114th Helmholtz Open Science Newsletter

Issue of April 29, 2026

Dear Open Science enthusiasts,

This is the latest issue of the Helmholtz Open Science Newsletter brought to you by the Helmholtz Open Science Office. With this newsletter, we provide you with a regular overview of the most important open science developments.

We appreciate you forwarding this newsletter to anyone interested.

1. A New Era for Open Research Europe: Germany Joins European Alliance for Cost-Free Open Access Publishing
2. Federal Constitutional Court: Requirement for secondary publication in Baden-Württemberg’s Higher Education Act is void
3. New Study highlights the economic power of Open Science
4. Research Assessment at Helmholtz: Insights from a Cross-Center Survey
5. DFG guidelines for AI use in reviews
6. Standards for data usage by AI models: CC signals and RSL
7. PID4NFDI: Recent Developments
8. Monitoring Open Science: Insights from EOSC Track on Open Research Software
9. More Institutions Drop Citation Database Subscriptions in Light of Open Science Commitments and Rising Costs
10. On our own behalf: Hands-on-Labs and Talks at BiblioCon 2026
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1. A New Era for Open Research Europe: Germany Joins European Alliance for Cost-Free Open Access Publishing

Open Research Europe (ORE), an open-access publication platform that was previously only available for publications from the EU Framework Programmes for Research, is expanding. Starting this year, a consortium of research and funding organizations from eleven European countries, including Germany, will support ORE. As a result, all researchers working at German research institutions will be able to use the platform free of charge, likely beginning in fall 2026. The Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR) serves as Germany’s contractual partner in the consortium, while the German Research Foundation (DFG) is responsible for implementation at the national level. ORE will be technically operated by CERN, which has extensive experience with such infrastructures (e.g., Zenodo). ORE continues to operate according to the “Publish-Review-Curate” mechanism, in which articles first undergo an integrity check and are then reviewed openly through a peer-review process. More information is available in press releases and articles from the DFG and CERN, as well as directly from ORE. ORE’s new website is also now available.

On May 7, the Helmholtz Open Science Office is hosting an event on the topic of Diamond Open Access at Helmholtz and Beyond, at which Victoria Tsoukala (European Commission) and Kamran Naim (CERN Open Science) will speak about Open Research Europe, among other topics. Please feel free to register for the event here.

2. Federal Constitutional Court: Requirement for secondary publication in Baden-Württemberg’s Higher Education Act is void

The Federal Constitutional Court has declared the requirement for secondary publication in Baden-Württemberg’s Higher Education Act to be null and void. Thus, the state regulation lacks the constitutional basis that was intended to allow higher education institutions to require academic staff to engage in mandatory secondary publication through their statutes. The provision now declared void was introduced in 2014 by the state of Baden-Württemberg in its Higher Education Act with the intention of enabling Baden-Württemberg’s higher education institutions to mandatorily implement the right to secondary publication (Zweitveröffentlichungsrecht; § 38 (4) UrhG), which had been introduced at federal level a year earlier. In 2015, the University of Konstanz became the only university to date to implement this option in its own statutes. This met with resistance: 16 professors at the university (mostly from the law faculty) took action against it, initially within the university in 2016 and then in 2017 by filing a so-called constitutional review action against the statutes with the Higher Administrative Court of Baden-Württemberg. Due to the overarching constitutional and copyright – and thus federal – relevance, the Higher Administrative Court referred the case to the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe for a ruling. The proceedings had been pending there since 2018 – until now.

3. New Study highlights the economic power of Open Science

A recent study by the Technopolis Group, commissioned by PLOS, clarifies where economic value is created in the Open Science ecosystem and identifies the conditions necessary for its success. The report outlines six main findings that demonstrate how openness serves as a mechanism for productivity:

Reuse at Scale: Open science delivers significant economic benefits - potentially increasing long-run GDP by 2% - when research outputs like data and code are designed for broad reuse.
Efficiency Gains: The most immediate benefits arise from shortened research timelines and reduced duplication of effort, driven by shared standards and infrastructure.
Innovations: Open infrastructures act as catalysts for innovation, creating "spillover" value in sectors far beyond the original research context.
Network Effects: The value of open resources compounds over time; as more researchers contribute to and adopt shared workflows, the cumulative benefit to the ecosystem grows.
Uneven Cost Distribution: A significant barrier to scaling remains the mismatch between those who bear the costs (researchers and libraries) and those who reap the broad societal benefits.
Systemic Underestimation: Current measurement tools capture only a fraction of the value created, leading to a systematic underestimation that can result in underinvestment.

The study concludes that moving beyond traditional articles and addressing structural barriers is essential for a sustainable, high-impact research landscape. For further details, the Executive Summary and full report are available on the PLOS website.

