TIB Open Access Policy

Background

Open Access stands for unlimited and free access to quality-controlled scholarly information on the internet. Thanks to the elimination of various technical, financial, and legal barriers, Open Access has helped to accelerate academic innovation processes and to improve the visibility of research results. This supports scholars in their research and publishing and maximises the benefits of publicly funded research. As a member of the Leibniz Association, Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB) – German National Library of Science and Technology is committed to Open Access. It thereby adheres to the ideas set out in the “Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities”[1] and the “Guideline on Open Access within the Leibniz Association” (Leitlinie zu Open Access in der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft)[2].

Recommendations and obligations

Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB) – German National Library of Science and Technology expects its employees to publish their research results in accordance with the Open Access principle. This is to happen as directly as possible by publication in Open Access publications and – within legal limitations – by making the publications accessible via document servers (repositories) either in parallel with publication or retroactively as soon as possible. TIB recommends publishing under a free licence (currently Creative Commons Attribution).

To enable a concurrent or subsequent Open Access publication, TIB’s employees are requested not to grant exclusive rights of use to publishers when entering into a publishing contract. They should instead retain exploitation rights and should grant non-exclusive rights of use to repositories. This is the only means to secure Open Access use parallel to any commercial use by the publisher. TIB recommends to its employees that they include funding of Open Access publishing costs in their project grant applications.

Implementation

TIB promotes Open Access by

  • Identifying publications by its employees that can be made openly accessible and by publishing these works in repositories.
  • Indexing openly accessible publications by its employees in LeibnizOpen.
  • Providing funding to its employees to cover Open Access publishing costs.
  • Informing and advising its employees about Open Access and supporting them in clarifying legal issues concerning openly publishing their research.
  • Coordinating its Open Access services. For this purpose, TIB has established the post of “Coordination Open Access”.

Additional support (Appendix)

In addition, TIB supports Open Access by providing the following services:

  • It provides Open Access services for members of Leibniz Universität Hannover. These services include an institutional repository, an Open Access publishing fund, and comprehensive advice and training on Open Access, copyright, research data management, and scholarly publishing.
  • TIB operates the Leibniz Association’s Open Access Publishing Fund in cooperation with partners.
  • TIB’s employees are involved in numerous committees to help advance Open Access.
  • TIB is strongly involved in financing and enhancing the arXiv platform and the SCOAP³ project.
  • It negotiates Open Access clauses in contracts with publishers.
  • TIB makes its own teaching material and other information available under a CC BY licence.
  • TIB provides its own catalogue metadata under CC0 for reuse.
  • TIB’s commitment to the DOI Service and to DataCite ensures the allocation of DOIs for openly accessible research data and Open Access publications.

Contact

Marco Tullney
Publishing Services

Phone: +49 511 762-19513
Email: marco.tullney@tib.eu

Last amended: November 1st, 2016

[1] Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities. http://openaccess.mpg.de/3515/Berliner_Erklaerung

[2] Leitlinie zu Open Access in der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft. http://www.leibniz-gemeinschaft.de/fileadmin/user_upload/downloads/Infrastruktur/OpenAccess-Leitlinie.pdf

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