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105th Helmholtz Open Science Newsletter

Issue of October 18, 2024

1. On our Own Behalf: New Head of the Helmholtz Open Science Office

As of September, Dr. Mathijs Vleugel is serving as the new head of the Helmholtz Open Science Office. After completing his Ph.D. in biochemistry at Utrecht University, he worked as a scientific editor with Springer Nature and as a research policy expert at the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA). During his time at ALLEA, he coordinated the development of the 2023 revised edition of the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity, assisted in the implementation of the agreement of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA), and contributed to several policy statements at the intersection of Open Science, Research Integrity, and Research Assessment. Vleugel succeeds Roland Bertelmann, one of the founding fathers of the Open Science Office, who retired in July this year.

2. Memorandum on the Open Access Transformation at Helmholtz

The task group “Open Access Transformation” of the Helmholtz Association, together with the Helmholtz Open Science Office, have published a joint a “Memorandum on the Open Access Transformation at the Helmholtz Association” (”Memorandum zur Open-Access-Transformation bei der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft”; only available in German, an English version will follow). In the Memorandum, nine framework conditions are set out, each with a core requirement for the open access transformation, that will serve as an orientation framework within the Helmholtz Association for the assessment of future transformative agreements. Key requirements include obligations for an actual transformation (journal flipping), options for opt-outs for institutions, fixed cost caps for articles, more effective regulations to protect against data tracking in science, and strengthening scholar-led publication infrastructures. In addition, four “Next Steps” to promote the open access transformation at the Helmholtz Association are outlined, among them further measures for transparent information budgets and rethinking reputation mechanisms. The now published memorandum on open access transformation is issued by the working group "Open Science" and the working group "Library and Information Management" of the Helmholtz Association. It follows on from an initial, Helmholtz-internal position paper from 2021 and is intended to promote further discussion at Helmholtz and in the Helmholtz Centres. In addition, it is also intended to contribute to the further development of the German Alliance of Science Organisations' open access strategy as part of its focus area „Digitalität in der Wissenschaft“ and to the assessment of transformation processes within the wider open access landscape.

3. COS Updates its Guidelines on Transparency and Openness Promotion

The American Center for Center for Open Science (COS) has undertaken a major update of its Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP)-Guidelines. The TOP-guidelines are an influential policy framework designed to enhance the verifiability of empirical research claims in research. Specifically, the standards have been reconfigured and the levels for research practices have been streamlined so that they follow the same logical structure for all practices. Overall, the revisions provide more clarity and also address weaknesses that have been identified over the last 10 years of implementing the TOP-guidelines. The revised version of the guidelines has been published as a preprint.

4. Report from the Open Access Days 2024

As in previous years, the Helmholtz Open Science Office attended the Open Access Days in Cologne from September 10 to 12, 2024. In a report from the conference we share a glimpse of the extensive programme as well as the contributions of the Helmholtz Open Science Office.

A memorandum on open access transformation at the Helmholtz Association as announced in the Helmholtz Open Science Office's talk “Scholar-led Publishing – Perspectives for Research Institutions” (German : “Wissenschaftsgeleitetes Publizieren – Perspektiven für Forschungseinrichtungen”) was published now; see the news above.

5. New Proceedings Series in KIT's Own Scientific Publishing House KIT Scientific Publishing

The first issue of the Diamond Open Access Journal “Hydrogen Safety” has been published at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). This was part of the BMBF-funded ‘Diamond Thinking’ project, the aim of which is to establish relevant and high-quality scientific journals for the most important disciplines at KIT or to transfer existing commercial journals to the Diamond Open Access-model. The journal ‘Hydrogen Safety’ is an international journal that will henceforth be published as Diamond Open Access by KIT's own scientific publishing house “KIT Scientific Publishing”. This allows researchers to publish their works without having to pay Article Processing Charges (APCs) and readers to access the articles free of charge in PDF or XML format. The Funding for the journal is provided by the International Association for Hydrogen Safety (HySafe). The journal publishes research findings in the field of hydrogen safety.

6. Open Research Europe to be Further Developed with Open Journal Systems

The European Commission has selected the open source software Open Journal Systems (OJS) as the foundation for the further development of Open Research Europe (ORE). ORE is the European Commission's open access publication platform for results from EU-funded research with the principle of post-publication peer review, which has been in place since March 2021. The decision in favour of OJS, the well-known software of the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) for the management and publication of scientific journals with currently over 44,000 installations worldwide, was made in a tender procedure of the European Commission and is associated with a funding of €890,000 over two years. The decision was preceded by an analysis from last year, which examined the requirements for an open source-based infrastructure for ORE, as well as a recently published scoping report, which envisages the further development of ORE into a community-supported service for the public good. A keynote from the Open Access Days 2024 provides a deeper insight into the state of ORE.

