“In particular, the DFG underpins the propositions that scholarly publication channels ? should continue to evolve as high-quality, openly accessible, sustainably funded digital infrastructures for research; ? should be organised in such a way that they protect the principles of the freedom of research, contribute to research integrity and quality, and ensure the highest possible accessibility and re-usability of research results; ? must apply the highest standards to the quality assurance of publications, the trustworthiness of processes and the reliability and reproducibility of content; ? should make even more effective use of the innovative possibilities of digital publishing…”
Category Archives: oa.dfg
DFG, German Research Foundation – DFG welcomes EU Council Conclusions on Scholarly Publishing
“The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) welcomes the Council Conclusions on scholarly publishing adopted today, Tuesday 23 May 2023, by the Com-petitiveness Council of the European Union.
In the opinion of the largest research funding organisation and central self-governing body of the research community in Germany, the conclusions adopted under the title “On high-quality, transparent, open, trustworthy and equitable scholarly publishing” contain a series of trend-setting recommendations. These are commented on in detail in a statement issued simultane-ously by the DFG.
The DFG underlines that the academic publication system should continue to develop based on high-quality, openly accessible, sustainably funded digital infrastructures for research. It must be organised in such a way that the principles of the freedom of research are protected, scien-tific integrity and quality are guaranteed and the accessibility and re-usability of research re-sults are enabled….”
DFG – Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft – Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft schafft Grundlagen für die Veröffentlichung von Abschlussberichten
From Google’s English: “Recipients of grants from the German Research Foundation (DFG) are obliged to report on their work and the results obtained after completing their project. The reports serve to account for the use of public funds and provide information about the success of the funding and for the further development of funding programs….
In order to broaden the scientific information base and to contribute to the necessary culture change in scientific publishing, the DFG Executive Board has decided to make final reports of DFG projects easier to access and to make the scientific results section from project reports publicly accessible….
In future, grant recipients will be asked to make part of the final report intended for publication accessible in suitable repositories. The publication is supported by corresponding templates, which specify a structuring into a part intended for publication and a non-public part. In addition, the DFG provides a non-binding white list that identifies at least one possible place of publication for each scientific area according to tested quality standards….
For most applications approved after January 1, 2023, the templates provided are mandatory when preparing the final report. Projects that were approved at an earlier point in time can also use the templates. From summer 2023 it will be possible to send the link to the repository to the DFG via the elan application portal and link the reports in GEPRIS….”
Open Access Monitor: Mirror Journals | Jülich Central Library
Barbers, Irene; Delasalle, Jenny; Elsner, Carsten; Voigt, Michaela; Stanzel, Franziska; Maly, Katja; Schmiedicke, Heidi; Lindstrot, Barbara, 2022, “Open Access Monitor: Mirror Journals”, https://doi.org/10.26165/JUELICH-DATA/JRBK07, Jülich DATA, V1.
German libraries publish a list with 47 mirror journals, which are used to circumvent OA mandates. 43 are from Elsevier. A mirror journal is a fully open access version of an existing subscription journal.
A mirror journal is a fully open access version of an existing subscription journal, with the same editorial board, aims and scope, peer review processes and policies and an editorial board with at least 50% of the same members. The journal may have a similar name as the subscription title, but it must have a different ISSN. (https://doaj.org/apply/guide/)
In a joint working group, composed of staff from the university libraries of TU Berlin and TU Braunschweig, as well as from the Charité and Forschungszentrum Jülich, review criteria were developed and a list of journals was compiled. All journals were checked by at least two institutions according to the four-eyes principle.
Mirror Journals are excluded from the “OA-Zeitschriftenliste DFG-Anträge”
More about the Mirror Journals list: https://jugit.fz-juelich.de/synoa/oam-dokumentation/-/wikis/English%20Version/Source%20Databases/Journal%20Lists (2022-08-04)
Ein Mirror Journal ist eine vollständig frei zugängliche Version einer bestehenden Subskriptionszeitschrift mit demselben Editorial Board, Aims und Scope, denselben Peer-Review-Verfahren und -Richtlinien sowie einem Editorial Board, das zu mindestens 50 % aus denselben Mitgliedern besteht. Die Zeitschrift kann einen ähnlichen Namen wie die Subskriptionstzeitschrift tragen, muss aber eine andere ISSN haben. (https://doaj.org/apply/guide/)
In einer gemeinsamen Arbeitsgruppe, zusammengesetzt aus Mitarbeiter*innen der Universitätsbibliotheken der TU Berlin, der TU Braunschweig, sowie aus der Charité und dem Forschungszentrum Jülich, wurden Prüfkriterien erarbeitet und eine Liste von Journals zusammengestellt. Alle Journals wurden im 4-Augen-Prinzip durch mindestens zwei Einrichtungen geprüft.
