Library

Open Access is unrestricted and free access to scholarly publications. 

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

Benefits

• Free access to publications promotes knowledge transfer
• Research results are better visible
• Reception and frequency of citation increase
• Electronic publications are released more quickly than print editions
• Copyright s preserved
• Content can be re-used in a legally secure manner
  
  

Golden Path: Scholarly publications are freely accessible as soon as published. This presupposes that the paper is published in dedicated OA journals. Publishing costs incurred are frequently borne by library consortia or professional societies. As a rule, the authors grant the users comprehensive rights. Accredited OA journals are registered in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOJ).

Green Path: In this case, scholarly papers first appear in a peer-reviewed journal and are additionally published a second time on institutional or dedicated platforms. Depending on the publisher, this may be the case either concurrently with the initial publication or after an embargo period. Which case applies depends on the licensing agreement and the legal framework.

Hybrid journals: ‘Hybrid’ journals are traditional subscription journals allowing individual contributions to be published OA for an additional fee. This model is interesting for researchers because they can publish in established journals of renowned publishers and yet their publication is still freely accessible.

If content is published outside a publishing house, it makes sense to use Creative Commons licences. They allow the author to specify how third parties may further exploit it. At the moment there are six different Creative Commons licences, as illustrated by the image from Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand.

For more information on the benefits as well as the significance of individual licences, see this video. 

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:

‘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.’

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). The SHERPA/RoMEO list 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%
- 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!

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 through authors via Article Processing Charges (APCs)
Funding by institutions
Funding by consortia and crowdfunding

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

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.

• 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.

Overview of 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 licence (CC-BY) at no extra 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.
Such publications can be additionally supported on request from the local publication fund (see below) of the Library and Research and Transfer.

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

Overview of SpringerNature Open Access Journals

Springer Nature provides lists of titles indicating which journals are covered by 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. Springer calls this option ‘Open Choice’.

In high-quality Gold Open Access journals, the standard Article Processing Charge (APC) minus a discount of 20 % will be due. Publications of this kind can be additionally supported on request by the local Library and Research and Transfer publication fund (see below).

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

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.

Overview of Wiley Open Access Journals

Wiley provides lists of titles indicating which journals are covered by 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.
Publications of this kind can be additionally supported on request by the local Library and Research and Transfer publication fund (see below).

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

Further information

The workflows for authors in the Wiley Hybrid and Gold Open Access journals can be found here:

•  Hybrid OA Journal Workflow
•  Gold OA Journal Workflow

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

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, magazines and proceedings in which Open Access can be published.

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

Overview of Sage Open Access Journals

Sage provides title lists indicating the journals in which Open Access can be published. This includes approx. 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 no 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.

Such publications can be additionally supported by the local publication fund (see below) of the Library and Research and Transfer on request.

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 ‘Journal Recommender’

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.
Such publications can be additionally supported on request from the local publication fund (see below) of the Library and Research and Transfer.

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

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@hs-aalen.de

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
  
  

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.