Open Access

“The golden Path”: First publication in Open Access

The golden path of open access publishing is defined as the first release of a scientific publication in a purely open access journal, as an open access monograph or as a contribution to an open access collective work. Those releases such like traditional publications are subject to a quality assurance process with peer review and are therefore scientifically accepted. The costs for publications via the golden path, the Article Processing Charge (APC), are to be paid by the author.

Recommended approach to publications on the golden path:

• Examine which open access journal that is subject to a peer-review-process is eligible for publication and at what cost.
• Submission of the publications to the selected journal. If the specified requirements are met, the publication costs can be covered or subsidized by the OA Fund of the University of Worms.

Hybrid Open Access: Publishing in Hybrid Open Access Journals

Depending on an author's decision whether an article should appear in open access, not the entire journal appears in open access, but only individual included articles are freely available in open access. Funding is usually provided by the Article Processing Charge (APC) to be supported by the authors.

Green path: Second publication in Open Access

The free second publication of a publisher's article represents the GREEN WAY of Open-Access-Publishing. The publication can take place via a university repository or a subject-specific open access server. Depending on the contractual agreement, the secondary publication expires either in parallel with the publisher's release or after the expiration of a blocking period. Preprints or Post prints are often made available in this way.

Recommended approach to publications on the green path:

• Verify that the journal to which you plan to submit your publication allows secondary publication.
• Submitting the publication to the selected journal.
• If the publication is accepted, it must be noted that the concluded author contract includes a right to secondary publication.

The use of scientific publications by another person as the author is regulated by prefabricated license agreements, so-called "Creative Commons". Their content is intended to ensure that the author retains full control over the rights granted. The type of license selected in each case determines how a publication may be used and what restrictions, if any, are placed on its use.

The following two types of licenses are frequently used in open access:

Creative Commons licenses can only be granted if a publication is not subject to any other usage rights (such as from a publishing agreement). Once a license has been granted, it can no longer be changed and its term of validity is governed by copyright law.

Further information can be found on the Creative Commons website. There you will also find the "License Chooser", a tool for selecting the right type of license for your publication.

1. DEAL-Springer Nature

The Alliance of German Science Organizations negotiates nationwide licensing agreements with major scientific publishers. Worms University of Applied Sciences participates in the DEAL agreement with the publisher Springer Nature. This agreement allows a combination of the advantages of a publication in a renowned journal with the extensive reusability of open access publications. In addition, the agreement includes permanent access to the full texts of all journal articles published by the publisher.

Possibilities for publication

1. Gold Open Access Journals: Approximately 600 journals for which all articles are open access.
2. Hybrid Open Access Journals (Open Choice Journals): The author can decide whether to publish in open access. Open Access publication fees are covered by the license agreement.
   • The contract allows open access publishing in approximately 1900 subscription journals.
   • In addition, publishing in more than 400 open-access-only journals are included in the contract.
   • Article will be published in a (hybrid) Springer Nature journal as of 01.01.2020.
   • Article types: "Research Articles” (=Original Paper, Review Paper, Brief Communication) and "Non-Research-Article" (=Editorial Notes, Book Reviews, Letters, Reports).

Who can publish under the contract?

All scientists at the university can use the open access options of the subscription journals as well as the open access journals of the publisher as "corresponding author". The conditions of the DEAL contract apply to their publications during the contract period.

What are the costs?

• • The publisher charges an authorized publication with a PAR fee (Publish and Read fee) in the amount of 2750€ (plus operating costs in the amount of 150€).
  • On the one hand, the PAR fee covers the open access publication rights and on the other hand, settles cost shares for full-text reading access.
  • Non-research articles are charged a PAR fee of 917€.

Further Information:

• DEAL Operations-Website
• Springer Nature Information Website for Corresponding Authors  <Available only in german>

Information on the eligibility of an article and on the current expenditure status of the university's publication fund can be obtained from the coordinator at Worms University for Open Access activities: Mr. Stephan Sabel

Requirements for the application:
⦁    Cover sheet: contact details of the applicant at Worms University of Applied Sciences, submission date, title of the Open Access publication.
⦁    The applicant must be clearly identified as the first author of the publication.
⦁    The application is understandable for non-specialists with academic training and comprises a maximum of  2 DIN A4 pages plus an appendix (font: Calibri, size 11).
⦁    Information on the OA journal: title of the journal, subject, publisher/publisher, place of publication, www address.
⦁    Abstract of the Open Access publication with a maximum of 1000 characters.
⦁    The application includes proof of the peer review process of the publishing journal and confirmation of manuscript acceptance by the publisher.
⦁    Receipts of publication fees (invoice or offer)
⦁    Sample copy of the Open Access publication as a printout, stating the URL and/or DOI of the publication (can be submitted later).
⦁    The publication explains the support by the publication fund of the Worms University of Applied Sciences.

