110th Helmholtz Open Science Newsletter

Issue of August 13, 2025

1. Strategy of the Alliance of Science Organisations for the Advancement of Scholarly Publishing

The Alliance of German Science Organisations has published its strategy for the advancement of academic publishing for the period 2026–2030. The strategy focuses on evaluating and shaping developments in the dynamic field of scholarly publishing, preparing for further negotiations with publishers (especially DEAL), and establishing scholar-led open access infrastructures. A central element is the identification and evaluation of models for collaborative or distributed funding to support permanent, professional, and quality-assured publishing infrastructures at research institutions. The strategy is available in both German and English. The Helmholtz Open Science Office contributed to the development of the strategy and will accompany its further implementation.

2. Consolidation of open-access.network through the establishment of an association

The Open Access competence and networking platform has been in existence for over 15 years and serves as a central point of contact for information, exchange, and support relating to all aspects of Open Access in German-speaking countries and beyond. The platform offers scientists, libraries, and political decision-makers practical content, tools, and formats for skills transfer and is currently operated as part of the open-access.network project, which has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) since 2020. To ensure the long-term maintenance of the platform, its basic operations are to be converted into a community-based, permanent operation, for which the association open-access.network e. V. is to be founded. The founding meeting will take place on 17 September 2025 at the Open Access Days at the University of Konstanz. The Helmholtz Open Science Office is a project member of open-access.network and currently supports the establishment of the association. More information can be found here.

3. Royal Society of Chemistry Abandons Goal of 100% Open Access

The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) has announced the withdrawal from its goal of a full open access transition of its journal portfolio. In a statement, the RSC says that a singular approach to the open access transformation is no longer feasible. According to the RSC, the decision was made as a result of feedback from their global partners and the “diverse needs of our global community”, but also due to the growth of AI tools “adding fresh urgency to long-standing questions around licensing, attribution, and the governance of openly accessible research”. The RSC had originally announced in October 2022 to make their entire journal portfolio open access by 2028. Just last year, RSC and the Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB) had signed a four-year transformative open access agreement covering a consortium of 77 German research institutions, which was supposed to gap the duration until RSC’s 100 % open access transition.

Such developments are examples of the challenges and volatility in scholarly publishing and the Open Access transformation. The project Open Access Scenario Analysis (OASA), recently awarded funding by the German Research Foundation (DFG), will adress such issues. The aim of the project is to analyze various financial development prospects in the field of open access and assess their potential impact in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the opportunities, challenges, and risks involved in the further development of the open access transformation.

4. Survey on Institutional Tracking of Publication Costs

As part of the DFG-funded project OA Datenpraxis, the results of a recent study on the management of publication costs at research institutions in Germany have been published (in German). The survey, developed in dialogue with the DEAL initiative, gathered responses from 258 stakeholders responsible for the topic at universities, non-university research institutions, and federal research agencies.

The findings show that the majority of respondents at least partially track publication costs. However, procedures for doing so are not consistently formalized across institutions. Respondents assess the reliability of cost tracking differently depending on the source of funding. Most participants consider the collection of publication cost data to be “very important” or “rather important” for shaping the Open Access transformation. Nevertheless, the collected data do not serve as the basis for strategic decisions at all institutions. The implementation of an information budget by 2025, as proposed in the recommendation of the German Council of Science and Humanities, is regarded as unlikely at most institutions.

5. Collection of Dashboards on Open Access

In the DFG project OA Datenpraxis, the landscape of open access dashboards has been mapped and analyzed over the last few months. The result is a collection of almost 60 dashboards relating to open access, which were categorized using a specially developed metadata schema. The dashboard collection and the associated metadata schema can be viewed on the project website. All interested parties are cordially invited to contribute to or expand this collection. Suggestions for additions or modifications are welcome.

6. Progress in Open Science Monitoring

The international conference “Open Science: Monitoring Progress, Assessing Impact”, organized by UNESCO, OpenAIRE, PathOS, EOSC Track, the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, the National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology and OSMI, took place from 7–8 July 2025 at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.

The conference provided a platform for global experts, policymakers, and practitioners to share knowledge and shape the future and address implementation challenges of open science monitoring: the concept note outlines the objectives and motivations of the participating organizations, and the talks and presentations have been published here.

