalen University. To this end, for example, any restrictive phrases (‘all’ rights of use) must be deleted or an addendum to the contract must be agreed. Such an addendum can be found at SPARC, for example:

For new publishing contracts for electronic publications, transfer only the simple exploitation right to the publisher so that you can also publish your work on your personal website or on the repository of Aalen University of Applied Sciences. For example, restrictive formulations ("all" exploitation rights) must be deleted or an addendum to the contract must be agreed. Such an addendum can be found at SPARC, for example:

"I hereby declare that I do not wish to assign the exclusive copyright to (name of publisher) but reserve the right to publish the article in full on an open access platform."

Right of secondary publication

A secondary publication is another OA edition of a paper already published in Closed Access.

If the original publication was released by a foreign publisher, the author's contract governs whether secondary publication is permitted and, if so, in what manner (preprint/postprint). Jisc provides information on the conditions of individual publishers.

For German publishers, Art. 38, Para. 4 governs the right of secondary publication. The clause applies under the following conditions even if the author's contract should state otherwise:

• The paper was published in a periodical appearing at least twice a year
• The paper was publicly funded by at least 50%
• The Publication of the paper does not serve a commercial purpose

If these conditions are met, the paper may be republished as follows:

• The secondary publication may be released 12 months after the first publication
• The manuscript version (postprint) accepted by the publisher may be published 
• The source (data of first publication) must be indicated.

Please note that the university library does not provide legal advice. The above information is intended as an initial guide only!

Funding model of Open Access

Since OA publications are accessible free of charge, alternative funding models are needed to cover the costs of OA journals (for staff, etc.). Three different funding models are available:

• Funding via authors via so-called Article Processing Charges (APCs)
• Institutional funding
• Consortial funding and crowdfunding

Open access policy

Aalen University's Open Access policy, adopted in 2018, aims to make the publications of its researchers as widely visible as possible and to support the exchange of information, knowledge and the transfer of research results in science, business and society.

Aalen University therefore recommends making scientific publications available Open Access and offers information and counselling for scientific authors.

Key points of the Open Access policy are

• First publication in peer-reviewed Open Access journals with high quality standards
• Choice of open licences (e.g. Creative Commons)
• Provision of a copy of the publication or secondary publication on the OPUS repository of Aalen University
• Drafting of publishing contracts with simple rights of use
• Registration of authors with ORCID
• Support for academic publishing through the university's local publication fund as well as information and counselling services

Open Access Policy321 KBPDF

Publication guidelines

In April 2024, the Rectorate of Aalen University adopted publication guidelines. It provides information on the standardised designation of the university and the identification of its authors in research publications as well as on funding acknowledgements, describes the publication process and opportunities for publication funding and names information and advice centres.

Publication guidlines476 KBPDF

Benefits for scientists with DEAL contracts

• Federal licensing agreements for the entire portfolio of electronic journals (e-journals) from major academic publishers since the 2017 licensing year
• Agreements include an OA section centrally funded and covered by the library
•  ‘Publish & Read’ agreements designed to prevent duplicate expenses arising when authors publish OA and the library licenses read access
• Significant and permanent expansion of read access to the Wiley and Elsevier SpringerNature portfolio (with the exception of Nature titles)
• All three DEAL contracts run from 2024 to 2028.

For further information, see the DEAL website.

Publishing with Elsevier (DEAL contract)

Overview of the Elsevier Open Access Journals

Elsevier provides title lists indicating which journals are included in the DEAL contract.

Costs

In hybrid journals, the costs per article in the first year of the contract are EUR 2,500 (plus 19% VAT and fees). Higher costs are incurred for publications in Cell Press or The Lancet.

The university finances these costs from a central budget. This means that university members can publish Open Access in subscription-based journals (hybrid journals) under a Creative Commons license (CC-BY) at no additional cost. At Elsevier, this option is called "Hybrid Open Access".

In high-quality Gold Open Access journals, the list price of the publication costs (Article Processing Charge = APC) less a discount of 20% must be paid. For Cell Press and The Lancet, the APC is discounted by 15% per article.

Through the Elsevier DEAL contract, members of Aalen University of Applied Sciences also have full reading access to the majority of the journal portfolio (including Lancet and Cell Press titles) on the ScienceDirect publishing platform from class 1995 onwards.

Further Information

Further Information can be found in the DEAL-Elsevier profile

Publishing with SpringerNature (DEAL contract)

Overview of SpringerNature Open Access Journals

SpringerNature provides title lists indicating which journals are included in the DEAL contract.

Costs

The institution of higher education finances the contract from a central budget. This means that university members can publish Open Access in hybrid journals (Hybrid Journals) under a Creative Commons license (CC-BY ) at no additional cost. At SpringerNature, this option is called "Open Choice".

In high-quality Gold Open Access journals, the list price of the publication costs (Article Processing Charge = APC) less a discount of 20% must be paid.
 

Through the DEAL contract, members of Aalen University of Applied Sciences also have full reading access to the journals, periodicals, magazines accordingly.

Publishing with SpringerNature

In the course of the MY publication process, the following information is requested: Affiliation to Aalen University, choice of publication mode (the library recommends choosing ‘Open Access’ or ‘Open Choice’), agreement to the terms and conditions, information on printing and colour images as well as the postal address.

Further Information

Further Information can be found in the DEAL-SpringerNature profile

Publishing with Wiley (DEAL contract)

Overview of the Wiley Open Access Journals

Wiley provides title lists indicating which journals are included in the DEAL contract.