Mirror Journals sind aus der “OA-Zeitschriftenliste DFG-Anträge” ausgeschlossen
Ausführliche Erläuterung: https://jugit.fz-juelich.de/synoa/oam-dokumentation/-/wikis/Quelldatenbanken/Zeitschriftenlisten (2022-08-04)
Job: Wissenschaftsmanagement (m/w/d) mit dem Schwerpunkt Digitaler Wandel und Open Access (14/2022). Deadline: March 02, 2022.
Ihre Aufgaben:
Sie verantworten die Co-Leitung einer Arbeitsgruppe im strategischen Programm „Digitaler Wandel in den Wissenschaften“ zu den Themenfeldern Digitale Expertise, Kooperation und Transfer digitaler Technologien sowie systematische Verbindung und Nutzung von Kompetenzen und Ressourcen in z.B. Datenzentren und anderen Informationsinfrastrukturen.
Sie beraten und begleiten bei der Förderung von Anträgen im Bereich Digitales Publizieren und Open Access.
Sie begleiten das strategische Thema der infrastrukturellen Souveränität im Bereich digitaler wissenschaftlicher Informationsinfrastrukturen.
Sie organisieren und moderieren Begutachtungen und bereiten Entscheidungsvorlagen für die jeweiligen Gremien vor.
Sie vertreten die DFG in Ihrer Community, sowohl national als auch international.
Ihre Qualifikation:
Sie haben Ihr Hochschulstudium und Ihre Promotion erfolgreich abgeschlossen und verfügen idealerweise über eigene Erfahrungen in der digitalen Forschungspraxis.
Über aktuelle Entwicklungen zum digitalen Wandel in den Wissenschaften (z.B. Forschungsdaten, Forschungssoftware) sind Sie bestens informiert.
Sie haben fundierte Erfahrung mit dem Aufbau digitaler Expertise in den Wissenschaften (z.B. The Carpentries, Summer Schools, Lehrerfahrung, o.ä.) sowie solide Kenntnisse des wissenschaftlichen Publikationsmarktes und seiner ökonomischen Strukturen.
nachweisbare Erfahrungen im Projektmanagement und analytische Fähigkeiten
ausgeprägte Kommunikations- und Entscheidungsstärke sowie nachweisbare verhandlungssichere Englischkenntnisse in Wort und Schrift
Wir bieten:
einen breiten Einblick in die Wissenschaftsförderung mit all ihren Facetten
Flexibilität für alle Lebensphasen: flexible Arbeitszeit, mobile Arbeit, Teilzeitarbeit, Kontingent an Kita-Plätzen, Großkundenticket
sichere Arbeitsplätze: Arbeitsvertrag und Vergütung nach TVöD-Bund
einen Blick auf heute und morgen: systematische Einarbeitung, Weiterbildungsmöglichkeiten z.B. im Rahmen der Fachlaufbahn, Betriebliche Altersvorsorge, Gesundheitsmanagement
Die Stelle ist unbefristet zu besetzen. Die Vergütung erfolgt – je nach Aufgabenübertragung – entsprechend bis zu Entgeltgruppe 14 TVöD.
DeepGreen – Advanced Test Phase and Pilot Operation since March 2021
Project Deep Green aims to transfer scientific publications, which can be made freely available at the end of their embargo period, into Open Acess repositories. The focus over the next two years will be on licenses which are funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and have been negotiated nationwide. These licenses are called Allianz-Lizenzen, and they contain special Open-Access regulations.
The experience gathered from Allianz license agreements since 2011 shows, that the circle of authorized authors (or their instiutional representatives) hardly ever make use of these Open Access rights. In a span of 2 years the projects aims to make the agreed upon Open Access condition easy to use on a technical level and if possible to make them automatic. Which would enable publishers to deliver these publications periodically through defined interfaces to Open Access repositories, rather than having authors or the authorized libraries put them in manually.
During the 2 year project phase, the goal is to make these agreed upon Open Access regulations comfortable on a technical level and if possible automatize them. Authors or the authorized libraries would then no longer be responsible of transfering publications into Ope Access repositories, instead publishers would deliver them periodically through a defined interface. For this the project partners will build a technical platform as a data hub: participating publishers transfer the publications and metadata through the interface and authorized institutional or subject repositories receive the data. The publishers Karger and SAGE are pilot partners for the project.
On July 29th 2019 DeepGreen started into an advanced test phase. The DeepGreen project aims at lowering the barriers for open access publishing by automatically delivering metadata and full text publications from participating publishers to authorized repositories at German universities.
