Publishing Open Access

As part of its Open Access Policy and the Excellence Strategy, RWTH supports the Open Access model in accordance with the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities. In particular, RWTH has concluded a number of open access agreements with academic publishers (esp. as part of the DEAL initiative), from which you as readers and authors can benefit. Since 01.01.2024, an open access publication fund is available, which can be used to cover the costs of open access publication. Furthermore, in many cases authors are additionally relieved by central invoicing to the University Library. You can find more detailed information on this, esp. on the possiblities of cost coverage, on the University Library website. The service is available to all authors who are employed at the Faculty of Medicine or the University Hospital.

The DFG also expressly supports Open Access and participates in the financing of the publication fund.

Information on a large number of Open Access journals can also be found in the Directory of Open Access Journals. Open Access journals that fulfill a number of quality criteria are included in this database after application. This quality assurance also offers a certain degree of protection against predatory journals.

If you would like to find out about the open access policies (e.g. embargo periods and costs) of journals, e.g. about the framework conditions for secondary publication, you can do this using the Sherpa Romeo tool.

Diamond Open Access

Diamond Open Access (DOA) refers to a model in which both publishing for authors and access to publications for readers are free of charge. Such journals are typically supported by academic institutions, professional societies, or funding organizations. The model is designed to counter commercialization, lack of transparency, and misguided incentive structures, and aims to promote autonomy and quality in academia. For this reason, many institutions and stakeholders are working toward a shift toward more DOA.

(Image: Farquharson, Jamie (2022). Diamond open access venn diagram [en SVG]. figshare. Figure. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21598179.v1)

The DFG’s Diamond Open Access Service Center (SeDOA) provides support, advice, and resources—you’ll also find regular events on this topic here. You can search for Diamond Open Access journals via the EU-funded Diamond Discovery Hub: Home | Diamond Discovery Hub

This section lists journals that meet at least the following six criteria

• Persistent identifier (e.g., ISSN)

• Scholarly journal

• Open access with open licenses

• No author fees

• Open to all authors

• Community-owned