Open Access Policy

Preamble

¹ The Georg-August-Universität Göttingen and the University Medical Center Göttingen (hereinafter: University) supports and promotes Open Access for scientific publications. ² It strives to make all its published research results available in Open Access.

³ Open Access publications can be used without access restrictions. ⁴ This directly and sustainably promotes research and innovation processes in science, industry and society and applies to all types of publication. ⁵ Science funding bodies such as the German Research Foundation and the European Commission demand and promote Open Access to scientific publications and research data. ⁶ Mandates such as those of the European Commission and the European Research Council make the implementation of Open Access mandatory for all funded projects.

⁷ Thisguideline sets out a general framework of recommendations for Open Access at the University and supplements the research data policy adopted by the University. 
⁸ TheUniversity respects the principle of free choice of publication channels, which is protected by academic freedom. ⁹ It recommends weighing up the options on the basis of disciplinary publication cultures, the data protection requirements of the respective research subject and the individual career situation of the authors. ¹⁰ Researchersfrom all disciplines are, however, advised to critically examine the quality assurance in the respective journals before publishing and to refrain from submitting to dubious journals and editors. ¹¹ Thiscan damage one's own career and that of co-authors, as well as weaken the publication lists and thus the chances of success of research consortia. ¹² In addition, a system is supported that is primarily aimed at maximizing the number of publications without sufficient quality assurance.

Rules and regulations

(1) ¹ Researchers at the University of Göttingen publish independently in compliance with the University's Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Scientific Practice (German), the Affiliation Policy and its disciplinary standards. ² Thisincludes a careful selection of the publication medium based on subject-specific quality standards as well as striving for the greatest possible public availability of their own results, as realized in Open Access.

(2) University institutions are required to engage with Open Access practices in their disciplines and to actively participate in the implementation of Open Access, for example by encouraging their university members to take responsibility for Open Access publication channels or to make the institutions' evaluation practices Open Access-compatible.

(3) ¹ Authorsshould not assign exclusive rights of use when concluding publishing contracts. ² They should at least expressly secure simple rights of use for the distribution of their publications in Open Access.

(4) ¹ Authors should provide the University of Göttingen with a copy of their publication at the time of publication if possible and grant the right to archive it in the publication data management GRO.publications and make it publicly available. ² This applies in particular to publications that are not yet available elsewhere in the final version in Open Access permanently and citable via an Open Access repository. ³ These publication profiles can also be easily integrated into the university's website via GRO.publications. ⁴ Whenarchiving, a version should be selected that can be made available Open Access without delay. ⁵ Thisapplies to all publication types.

(5) Authors are required to use the support of the University of Göttingen and funding organizations to realize Open Access.

(6) If costs are incurred for Open Access publication, these are to be included in the third-party funding projects (e. g. German Research Foundation, European Commission), covered by the institutions' budgets or applied for via the University's central publication fund.

Implementation

(1) ¹ The University advises and supports its researchers in the practical implementation of Open Access, publishing contracts, licensing and copyright issues and compliance with publication-relevant requirements from third-party funded projects. ² Theseservices are located at the Göttingen State and University Library (hereinafter referred to as SUB Göttingen). ³ Furtherinformation and contact persons can be found on the SUB website.

(2) When publishing, the University recommends the use of established Open Access licenses (e. g. Creative Commons), if possible directly with the publisher's publication or a copyrighted manuscript version on Open Access repositories.

(3) ¹ In addition, the University supports its researchers in exercising their right to secondary publication, subject to an embargo period of 12 months (Section 38 (4) UrhG). ² The academic secondary publication right applies to contributions which have appeared in a collection (e. g. journal) which is published periodically at least twice a year and which have been produced in the context of at least half publicly funded research.

(4) ¹ If publication costs are requested in projects, the SUB Göttingen will assist in calculating the requirements. ² In additionto such decentralized publication funds, the University operates a central publication fund. ³ The support is provided within the framework of the available funds and the allocation guidelines of the funding bodies.

(5) ¹ TheUniversity operates its own institutional and subject-specific Open Access infrastructures for the management and provision of publications and contributes to national and international infrastructures and standards. ² Inparticular, it supports open access publication infrastructures that do not incur any direct costs for the authors ("Diamond Open Access").

(6) The University runs the Göttingen University Press, which publishes books in Open Access and supports the establishment of Open Access series and journals.