Aims of the advanced test phase
In preparation for a later live operation, the advanced test phase aims at gaining experience with extensive data deliveries from publishers as well as handling different repository software (including OPUS4, DSpace, EPrints and MyCoRe). Furthermore, the amount of support that must be provided, will be tested in practice. Following the advanced test phase, a feedback session between repository operators and the project consortium is planned.
Following this test phase, the service entered its pilot operation in March 2021. Thanks to collaboration with publishers De Gruyter, Frontiers, Future Medicine, Hogrefe, Karger, MDPI, Sage, and Wiley, DeepGreen was able to automatically distribute more than 35,000 articles to more than 60 research institutions in Germany between September 2019 and June 2021.
Gelenkte Wissenschaft: Die DFG warnt vor Einfluss des Plattformkapitalismus (“Guiding” science: DFG warns against influence of platform capitalism) | Frankfurter Allgemeine
German Research Foundation warns against the growing influence of major publishers on research. Scientific freedom is under threat from two sides.
Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft warnt vor dem wachsenden Einfluss der Großverlage auf die Forschung. Die Wissenschaftsfreiheit ist hier von zwei Seiten bedroht.
Data tracking in research: aggregation and use or sale of usage data by academic publishers
“This briefing paper issued by the Committee on Scientific Library Services and Information Systems (AWBI) of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) on the subject of data tracking in digital research resources describes options for the digital tracking of research activities. It outlines how academic publishers are becoming data analytics specialists, indicates the consequences for research and its institutions, and identifies the types of data mining that are being used. As such, it primarily serves to present contemporary practices with a view to stimulating discussion so that positions can be adopted regarding the consequences of these practices for the academic community. It is aimed at all stakeholders in the research landscape….
Potentially, research tracking of this kind can fundamentally contradict academic freedom and informational self-determination. It can endanger scientists and hinder the freedom of competition in the field of information provision. For this reason, scholars and academic institutions must become aware of the problem and clarify the legal, technical and ethical framework conditions of their information supply – not least so as to avoid involuntarily violating applicable law, but also to ensure that academics are appropriately informed and protected. AWBI’s aim in issuing this briefing paper is to encourage a broad debate within the academic community – at the level of academic decision-makers, among academics, and within information infrastructure institutions – so as to reflect on the practice of tracking, its legality, the measures required for compliance with data protection and the consequences of the aggregation of usage data, thereby enabling such measures to be adopted. The collection of data on research and research activity can be useful as long as it follows clear-cut, transparent guidelines, minimises risks to individual researchers and ensures that academic organisations are able to use such data if not have control over it.”
DFG – Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft – DFG setzt neue Akzente für Open Access
From Google’s English: “The German Research Foundation (DFG) is stepping up its efforts to ensure free access to publications and other research results online. In order to support Open Access and adapt it to the changing requirements of science and research, the DFG has decided and implemented further measures. These are networked with one another and range from improved framework conditions to the financing of publication costs and the development of a science-appropriate publication infrastructure to participation in national and international working groups….
The DFG readjusted its open access policy in 2020. Scientists are now asked to publish results from DFG-funded research projects in open access. To achieve this goal, the DFG supports both the financing of publication fees and the development of suitable publication infrastructures with its funding programs.
With its “Open Access Publication Costs” program, which was introduced in autumn 2020, the DFG grants subsidies for publication fees. Both the fees for journal articles and for Open Access monographs can be funded. Many universities and non-university research institutions are faced with the financial challenge that publishers charge for the publication of research results in Open Access. The new program is intended to support the institutions and their scientists in the Open Access transformation.
In addition to funding publication fees, the various specialist communities in Germany are dependent on the further development of science-friendly standards and infrastructures. With the newly accentuated funding program “Infrastructures for Scientific Publishing” , the DFG supports the Open Access transformation by setting up and expanding suitable publication infrastructures and thus also promotes the (further) development of structural framework conditions for the publication system….”
Informationsplattform Open Access: DFG stärkt Engagement für Open Access
From Google’s English: “The German Research Foundation (DFG) is taking promising measures to drive the Open Access transformation forward. In advance, she had revised her Open Access Policy: Researchers are now asked to publish DFG-funded results in Open Access.
In January 2021, the DFG will start its new Infrastructures for Scientific Publishing program , the main goals of which are to promote the Open Access transformation through the establishment and expansion of suitable publication infrastructures and the (further) development of structural framework conditions. As early as autumn 2020, the DFG introduced the Open Access Publication Costs funding program, which subsidizes the publication fees for open access journal articles and monographs….”