7. cOAlition S Publishes Framework for Pricing in Academic Publishing

Back in August, cOAlition S published its “Pricing framework to foster global equity in scholarly publishing”. The international consortium, consisting of research funding and performing organizations, aims to provide an internationally applicable framework for pricing in scholarly publishing. The aim is to achieve more transparent and globally fairer financing of open access publications. The ongoing transition of scholarly publishing from the subscription model to open access has led to a situation where readers worldwide increasingly have access to publications, but more authors and institutions are confronted with financial obstacles in coping with Article Processing Charges (APCs). The framework aims to stimulate discussion, promote transparency and inspire publishers and other scholarly publishing service providers to introduce fairer pricing for economies of different strengths. To this end, interested publication service providers are provided with guiding principles, data, information and tools that can be adapted to their specific situation. In addition to the actual report, cOAlition S also provides its Excel-based More Equitable Pricing Tool.

8. International Open Access Week 2024

The International Open Access Week will take place again this year from October 21 to 27, 2024, with numerous national and international events on the topic of openness in science. As last year, this year's motto is once again “Community over Commercialization”.

On the occasion of the International Open Access Week 2024, also some Helmholtz Centres are organizing exciting events on various topics in the context of open access and open science. For example, the Central Library of Forschungszentrum Jülich is organizing partially public webinars. Here you will also find the events organised by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Moreover, for German-speaking countries open-access.network has compiled an overview of various events.

9. Data Tracking in Science

Tracking by academic publishers has been the subject of increasing criticism in recent years, as it has become a new business model for publishers (see, for example, German Research Foundation or Forschung und Lehre). A greater focus on data protection of personal data on the internet in general in recent years (keyword GDPR) has contributed to this, but also the DEAL contracts with Elsevier, Springer Nature and Wiley, which were newly concluded last year or concluded again this year, in which data protection has moved more into focus. In an interview with irights.info, Bernhard Mittermaier, Head of the Central Library at Forschungszentrum Jülich, explains the effects of data tracking for researchers, why data tracking is a particular problem for science and how researchers and libraries can protect themselves from it, at least to a certain extent. The interview was preceded by a detailed retrospective article on the data protection aspect of the DEAL negotiations, which was published in the journal Recht und Zugang. “Science Tracking” was already the topic of the 68th Helmholtz Open Science Online Seminar in February 2024.

10. Barcelona Declaration: Conference Reaffirms the Relevance of Open Research Information

In April 2024, the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information was published with the aim of making open research information the norm: Signatory institutions commit to a corresponding leadership role in transforming the use and production of research information to make openness the standard for the research information they use and produce (see Newsletter No. 104). Five months later, on September 23 and 24, more than 130 representatives of various stakeholders in the field of research information met at the Paris Conference on Open Research Information to discuss the current status of open research information as well as the activities, goals and further measures surrounding the Barcelona Declaration. On the first day of the conference, there was a wealth of exciting presentations from different perspectives: Research institutions explained their decisions to sign the declaration as well as actions taken so far, research funding and collaborating organizations presented their view on the subject, and infrastructure organizations and data providers presented use cases and challenges in research information. The second day focused on the future: the participants developed first concrete measures for a joint action roadmap to make the implementation of the Barcelona Declaration feasible for signatory and supporting organizations. This involved a number of fields of action such as metadata in current research information systems (CRIS) and the replacement of closed systems, but also evidence for benefits and the evaluation of open research information. Further work on these fields of action will now be continued in working groups.

The Helmholtz Open Science Office took part in the conference and will continue to follow the activities surrounding the Barcelona Declaration and expand networking with the stakeholders in order to continue to support and promote the exchange and discussion on the topic of open research information in the Helmholtz Association and its centers.

11. CoARA National Chapter Meeting Highlights Need for Exchange and Collaboration

As the international movement to reform research evaluation gains momentum, the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) continues to expand, approaching 700 members. On Tuesday October 8, representatives from CoARA’s German National Chapter gathered at the German Research Foundation (DFG) in Bonn to discuss recent developments at their institutions and their engagement with the coalition.

Throughout the day, participants emphasized the urgency of rethinking which activities, practices, and outputs we value in research(ers), and the opportunities this presents for developing tailored assessment procedures where excellence, good scientific practice, and societal responsiveness complement rather than compete with one another. Along these lines, various organizations presented their efforts to explore how qualitative evaluation methods, supported by the responsible use of quantitative indicators, can offer a more comprehensive view of scientific contributions and lead to fairer and more effective outcomes.