4. Research Assessment at Helmholtz: Insights from a Cross-Center Survey

In support of research assessment reforms, the Helmholtz Open Science Office and the Helmholtz Working Group Open Science established the cross-cutting Helmholtz Task Group Research Assessment in March 2025. This bottom-up initiative aims to inform researchers and leaders about national and international developments in research evaluation, raise awareness of ongoing reform efforts within the Helmholtz Association, and provide a forum for the development of new quality-oriented evaluation approaches and tools. To support these goals with empirical insights, the Task Group conducted a short cross-center survey among Helmholtz researchers and research-related staff.

The survey aimed to explore current perceptions of research assessment practices and future priorities for evaluation criteria. Conducted as an anonymous, cross-center questionnaire, it gathered substantial input from researchers and research-related staff across the Helmholtz Association.

The results indicate a shared interest in moving toward more value-oriented evaluation approaches, alongside notable differences across disciplines and career stages. Overall, the findings provide useful insights for ongoing reform efforts, such as developing modular CV formats, revised evaluation guidelines, and center-level implementation strategies at Helmholtz, and contribute to broader international discussions on the future of research assessment, including initiatives such as Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA). The dataset and an accompanying data paper are publicly available.

The Helmholtz activities also resonate with broader international debates on moving “from metrics to meaning” in research assessment. For additional context, see a recent interview with Mathijs Vleugel with OpenAIRE.

5. DFG guidelines for AI use in reviews

The DFG has updated its guidelines on the use of AI in reviews. In an earlier statement from 2023, the use of AI was permitted in the preparation of funding proposals (subject to conditions such as transparency regarding the manner of use), but was excluded from the preparation of reviews.

In a new decision at the end of 2025, the use of AI in reviews will now also be permitted under certain conditions. It is emphasized that AI is permitted only in a supporting role. The requirements are: confidentiality, i.e. ensuring that the contents of the proposal are not permanently stored in the AI system, transparency (disclosure of use), quality assurance and the fact that responsibility for the content remains with the authors. The guideline can be found here.

The new regulations took effect on April 16, 2026. A whitepaper provides context for the latest developments and explains the reasoning behind the decision.

6. Standards for data usage by AI models: CC signals and RSL

Large AI models are primarily trained on open web content. Existing methods that allow creators to ensure their works are used in accordance with their intentions are reaching their limits. Various initiatives are seeking to respond to these developments. The IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), the organization behind key internet standards such as HTTP and robots.txt, is working on a shared technical foundation. Its "AI Preferences" (AIPREF) working group, established in early 2025, is developing a standardized vocabulary that enables website operators to communicate in a machine-readable way whether and how their content may be used by AI systems. Notably, AIPREF deliberately defines only the language, not enforcement or compensation. Two different approaches build on this vocabulary. One of them is CC Signals, introduced by Creative Commons in June 2025. CC Signals are designed to allow creators to signal differentiated preferences regarding the machine-based use of their works. So far, four signals have been proposed: Credit, Direct Contribution, Ecosystem Contribution ("monetary or in-kind support to the Declaring Party" or "the ecosystem"), and Open (requiring that the AI model using the content is open). However, CC Signals are intended more as a "social contract" and are not legally binding in many cases.

Another approach is Really Simple Licensing (RSL). The standard is backed by a coalition of major publishers and over 1,500 additional media organizations. In December 2025, the RSL 1.0 specification was published, aiming to regulate how content is used by bots. Extending the yes/no approach of robots.txt, RSL also communicates usage and compensation terms, among other things.

It remains an open question, however, how effective the implementation of these approaches will be, particularly with regard to the dominant AI companies.

7. PID4NFDI: Recent Developments

As part of its ongoing integration phase, PID4NFDI is currently driving several community-focused activities to refine its portfolio before the end of the year. Researchers and data managers are encouraged to participate in two user studies running until the end of April to enhance the project's PID selection tool and the PIDINST federated search for instruments.

The project team is also seeking community feedback on the DataCite linked-data schema namespace, which introduces stable identifiers (IRIs) to improve metadata interoperability. These practical efforts are complemented by new publications, including a guidance document for instrument PID metadata and a report on embedding PIDs into Data Management Plan (DMP) and Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) workflows—a collaboration now evolving into joint incubator projects with the basic service Terminology Services 4 NFDI (TS4NFDI).

Additionally, a community workshop on IGSN Use Cases will take place on June 4, 2026, to discuss hands-on experiences with sample identification across the NFDI. To join the online workshop, please register here.

PID4NFDI is developed as a basic service for the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) and is funded through Base4NFDI. To ensure the long-term impact of these efforts, the project has applied for its third and final ramp-up phase, which aims to transform these developments into sustainable, reliable services supporting researchers across all scientific disciplines.