Auf dem Weg zur Open Access Transformation | Informationspraxis
From Google’s English: Since 2010, the DFG program “Open Access Publishing” has been a central instrument for the institutional funding of open access publications at German universities. In the course of a DFG program evaluation, the central library of the Research Center Jülich created a data analysis that shows the publication output of the sponsored universities illuminated in 2011-2017. The results of the study lead to the following findings:
The DFG program has proven to be structuring for the funded universities, which thus have a publication fund located at the university library.
Open access publishing is a trend at German universities, as the tenfold increase in the gold open access rate at the sponsored and non-sponsored universities between 2006 and 2017 shows.
The German university publication system is still a long way from a complete open access transformation, since the proportion of closed access publications has declined little and the absolute number of closed access publications has even increased.
With a few exceptions, the level of APCs among the publishers under review increases significantly and on average exceeds the price increase rates for subscription magazines.
Recommendations for action at the end of the article show what funded institutions and funding agencies should take into account in future monitoring procedures.
DFG – Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft – Stellungnahme der DFG zur Gründung von „cOAlition S“ zur Unterstützung von Open Access
From Google’s English: “A coalition of several European research funding organizations (cOAlition S), supported by the European Commission and the European Research Council (ERC), has agreed to make full and immediate open access to science publications they support mandatory from 2020 onwards.
The German Research Foundation (DFG) works closely with European funding organizations in Science Europe and Knowledge Exchange, as well as with all relevant national organizations to build and develop a science and research-friendly open access environment. It therefore welcomes the coordinated cooperation of various funding organizations to implement an open access approach….
The DFG continues to support Open Access based on the interests of researchers and with a view to better cost transparency, both in terms of the cost of access to publications and publication fees. It supports the “cOAlition S” in a series of measures that the DFG has already begun implementing in the past….”
[But DFG did not endorse Plan S or join the Plan S coalition.]
DFG, German Research Foundation – DFG Statement on the Establishment of “cOAlition S” to Support Open Access
“A number of European research funding organisations (cOAlition S) – with the support of the European Commission including the European Research Council (ERC) – have now agreed to require full and immediate open access to research publications resulting from their grants by the year 2020.
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) works closely together with European funders in Science Europe and in Knowledge Exchange as well as with all relevant organisations on a national level to form and build an open access environment conducive to science and research. The DFG therefore welcomes a coordinated approach among funding organisations towards the realisation of open access. [But DFG has not signed on to Plan S.] …”
EASY ACCESS TO OPEN ACCESS: INTEGRATION OF OPEN ACCESS PUBLICATIONS INTO THE EZB LINKING SERVICE
[ABSTRACT] Fast and easy access to electronic resources plays a key role in academic library services. Since 1997 the University Library of Regensburg has been providing the Electronic Journals Library (EZB, http://ezb.ur.de), a database for academic electronic journals, which is used and collaboratively maintained by more than 600 libraries. The bibliographic metadata and holdings information for e-journals of the EZB build the basis for the EZB Linking Service, a link resolver to check the availability of full texts of electronic journals and to offer links to journal contents in accordance with existing access rights. For several thousand journals of about 45 different publishers a direct link to the articles of e-journals with respect to permissions can be offered in such a way. The EZB Linking Service is involved in over 40 third-party systems, like library portals, internet portals, virtual libraries or specialized databases. With about 70 million requests in 2014, the EZB Linking Service is an intensively used service of the information infrastructure in Germany. However, research articles in institutional repositories, which are simultaneously published in scientific journals, are often not included in existing link resolvers. As part of a project, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the extension of the EZB Linking Service to open access publications in different institutional repositories is planned to make the access to these publications easier for end users. As a result of the project, journal articles which are published parallel in institutional repositories will be integrated in the EZB Linking Service and offered to end users as alternative article links.
FASTR to be Considered by Senate Committee | SPARC
“After a month of intense conversations and negotiations, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) will bring the ‘Fair Access to Science and Technology Research (FASTR) Act’ up for mark-up on Wednesday, July 29th. The language that will be considered is an amended version of FASTR, officially known as the ‘Johnson-Carper Substitute Amendment,’ which was officially filed by the HSGAC leadership late on Friday afternoon, per committee rules. There are two major changes from the original bill language to be particularly aware of. Specifically, the amendment Replaces the six month embargo period with ‘no later than 12 months, but preferably sooner’ as anticipated; and Provides a mechanism for stakeholders to petition federal agencies to ‘adjust’ the embargo period if the12 months does not serve ‘the public, industries, and the scientific community.’ We understand that these modifications were made in order accomplish a number of things: Satisfy the requirement of a number of Members of HSGAC that the language more closely track that of the OSTP Directive; Meet the preference of the major U.S. higher education associations for a maximum 12 month embargo; Ensure that, for the first time, a number of scientific societies will drop their opposition for the bill; and Ensure that any petition process an agency may enable is focused on serving the interests of the public and the scientific community …”