Open Access
Open access means making scientific publications available on the Internet free of charge and permanently, while respecting copyright.
There should be no financial, legal or technical barriers for readers; all that is required is Internet access. The authors can retain the rights to their scientific work, while the public can use the publications. Open Access publications achieve greater visibility than traditional publications and can be cited more easily. Many scientific organizations and the European Commission are increasingly supporting this form of publication. Comprehensive information on Open Access can be found on the information platform open-access.network.
Information on Open Access
Information on the different forms of open access, the advantages and reservations, as well as tips on selecting a publisher and searching for suitable open access journals.
Activities and events
Information on training and consulting services as well as other activities in the field of publishing and open access
Rights and licenses
Information on publishing contracts, rights of use and licenses, as well as secondary publication rights, publishing policies, and other legal aspects that influence publishing.
Open Access at the University of Göttingen
The University of Göttingen (including the University Medical Center) has adopted a new version of the Open Access Guideline 2025, thus setting a framework of recommendations that promotes the provision of research results in Open Access. The guideline addresses the following topics, among others:
- Good scientific practice and quality standards
- Responsibility for open access publication channels and evaluation practices
- Transfer of simple usage rights and use of established open access licenses
- Secondary publication (e.g. via GRO.publications)
- Advice and support services
- Use of the university publication fund and use of third-party funds for publication costs
- Operation of institutional and subject-specific Open Access infrastructures
- Göttingen University Press
In addition to the Open Access Guideline, the Research Data Guideline and the Affiliation Guideline are also relevant in the area of publishing and Open Access. The Research Data Guideline is intended to support the safeguarding, storage and sustainable provision of research data, while the Affiliation Guideline defines the members of the University of Göttingen in a uniform manner and in accordance with the rules of good scientific practice when indicating affiliation.
Further support is provided by the Göttingen eResearch Alliance. It provides advice on topics such as research data management and the development of data strategies for research projects. The University of Göttingen is also involved in national and international projects such as the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) and OpenAIRE.
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Everything about publishing: Open Science, Open Access, funding options and events.
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Requirements from sponsors
The Federal Ministry of Education and Research is committed to open access as a research funding body: with its open access clause, the BMFTR makes open access publication a condition of funding. This means that scientific results from BMFTR-funded research projects must either be published immediately in open access (golden route) or, after a so-called embargo period has expired, they must be posted on a suitable document server (repository, green road). The aim is to make publicly funded results available to everyone via open access. (BMFTR Open Access Strategy)
“Project funding of the BMBF also includes funding for Open Access publications.” (Open Access in Germany: Joint Guidelines of the Federal Government and the Länder)
“DFG grant recipients are requested to publish their project results in open access for the purpose of adequate scholarly communication. The articles in question should either be published directly in quality-assured or recognised specialist open access journals or on open access platforms or, in addition to being published by a publishing company, be entered in discipline-specific or institutional electronic archives (repositories), if possible without a time delay.” (Funding Guidelines DFG 2.00 – 01/25, chapter 13.2, p. 43)
Funding recipients must ensure free access to peer-reviewed scientific publications of their results. In particular, they must ensure that:
- at the latest at the time of publication, a machine-readable electronic copy of the published version or the final, peer-reviewed manuscript accepted for publication is deposited in a trusted repository for scientific publications
- the deposited publication is made freely accessible via the repository immediately, under the latest available version of the Creative Commons Attribution International Public License (CC BY) or a license with equivalent rights; in the case of monographs and other long-form texts, the license may exclude commercial uses and adaptations (e. g., CC BY-NC, CC BY-ND); and
- information about all research results necessary to verify the results of this scientific publication is made available via the repository.
(Grant Agreement, p. 104)
You can also get an overview in the video “Open access requirements in EU projects”.
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FAQ - Open Access
Funding acknowledgements in scientific publications describe the funding sources that supported the research work. These funding references contribute to transparency and clarify which results stem from research funding. Some research funding agencies have specific regulations for funding acknowledgements, such as the German Research Foundation (DFG).