8. Monitoring Open Science: Insights from EOSC Track on Open Research Software

EOSC Track is a Horizon Europe-funded project dedicated to monitoring the implementation of Open Science across Europe. To this end, the initiative aims to evolve the EOSC Open Science Observatory into a comprehensive, user-friendly tool for policymakers. The dashboard provides streamlined analytics on key areas such as publications, open data, data management, open software, and persistent identifiers. Current analytics from the dashboard reveal, among other insights, that only 32% of EU countries have policies in place to support Open Software—a figure that highlights significant room for growth.

Within the Helmholtz Association, this development is already being actively advanced, with seven Helmholtz Centers currently maintaining publicly accessible software policies. The Helmholtz Open Science Office systematically supports these processes to increase the visibility of Open Research Software as valuable research output and promote quality assurance. In line with these efforts, the OS Office will contribute to the first Research Software Day for Berlin and Brandenburg on June 3rd with a presentation titled "Unveiling the Iceberg: Enhancing the Quality and Visibility of Research Software at Helmholtz," showcasing pathways to increase the quality and recognition of scientific software.

9. More Institutions Drop Citation Database Subscriptions in Light of Open Science Commitments and Rising Costs

More academic institutions are canceling subscriptions to major citation databases as budgets tighten and institutions reassess value. Lately, several universities have announced they will end subscriptions to Web of Science, Scopus, or both, citing rising costs and and a commitment to open research information. The latter is often connected to institutions having signed the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information, which includes the commitment of making openness the norm for the research information they use. The Sorbonne University and the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in France were one of the first institutions after the release of the Barcelona Declaration to cite these reasons publicly and unsubscribe from Web of Science (Sorbonne) and Scopus and Web of Science (CNRS), respectively. Several Dutch universities followed in late 2025 and unsubscribed from Web of Science (Utrecht University, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, University of Twente), while still keeping their subscriptions to Scopus, however. After the Universities of the Netherlands association recently signed the Barcelona Declaration, this process is set to continue.

It is clear that such decisions align with many institutions' intentions of gradually switching to open bibliographic tools that are more in line with its open science efforts. Furthermore, given the pressure to prioritize resources as well as overlap between research information products, the trend also suggests that institutions often no longer see it as necessary to subscribe to multiple services when one can cover much of the same ground. These budgetary considerations recently lead to similar actions at West Virginia University and at the University of Jyväskylä, both stating reviews and comparisons of cost, usage and coverage – with Web of Science coming out on the short end. Under these circumstances, institutions are increasingly turning to free and open research information sources, such as OpenAlex or OpenAIRE, which often even have considerable advantages in coverage and analytical possibilities, and are getting better daily.

10. On our own behalf: Hands-on-Labs and Talks at BiblioCon 2026

The Helmholtz Open Science Office will be represented at BiblioCon 2026 in Berlin from May 19 to 22, presenting on various topics and in the context of several projects and working groups. On the first day, interested attendees can gain practical insights into the latest DINI Certificate for Open Access Publication Services and the certification process in the hands-on lab “Von der Theorie zur Praxis: DINI-Zertifizierung zum Mitmachen”; and in a hands-on lab on copyright and legal issues in open access and open research, participants can bring their own practical legal questions and learn about new ones (registration is requested). In addition, a talk from the project OA Datenpraxis will provide an overview of international open access dashboards. On the second day, a talk on reforms in research evaluation will showcase current approaches and perspectives from the Helmholtz Association; the project OA Datenpraxis also shows up again with a hands-on lab on tracking your institution’s publication output using open data sources. The third day features three talks from us: on scenarios for the open access transformation from the project Open Access Scenario Analyses (OASA), on open research information in light of data sovereignty and fair research evaluation, and on persistent identifiers and the PID Roadmap for Germany from the project PID Network Germany.

FOR 2026 Conference

May 4 to 6, 2026, Munich

This conference brings together scientists, activists, and policymakers in Munich to discuss the future of open research.
72nd Helmholtz Open Science Online Seminar

May 7, 2026, 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

72nd Helmholtz Open Science Online Seminar: Putting Publishing Back Into the Hands of the Scientific Community – Diamond Open Access at Helmholtz and Beyond
114.BiblioCon2026

May 19 to 22, 2026, Berlin

The congress will be held under the motto “Analog meets algorithm.”
Research Software Day Berlin & Brandenburg

June 3, 2026, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Berlin

The Research Software Day is a collaborative event by BUA, de-RSE, and the "Matters of Activity" Cluster.
PID4NFDI Community workshop on IGSN Use Cases

June 4, 2026, 10 a.m. to 01 p.m., Online

PID4NFDI invites you to an online workshop on IGSN use cases and to discuss the use of PIDs for physical objects.
Helmholtz Codes!

November 4 to 6,2026, Dresden

HiRSE, HIFIS & HIDA, now joining forces with the OS Office & the Helmholtz Head Office, are hosting the second instance of the 3-day Helmholtz Codes! Workshop.