Concrete examples of these efforts were shared in the context of recruitment processes, such as the newly launched MERIT Portal at Charité in Berlin, and funding applications, exemplified by the DFG’s introduction of structured, narrative-style CVs. The discussions also highlighted the diversity of Germany’s research landscape, the limited resources individual institutions have to drive this transition alone, and the collective eagerness to learn from one another’s experiences. In this context, the National Chapter continues to serve as a platform for exchanging best practices within the German research ecosystem, while also contributing to and learning from the broader global CoARA community.

Save the Dates

  • September 10 to 12, 2024,  Cologne

    The Open Access Days are the central annual conference on Open Access and Open Science in the German-speaking area. They will take place from September 10 to 12,…

  • 18.-19. September 2024

    Die 25. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Initiative für Netzwerkinformation (DINI) findet an der Universität Potsdam statt und steht unter dem Motto "Gemeinsame Infrastrukturen für…

  • 30. September and 1. October 2024 in Dresden

    You can expect a varied programme consisting of presentations on current topics in the field of open source hardware, interactive workshops, discussion…

  • 21. - 27. October 2024

    Community over Commercialization

    Open Access Week 2024 will continue the call to put “Community over Commercialization” and prioritize approaches to open scholarship that…

  • 21-23 October 2024

    The EOSC Symposium 2024 will be a decisive event on the path to EOSC post-2027. It is a key event to network and exchange ideas with policy makers, funders, and representatives of…

  • 11. Novemer 2024, 9:00 am to 12:30 pm

    PID4NFDI is organizing a stakeholder workshop with the objective of gathering insights from participants regarding their experiences with PID implementation and…

Recommended Reading

Agi, C., Beurskens, M., von Francken-Welz, M., Ludwig, J., Mittermaier, B., & Pampel, H. (2024). Arrangements on artificial intelligence in licence agreements: Recommendations for action of September 2024. https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.13837688

Altschaffel, R., Beurskens, M., Dittmann, J., Horstmann, W., Kiltz, S., Lauer, G., Ludwig, J., Mittermaier, B., & Stump, K. (2024). Datentracking und DEAL. Zu den Verhandlungen 2022/2023 und den Folgen für die wissenschaftlichen Bibliotheken. RuZ – Recht und Zugang, 5(1), 23–40. https://doi.org/10.5771/2699-1284-2024-1-23

Genderjahn, S. (2024). Forschungsbewertung zwischen Kompetenzfeststellung, Anerkennung und Gerechtigkeit. Laborjournal, (31)7–8, 28–31. https://www.laborjournal.de/rubric/essays/essays2024/e24_06.php

Grattarola, F., Shmagun, H., Erdmann, C., Cambon-Thomsen, A., Thomsen, M., Kim, J., & Mabile, L. (2024). Gaps between Open Science activities and actual recognition systems: Insights from an international survey. SocArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/hru2x

Haustein, S., Schares, E., Alperin, J. P., Hare, M., Butler, L.-A., & Schönfelder, N. (2024). Estimating global article processing charges paid to six publishers for open access between 2019 and 2023. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2407.16551

Kubin, M., Sedeqi, M. R., Schmidt, A., Gilein, A., Glodowski, T., Serve, V., Günther, G., Weisweiler, N. L., Preuß, G., & Mannix, O. (2024). A data-driven approach to monitor and improve open and FAIR research data in a federated research ecosystem. Data Science Journal, 23(1). https://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2024-041

Pampel, H., Bargheer, M., Bertelmann, R., Kaden, B., Kindling, M., Schobert, D., & Wrzesinski, M. (2024). Thesen zur Zukunft des wissenschaftsgeleiteten Open-Access-Publizierens – Entwicklung und Diskussion in einem partizipativen Prozess. Bibliothek Forschung und Praxis, 48(2), 322–333. https://doi.org/10.1515/bfp-2024-0027

Pampel, H., Schrader, A. C., Vierkant, P., Dreyer, B., Glagla-Dietz, S., Hartmann, S., Schirrwagen, J., & Summann, F. (2024). Stand und Perspektive von ORCID in Deutschland. Bibliothek Forschung Und Praxis. https://doi.org/10.1515/bfp-2024-0014

Sharp, P. A., Bonvillian, W. B., Brand, A., Goldston, D., & Stebbins, M. (2024). The future of open research policy should be evidence based. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(32), e2412688121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2412688121

Vandendorpe, J., Adam, B., Wilbrandt, J., Lindstädt, B., & Förstner, K. U. (2024). Ten simple rules for implementing electronic lab notebooks (ELNs). PLOS Computational Biology, 20(6), e1012170. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012170

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