Open Access means that scientific literature is made available free of charge on the internet, while the author's copyrights are protected. Open Access therefore allows the reading and downloading of entire texts and the printing of a private copy. Readers will have no financial, legal, or technical barriers to overcome; internet access is all that is needed. The authors retain their rights to their research work, while the public can freely utilise the publications. Numerous publishing houses allow their authors the use of Open Access, or have their own Open Access strategies. Open Access publications achieve far more visibility and are more likely to be quoted than traditional publications. The German Rectors' Conference, the Wissenschaftsrat, the Standing Conference, the German Research Foundation and the European Commission support this type of publications with increasing emphasis. Comprehensive information on the topic of Open Access can be found on the information platform open-access.net.empt

Open Access at the University of Göttingen

Göttingen University (including University Medical Center Göttingen) adopted an updated Open Access Policy (PDF 1,9 MB, in German only) in 2016 which ‘promotes and supports making the research results of its researchers as widely accessible and usable as possible. Open access publications should be used without access restrictions to support research and innovation in science, business and society in a direct and lasting way. Research funders including the German Research Foundation and the European Commission promote Open Access to scientific publications and research data. Mandates, such as the ones of the European Commission and the European Research Council, require all funded projects to publish their results in Open Access. This policy provides recommendations for Open Access at the University of Göttingen and complements the University’s research data policy.’ This policy replaces the Open Access Resolution (PDF 248 KB) of December 2005. It aligns its Open Access strategies with those of the Max-Planck Institute and other forward-looking universities. Göttingen State and University Library is a central partner in this endeavour, and responsible for the implementation, coordination, and continuation of the strategy within the university.

Göttingen scientists can also use the services of the Göttingen eResearch Alliance. They assist all researchers on the Göttingen Campus with eResearch related questions and data management. Göttingen State and University Library also participates in national and international projects, such as the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) and OpenAIRE. The EU Office at Göttingen University offers detailed information about the European Union Open Access Pilot on its web pages.

Many science organizations and political decision-makers are increasingly supporting this form of publication:

• The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany (KMK) call in their joint guidelines for Open Access to become the standard for publicly funded research. The guidelines are based in part on the cooperation with the Open4DE project led by the SUB Göttingen. In addition, the BMBF's Open Access strategy provides, among other things, for the funding of Open Access publication costs in BMBF projects.
• In the Council Conclusion High-quality, transparent, open, trustworthy and equitable scholarly publishing, the Council of the European Union (EU) calls on EU member states to support immediate unrestricted access to scientific research results in the publication system.
• In its statement, the German Research Foundation (DFG) welcomes the ‘trend-setting recommendations’ of the EU Council Conclusion for the further development of the scientific publication system and its infrastructures. Furthermore, in its own position paper, the DFG considers open access to published material to be an integral part of scientific publishing and calls for the publication of its funded results in open access in its funding guidelines.

Open Science aims at opening up research processes and granting access to research outputs to researchers, professionals and amateur scientists. Open Science covers several aspects: open access to publications, data and code, sharing of methodologies, open peer review, and open educational resources.

Overall, this enables research integrity, the public visibility and transparency as well as the reproducibility of research findings.

Göttingen University supports Open Science through its policies and support measures for its practical implementation. In November 2016 a joint policy on Open Access to publications (PDF 1.9 MB) (in German language) was adopted by the University of Göttingen and the University Medical Center Göttingen. This policy updates the Open access resolution (PDF 248 KB) (in German language) from December 2005. Similarly, a joint research data policy has been in place since June 2014. 

Moreover there are local initiatives based at faculty-level such as the Göttingen Open Source and Science Initiative of Psychology.

Initiated in December 2016, the Open Science Göttingen Meet-up brings together committed researchers and librarians interested in promoting Open Science principles at Campus Göttingen.

Everyone interested in Open Science is invited to join the quarterly meet-ups and the related working groups on practical aspects (e. g. "Hacky Hour", "Teaching Open Science").

SUB Göttingen coordinates a Carpentries working group on the Göttingen Campus. The working group regularly organizes workshops to teach foundational programming and data science skills for efficient, open and reproducible research and its applications. Visit our notepad to learn more about us and subscribe to our mailing list to receive updates. 

SUB Göttingen is a member of the Carpentries. We can therefore onboard new instructors who get an instructor training. If you are interested in becoming an instructor, please contact Hanna Varachkina (email) or Dr. Birgit Schmidt (email).

• Join the Open Science Göttingen mailing list
• The Open Science Göttingen Masterpad provides information about past and upcoming meet-ups, working groups, etc.
• At the monthly HackyHour we discuss digital tools and research approaches in an informal setting.
• The online course Open Educational Resources (OER) leicht gemacht introduces the basics of OER (the use of free licenses e. g.) (German only).
• At the first University of Göttingen's Brown Bag Lunch, Birgit Schmidt reported on Open Science Policies at the University of Göttingen [Slides | Report in the Göttinger Tageblatt].