Costs

University members may OA-publish in journals requiring subscription (hybrid journals) under a Creative Commons licence (CC-BY) at no additional cost. Wiley calls this option ‘Online Open’.

In high-quality Gold Open Access journals, the standard Article Processing Charge (APC) minus a discount of 20 % will be due.

The DEAL contract also grants to members of Aalen University full reading access to relevant journals.

Further Information

The workflows for authors for Open Access publishing at Wiley can be found here:

• Hybrid OA Journal Workflow
• Gold OA Journal Workflow

You can use the Journal Finder to find the right Wiley journal, periodical, magazine for your publication.

Further Information can be found in the DEAL-Wiley profile

Publishing with ACM

Overview of ACM Open Access Journals

The current contract with ACM Accociation for Computing Machinery (2024 - 2026) includes an Open Access component. The provider provides a title list of journals, HFU supplies shops and proceedings in which Open Access can be published, to.

Costs

The university finances the contract from a central budget. This means that university members can publish in all hybrid and all Gold Open Access journals of the publisher at no additional cost.

Requirements

The authors are members of Aalen University. Verification takes place via the university's e-mail address.

Further information

The following article types are supported: Research Article, Short Paper, Review Article, Survey Article, Technical Note, Tutorial, Interview, Note.

Further information can be found at ACM OPEN

Publishing with Sage

Overview of the Sage Open Access Journals

Sage provides lists of titles indicating in which journals can be published Open Access. This includes around 900 hybrid journals (title list) and 200 Gold Open Access journals (title list). In principle, it is not possible to publish Open Access in these journals.

Costs

There are none additional costs for publishing in hybrid journals (Sage Choice). When publishing in Gold Open Access journals, a 20% discount on the list price is granted.

Publishing with Sage

The prerequisite for publishing with Sage is that the corresponding author is a member of Aalen University. In addition, the publisher allows authors and organisations to which they belong to publish publications that have not been published open access in the manuscript version via a repository after one year (Green Open Access).

Further Information

Further Information can be found in the Sage profile and in the SAGE "Journal Recommender"

Publishing with Taylor & Francis

Aalen University has signed the Taylor & Francis 2024 - 2026 consortium agreement.

Overview of the Taylor & Francis Open Access Journals

Taylor & Francis provides title lists indicating the journals in which Open Access can be published. This includes approx. 2,100 hybrid journals (title list) and approx. 350 Gold Open Access journals (title list).

Costs

The university finances the contract from a central budget. This means that university members can publish Open Access in hybrid journals (Open Select Journals) under a Creative Commons licence (CC-BY) at no extra cost. At Taylor & Francis, this option is called ‘Open Select’.

In high-quality Gold Open Access journals, the list price of the publication costs (Article Processing Charge = APC) less a discount of 15% must be paid.

Through the contract with Taylor & Francis, members of Aalen University also have full reading access to the journal portfolio of the ‘Science & Technology’ collection.

Further Information

Further Information can be found in the Taylor & Francis profile

Local Publication Fund at Aalen University

Aalen University offers a local publication fund to promote the publication of articles in Open Access journals. Unfortunately, the resources of this fund are currently exhausted.
Please contact us if you are planning a publication. We will be happy to support you in your search for a suitable journal: openaccess[at]hs-aalen.de

Identifiers are used to clearly assign publications to their authors, institutions or research funding organizations. This increases the visibility of the research achievements of both the institution of higher education and the individual researchers. To ensure that the publications of Aalen University of Applied Sciences can be assigned as accurately as possible, the library recommends standardized spellings of the institution of higher education and the use of author and institution identifiers (ID).

Designation of Aalen University

To ensure that articles are correctly attributed to the university, the Dean's Office points out that the following designations are compulsory for use in publications - regardless of the publisher:

• in Germany: Hochschule Aalen - Technik, Wirtschaft und Gesundheit - short form: Hochschule Aalen
• international: Aalen University of Applied Sciences - short form: Aalen University

Identifiers of Aalen University of Applied Sciences

• ROR: https://ror.org/04gg60e72
• Ringgold 120294 
• German Research Institutions (GERiT) DFG 10072
• GRID: grid.440920.b
• ISNI: 0000 0000 9720 0711

Author identifiers

Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) - ORCID is a unique author identifier enabling the unambiguous assignment to a person, independent of any name changes, special characters or changes of institutions. You can apply for the ORCID free of charge. For more information, see this blog.

ResearcherID Thomson Reuters (Web of Science) - Author identifiers from Thomson Reuters are mapped in the Web of Science database and are often used to calculate the h-index, which is an important bibliometric indicator. If the author names are not unique, the value of the h-index will be inaccurate. The ResearcherID can be requested free of charge.

Scopus Author ID - The author identifier of the Scopus database cannot be requested by the author, it is instead assigned automatically using an algorithm. The following data are used for assignment: Institution, address, subject area, publication periods and co-authors. Since this assignment can be incorrect, it is important that the institution can be unambiguously assigned. This is achieved by using the university ID.

Many papers published in subscription journals have become open access through secondary publication on institutional repositories. Therefore, these publications can be found by search engines (e.g. Google Scholar). Open Access journals are listed in the EZB Electronic Journals Library. A targeted search for ‘open access’ journals can be conducted here.

Further research sources for searching for

• Journals: Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
• Books: Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)
• Repositories: Directory of Open Access Repositories (openDOAR)
• Research data: Zenodo
• Research data repositories: re3data

A compilation of further research sources can be found here.

Recommendation services for quality-assured open access journals

• B!Son: a recommendation service realized by the TIB Hannover and the SLUB Dresden.
• oa.finder: a journal search tool that finds suitable Open Access publication options