Once an article has been accepted for publication in an open access journal, a written request to pay APC fees can be submitted to the OA Officer. The incoming request must meet all necessary award criteria.
If an invoice is already available at the time of application, it may be submitted with the attachment. The library will then arrange for payment of the share taken over directly from the university's publication fund.

The invoice has to meet the following criteria:

• Worms University of Applied Sciences (or a department or institution of the HS) must be the addressee of the invoice.
• The invoice must show net amounts.
• The VAT No. of Worms University of Applied Sciences (DE813351149) must be shown for invoicing parties located in the EU.

Worms University of Applied Sciences supports academics at the university who wish to publish papers in open access journals via an open access publication fund. The fund assumes 2/3 of the costs for article processing charges (Article Processing Charges <APC>). The third part is borne by the respective department. The maximum amount of funding for an OA publication of the HS Worms is € 2000.-

Grant applications can be submitted at any time. However, funding can only be provided as long as the fund's annual budget has not been exhausted.

Please notice:

• Only publications in which members of the Worms University of Applied Sciences are involved as "Submitting author" or "Corresponding author" will be funded.
•  Proof of the actual publication costs incurred is required.
• Only publications that appear in open access journals, which make their contributions available free of charge and unhindered via the Internet immediately after publication, will be funded.
• An application for funding an OA publication that has already been published, the publication must not date back more than 90 days.
• The journal selected for publication must have a peer review process and be listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).
• The publication must mention the support by the publication fund of Worms University.

Not eligible for funding:

• Articles whose open access publication is financed by third-party funding.
• Hybrid Open Access models of subscription-based journals (unless they are included in the DEAL agreement with the publisher Springer Nature).
• Subsequent activation of articles in subscription journals for OA access.

Article processing charge (APC. Also: Article publication charge)

Publication costs are expenses paid to external service providers, mostly traditional publishers, in connection with the publication of scientific articles.

Closed Access

With closed access, the use of scientific information is only possible for a fee.

Corresponding author

The corresponding author is the person who assumes primary responsibility for communicating with the journal during manuscript submission, peer review, and the publication process.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a non-profit organization founded in 2001 in the USA. It publishes standard license agreements that allow an author to easily grant the public rights to use their works. These licenses are not tailored to individual work types, but are applicable to any work that falls under copyright law. In this way, free content is created.

Fee Waiver

Open Access journals offer the possibility of waiving payment of the APC in individual cases or for certain groups of authors (e.g. for authors from certain poorer countries) or of passing on these costs to the authors paying the APC.

The golden path

The initial publication of a journal article in an open access journal where all contributions are openly accessible. These are primarily OA journals that use a peer-review process like conventional journals.

The green path

The secondary publication of a journal article in an open access repository, after or alongside publication in a closed access journal.

Hybrid journals

The journal receives income from subscriptions and additional income for those articles that are released for free or free use in exchange for payment from the authors.

Open access

The authors and the rights holders of such publications irrevocably grant all users the free, worldwide right of access to these publications and allow them to copy, use, distribute, transmit and publicly reproduce these publications - in any digital medium and for any responsible purpose - as well as to create and distribute adaptations thereof, provided that the authorship is correctly indicated.

Open Access journals

Scientific journals in which all articles are open access (either since inception or through a subsequent open access transformation).

Publish-and-Read-Fee (PAR-fee)

The publish-and-read fee reflects the annual German spending level for journal subscriptions converted to the assumed average number of published articles from Germany per year. PAR fees are intended to ensure not only a comprehensive supply of literature, but also adequate payment for the publication of an article and its permanent free availability via OA.

Peer review

A peer review is a procedure for quality assurance of a scientific paper by independent reviewers from the same field. Peer review is essential in today's scientific community to assess the suitability of a scientific text for publication and thereby ensure the quality of scientific publications.

Post-print

Refers to a published scientific article in manuscript form that has already passed through the peer review process of a journal or publisher.

Pre-print

A scientific publication that is already available to the public but has not yet been peer reviewed.

Read only

A write protection prevents that data can be deleted or changed unintentionally.

Repository

A repository is a managed place for storing ordered documents that are accessible to the public or to a restricted group of users. Repositories are often set up in the scientific field to make scientific work transparent and thus traceable.

Subscription

The terms "subscription" and "abonnement" are synonyms. A subscription is the regular purchase of a service, often for a fee.  The recipient of the service is the subscriber.