Different ways in Open Access publishing

Initial release

The initial publication of scientific information as open access in journals, monographs and collections enables immediate free and permanent access to publications.

Funding

In addition to the regular literature funds, the UB manages a DFG-funded publication fund. The aim is to support authors by paying publication fees (e.g. Article Processing Charges: APCs) for Open Access publications (journals, monographs and collective works).

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DuEPublico

(Duisburg Essen Publications Online)

The central document and publication server of the University of Duisburg-Essen. University members can use DuEPublico to publish initial releases as well as secondary publications in open access. In addition, DuEPublico offers the possibility to publish openly accessible teaching materials, OER as well as research data.

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Open Journal Systems (OJS)

With OJS, the UL provides a system through which editorial processes for the production of an collected work or a journal can be represented. OJS allows editors, reviewers, authors, etc. to participate in the editorial process in their various roles, so that OA publications can be produced smoothly and professionally.
 

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Secondary publication

Academic libraries offer their users access to numerous online publications for which a fee is charged. Nevertheless, it often happens that online access fails due to the "paywalls" of the publishers, since licensing all publisher publications is not financially viable for any institution. The UDE has also cancelled the subscription to its Elsevier journals in the context of the DEAL negotiations.

An alternative to publisher publications behind a paywall is secondary publication on websites or in scientific repositories, also known as the "green road of Open Access". This provides free, open access, for example on DuEPublico.

Secondary publication is subject to legal conditions, embargo periods, and different manuscript versions. Here we have compiled some information for you on how to make your articles available worldwide as a second publication in open access or how to find second publications.

The DuEPublico team will support you in checking the legal conditions and will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Legal conditions for secondary publications of journal articles

Ideally, you can find the legal requirements for a possible secondary publication in the author contract.

You can find an overview of the publishing conditions for secondary publication of journal articles on the SHERPA-RoMEO platform. While these notices are not legally binding, in most cases SHERPA-RoMEO also provides links to the relevant publisher pages. The information on the publisher's pages usually provides reliable indications as to whether, from when, where and with which version a second publication is possible.

Please note: If you are about to sign a publishing agreement with a publisher, agree on the right to publish a digital copy of your work in an institutional repository (after an embargo period, if applicable).

Based on Section 38 UrhG, the secondary publication of journal articles, or more precisely: articles in a collection that is published periodically at least twice a year, is possible under certain conditions. Further information can be found in the following section.

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Section 38 UrhG

Section 38 of the German Copyright Act (UrhG) regulates the secondary publication of contributions in a collection that appears periodically at least twice a year. According to this provision, unless otherwise agreed, an author may reproduce his or her work (in the Author's Accepted Manuscript (AAM) version) elsewhere after one year has elapsed since publication (paras. 1, 2 and 3). Contributions that originate from research activities, at least half of which were supported by public funds, may even be republished if the publisher has been granted an exclusive right of use (para. 4).

The prerequisite for this is that the publisher has a branch office within Germany. This applies, for example, to the following publishers: Springer, Wiley, Budrich, De Gruyter, etc.

Legal conditions for secondary publications of monographs and articles in monographs

Unfortunately, unlike journal articles, there is no legal basis in copyright law for the secondary publication of monographs, nor is there a service such as the SHERPA RoMEO platform. This is mainly due to the fact that the conditions per monograph and publisher are very individual, so that such a list could not be reliably compiled.

If the articles have already been published, we recommend contacting the publisher directly to find out the conditions for secondary publication.

Ideally, the possibility of a secondary publication, for example after an embargo period, should be contractually agreed before publication of the article or monograph!

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Publication on DuEPublico

The following information should be available for secondary publication:

  Can it be published secondarily at all?
  Which version of the article can be republished?
  At what point in time after the first publication can the article be republished (Embargo)?

Publication workflow:

  • Please create a document on DuEPublico. Indicate as "Info on primary publication" in which publisher publication the final article appears / has been published.
  • Upload your PDF file.
  • Send us the signed DuEPublico author's contract.
  • If desired, the DuEPublico Team will be happy to assist you in checking the legal conditions.
    The document can be published immediately or, if necessary, after the embargo period has expired.

DuEPublico contract: In case of a secondary publication via DuEPublico, you grant the University of Duisburg-Essen the non-exclusive right to electronically store, make publicly available and distribute your publication.

If there is an embargo on the secondary publication, you are welcome to upload your AAMs and the DuEPublico contract to DuEPublico or send them to the DuEPublico Team even before the embargo period ends. Of course, the publication will only take place after the embargo expires.

The DuEPublico Team thus relieves you of the burden of meeting the respective deadlines and offers you the fastest possible open access publication of your research results.

Manuscript versions

Different versions of an article are created in the course of the publication process, not all of them may be republished!

Preprint: Manuscript submitted to the publisher (not yet reviewed)..
 

Postprint / Authors AcceptedManuscript (AAM): The manuscript has gone through the publisher's review process. The article is ready for publication, often only the final publishing layout is missing.

Published Version / Version of Record (VoR): Article in final publishing version.

 

The info page of "Open Access Button" helps you to distinguish between the different manuscript versions.

You will also find "Direct2AAM", a tool for finding your author manuscripts on the publishing platforms if you have not saved the AAMs locally.

How to find secondary publications

If you are looking for alternative versions of an article hidden behind a paywall, there are proven free tools:

Have your Google Scholar search results list "all versions" of an article, and you may find manuscript versions that are freely available.

Install the browser extension "Unpaywall" (currently available for Firefox and Google Chrome) and have it display accessible article versions for you with one click.


Another Unpaywall offering is the OA search by DOI in the "Simple Query Tool", where you can search for up to 1000 DOIs simultaneously.

Users of iOS and Safari (macOS) as well as Google Chrome can find OA versions of articles using the "Open Access Helper" app.

You can also conveniently search for secondary publications of articles on the "Open Access Button" page. The "Open Access Button" is also available as a browser extension for Firefox and Google Chrome..

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Please note:
All contents on these pages are for information purposes only and are not legally binding.