The Principles of Open Science Monitoring, created by UNESCO and the Open Science Monitoring Initiative (OSMI) were published in July 2025 and presented at the conference; these principles align with the 2021 UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science and create a framework for open, transparent, consistent, and FAIR open science monitoring frameworks. The Helmholtz Open Science Office actively monitors the OSMI activities and partakes in a task group on the open science monitoring landscape.

7. Progress and Further Support for Open Research Information

The Wellcome Trust, one of the largest funding institutions in the field of health research, has signed the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information and committed to taking a leading role in transforming the use and production of research information. At the same time, the British foundation announced that it would fund the freely accessible research information database OpenAlex with £2.9 million over a period of three years. One of the aims is to improve links between funding grants and scientific works in order to support impact monitoring.

The news came shortly after more than 200 participants from over 35 countries attended the Bologna Meeting on Open Research Information to reflect upon activities and results as well as to discuss the priorities and next steps for the Barcelona Declaration community. The meeting was held in the context of the 5th Workshop on Open Citations and Open Scholarly Metadata, which this time focused on open research information and featured many contributions on current developments and challenges in the field. More information on the Bologna Meeting on Open Research Information is available in a published report.

The Helmholtz Open Science Forum on Open Research Information, which took place in April 2025, was also dedicated to the topic of open research information. The forum offered members of the Helmholtz Association a space for information and exchange. It covered the Barcelona Declaration, presentations of activities within Helmholtz, and discussions among Helmholtz stakeholders on the state of research information and possible future activities within Helmholtz as well as on general challenges and opportunities of open research information. The report published by the Helmholtz Open Science Office gives insights into the event.

8. Policy Paper on Open Science and Research Assessment

As part of the Alliance Initiative on Digitality in Science, the policy paper “The future development of assessment processes for research activity in the context of open science” has been published. Among other aspects, the paper emphasizes the urgent need for infrastructures and competencies to ensure digital sovereignty in the area of research assessment. An excerpt from the paper states: “Information systems that support the documentation and evaluation of research activities should therefore, in future and in the form of a common good, be open, freely usable, science-led, created while giving consideration to legal and ethical restrictions, and operated in a sustainable manner.” The paper is available in both German and English. The Helmholtz Open Science Office was actively involved in the responsible task force of the Alliance. Ongoing activities on this topic are currently being pursued within the Alliance's Interest Group on Reputation and Incentives.

9. Metascience 2025: Providing a scientific basis of how science is conducted and evaluated

At the Metascience Conference 2025, UK Minister of State for Science in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Lord Vallance, opened with a bold vision: the scientific method should, in the future, underpin all systems, policies, and processes of government-funded research. This reflected a year of progress since the launch of the UK Metascience Unit, which has so far funded 23 international collaborative projects on a broad range of metascience topics.

The conference took place from June 30 to July 2, 2025 at University College London (UCL) and brought together over 800 metascience researchers, policymakers, research managers, funders, publishers, and more - all sharing the same motivation: to improve how we conduct and evaluate science. This includes efforts to enhance the reproducibility of research, estimate and analyze impact, experiment with alternative forms of peer review and research assessment, monitor career paths, and explore ways to improve fairness and equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in funding decisions.

As the field continues to mature, several challenges surfaced during the various panels, including the shifting political and financial climate for research, the potential (political) misuse of metascience findings, and the possible reluctance of research and funding organizations to publish studies that highlight poor research practices. The conference also saw the launch of the Metascience Alliance, a new cross-sector coalition of organizations and initiatives aimed at fostering alignment and collaboration across the metascience field. The next Metascience Conference will take place in 2027 in Montréal (Canada) and will be organized jointly by the Tanenbaum Open Science Institute (TOSI) and the US-based Center for Open Science (COS). 

