FAQ - Frequently asked questions

General information about Open Access publishing

What is Open Access?

Why is open access publishing beneficial?

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How can I publish Open Access free of charge and with quality assurance?

For first-time Open Access (OA) publications in journals a number of free publication channels have been established to date. They also guarantee quality assurance. Some of them are listed here:

  • Open Library of Humanities: Platform for journals from the humanities and cultural studies
  • SciPost: Platform for journals from the humanities and cultural studies
  • Open Book Publishers: Publisher of OA books that are free for both authors and readers
  • Language Science Press: Peer-reviewed OA books in the field of linguistics
  • Open Library Politikwissenschaft (transcript-Verlag): OA books in the political science program area. This future-oriented project is financed by almost 40 academic libraries.
  • Open Research Europe (ORE): Freely accessible, free and high-quality publication platform for scientific papers. The platform offers fast publications and open peer review for research conducted by Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe beneficiaries. ORE is a publishing solution that extends the standard offering of the current journal-based system in a faster, more open and transparent way.

Furthermore, subject repositories and preprint servers complement the possibility of making research results available and visible worldwide free of charge. The Registry of Open Access Repositories (ROAR) provides a list of institutional, subject-specific and thematic repositories and harvesters. It thus provides a starting point for researching suitable repositories for publication.

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What is Diamond Open Access?

Diamond Open Access (OA) refers to publications and publication platforms that can be read free of charge by all interested parties worldwide, and for which no costs are incurred by the authors. Diamond OA is the simplest and fairest form of OA for all parties involved, as no one is excluded from participating in scientific discourse by pay walls.

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How do I find an open access journal to publish in?

  • Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) provides information on 17,000 quality-assured open access journals and offers search options for articles from all subject areas. 12,000 listed journals also charge no publication fees.
  • OJS-de.net is a German-language information platform and provides information on founding and operating an Open Access journal using the free open source software OJS (Open Journal Systems). Practical handouts are intended to facilitate and promote the publication of scientific journals in the spirit of Open Access.
  • With the Journal Recommender B!SON you can find a suitable Open Access journal for your manuscript. In addition, you will receive information on the funding conditions at the University of Göttingen for each journal. The open source tool "B!SON" is provided by Technische Informationsbibliothek Hannover (TIB).

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Questions regarding infrastructure / conditions

Which licenses can I use for my publications?

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What special funding requirements for Open Access do I need to be aware of?

What reservations are there about Open Access?