Open Access (OA) stands for unrestricted and free of cost online access to scholarly research. It makes scientific findings more verifiable, leads to a higher citation frequency, faster checking for relevance and better findability and enables or accelerates (international) scientific cooperation in many areas.
The MPG supports the so-called “Gold Route” as an open access strategy. It refers to the first publication of the scientific text in an Open Access medium, i.e. above all in Open Access journals which, like conventional journals, use peer review. The publication of monographs or edited volumes in an Open Access publisher is also classified as part of the Gold Route. Usually, a Golden Open Access publication requires the use of a free license in which the authors retain their rights and grant everyone a simple right of use.
The MPG supports the so-called “Gold Route” as an open access strategy. It refers to the first publication of the scientific text in an Open Access medium, i.e. above all in Open Access journals which, like conventional journals, use peer review. The publication of monographs or edited volumes in an Open Access publisher is also classified as part of the Gold Route. Usually, a Golden Open Access publication requires the use of a free license in which the authors retain their rights and grant everyone a simple right of use.
The MPG supports its researchers in publishing in open access media. A large number of open access journals charge authors publication fees, which are usually based on the average processing costs incurred by the publisher per online publication. These are also known as Article Processing Charges (APCs). Like many other research organizations, the MPG pays the publication fees for a large number of journals, so that the budgets of the research groups and institutes are not or less heavily burdened.
The Max Planck Digital Library bundles all services and information that may be important in this context on its pages.
Open access for research data Thanks to technological developments, research data can be integrated into the scientific communication process in unimagined dimensions and quality. The terms Open Research Data or Open Data are also used for research data that is published in accordance with the principles of Open Access. The publication of research data contributes to making research results comprehensible, reproducible and reusable. Research data can be published as independent and referenceable data sets or collections, for example in research data repositories or on publishing platforms, sometimes directly as an appendix to a research article, sometimes indirectly by being referenced via a link. Another form of data publication are articles in which research data with particular significance for the subject area or research data particularly suitable for subsequent use are described. These data papers are published in scientific journals, and in some cases there are also so-called data journals that specialize in data papers.
Open access for research data Thanks to technological developments, research data can be integrated into the scientific communication process in unimagined dimensions and quality. The terms Open Research Data or Open Data are also used for research data that is published in accordance with the principles of Open Access. The publication of research data contributes to making research results comprehensible, reproducible and reusable. Research data can be published as independent and referenceable data sets or collections, for example in research data repositories or on publishing platforms, sometimes directly as an appendix to a research article, sometimes indirectly by being referenced via a link. Another form of data publication are articles in which research data with particular significance for the subject area or research data particularly suitable for subsequent use are described. These data papers are published in scientific journals, and in some cases there are also so-called data journals that specialize in data papers.
To make Open Access publishing easier for MPG researchers, the MPDL has negotiated conditions for many journals under which Max Planck authors can publish Open Access free of charge.
Please note, that there are many other relevant Open Access journals, including those that do not charge fees. A complete overview can be found in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).
For the work at the MPQ, arXiv is one of the most important tools; a free and freely accessible archive for almost 2.4 million scientific articles e.g. from the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science and quantitative biology.
Karin Fröschl is an MPG Open Science Ambassador at the MPI of Quantum Optics. More information on Open Science in practice can be found here.
The “Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities” of October 2003 is regarded as the starting point for Open Access. The MPG signed the declaration together with other institutions such as the German Research Foundation (DFG), the German Rectors' Conference, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and many others.
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