10. German Science and Humanities Council publishes recommendations for the further development of the NFDI

The agreement between the federal and state governments to promote the development of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) is intended to be reviewed by the German Science and Humanities Council. The report on this evaluation and the resulting recommendations for the further development of the NFDI, which are to take effect from 2028 onwards, were published in July 2025. In their report, the experts acknowledge the successes achieved. They acknowledge, in particular, that the development of the NFDI is science-led. At the same time, they recommend streamlining the associated complexity of the governance structures and strengthening the NFDI e. V. for this purpose, including by awarding funding through it. The German Science and Humanities Council also refers to the tension that arises from project financing for the desired sustainable and reliable infrastructure. Closely linked to the recommendation to establish longer-term funding is the reference to the rapidly increasing production of (research) data and the growing economic importance of its reliable provision, e.g., in the context of developing AI services. In this context, the goal of ensuring a certain degree of sovereignty and thus independence from decisions made by other states or market-dominating companies is addressed. The publication of the influential recommendations by the Science Council will motivate interested parties from science, politics, and business to contribute their positions on the further development of the NFDI and their interpretation of the recommendations to the discussion on their implementation.

11. PIDs as a chance for sustainable research software

Persistent identifiers (PIDs) play a key role in ensuring that (research) software is not only developed, but also recognized, reused, and usable in the long term. The DFG-funded project PID Network Germany has dedicated itself to this topic and organized a seminar on “PIDs for Software” on June 30, 2025 (Documentation).

The focus was on ensuring the recognition, reusability, and long-term usability of software with the help of suitable tools, infrastructures, and standards. To this end, the HERMES platform for systematic presentation and recording was presented. In addition, options for using permanent identifiers such as SWHID and DOI and for mapping software products in established standards such as the Integrated Authority File (GND) were presented. In addition to an introduction to national and international initiatives for dealing with research software, the interactive exchange made it clear that the implementation of PIDs for research software is associated with key challenges. In the audience’s view, in addition to the need for clearer guidelines and institutional incentives for reproducibility, long-term usability, and recognition, it became clear that integration into existing workflows requires careful planning. Especially, the synchronization of metadata and version management require special attention. Comprehensive documentation is also essential to ensure the reusability of software.

On September 15, 2025, PID Network Germany invites you to the seminar “PIDs for organizations and projects”. The focus will be on standards and infrastructures such as GND, GERIT, RAiD and ROR, which enable sustainable networking and visualization of research (registration).

Save the Dates

Recommended Reading

Brown, J., & Meadows, A. (2025). It's "ORCID and…," not "ORCID or…": How researcher identifiers work together to help researchers, build a better picture of research, and streamline administrative tasks. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15737460

Gee, B. (2025). The hunt for research data: Development of an open-source workflow for tracking institutionally-affiliated research data publications. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2507.01228

Jouneau, T., Verburg, M., Horton, L., van Geest, G., Tujunen, S., Kallio, J., Paulsen, T., Duvaud, S., Recker, J., Holthe-Tveit, Å. J., Thorpe, D. E., Conzett, P., Kleemola, M., Kalaitzi, V., Huber, R., Jonquet, C., Aguilar, F., Forshaug, A. K., Alaterä, T. J., & Esteves, E. (2025). FIDELIS landscape survey analysis (1.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15744996

Keller, P. (2025). Beyond AI and copyright. Funding a sustainable information ecosystem. Open Future. https://openfuture.eu/publication/beyond-ai-and-copyright/

Niederprüm, K., & Rosteck, A. (2025). Innovativer Ansatz eines Bibliothekshaushaltes in Zeiten publikationsabhängiger Lizenzverträge. o-bib – das offene Bibliotheksjournal, 12(2), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.5282/o-bib/6145

Reclaiming academic ownership of the scholarly communication system. Challenges and opportunities for universities. (2025). European University Association (EUA). https://www.eua.eu/publications/briefings/reclaiming-academic-ownership-of-the-scholarly-communication-system.html

Strecker, D., Pampel, H., & Höfting, J. (2025). Erfassung von Publikationskosten an wissenschaftlichen Einrichtungen in Deutschland. Bibliothek Forschung und Praxis. https://doi.org/10.1515/bfp-2025-0008

Streicher, J., Schütz, M., Blümel, C., & Schniedermann, A. (2025). Open Research Tools: Stand und Herausforderungen im Spannungsfeld von Forschungssoftware, Offenheit und digitaler Infrastruktur. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15771943

Imprint & License

Stay up to date