94th Helmholtz Open Science Newsletter

1. Helmholtz Supports “Action Plan for Diamond Open Access”

The Helmholtz Open Science Office has signed the “Action Plan for Diamond Open Access” to strengthen publication infrastructures under academic ownership. The term “Diamond Open Access” covers financing and business models for publication infrastructures in which institutions, professional societies, and funding organizations ensure the operation of the infrastructure so that no costs are incurred by individual researchers for the reception and publication of scientific works. By signing the action plan, the Helmholtz Open Science Office emphasizes the relevance of open access publication infrastructures in academic sponsorship for research. The action plan was initiated by Science Europe, cOAlition S, OPERAS, and the Agence nationale de la recherche (ANR). In Germany, the action plan is, among others, supported by the German Initiative for Network Information (DINI) and the German Research Foundation (DFG).

2. New and Bold Open Science Policy in the U.S.

In August 2022, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) updated its 2013 Open Science Policy. A memorandum issued by the Biden administration obligates the U.S. federal agencies to enshrine open access to peer-reviewed publications and research data in their funding policies. In the area of open access, the current embargo period of twelve months will be abandoned. Research data, underlying a publication, must be made openly available at the time of publication if there are no restrictions. A report for the U.S. Congress sheds light on the reasons for these steps. In an interview with iRights, our team member Heinz Pampel explains the new policy. 

4. DINI Certificate for Open Access Publication Services 2022 Published

On the occasion of this year's DINI Annual Conference, the German Initiative for Network Information (DINI) published the "DINI Certificate for Open Access Publication Services 2022" (an English version will be soon available). It is the seventh edition of the catalog of criteria published since 2004 to standardize the publication infrastructure for electronic publishing and to promote open access-based forms of publication in the academic environment. The DINI certificate is the responsibility of the DINI working group "Electronic Publishing", in which the Helmholtz Open Science Office is also represented. The 2022 version of the certificate focuses on international networking, support for users as authors and recipients, and the sustainability of the service's infrastructure. To this end, the certificate has been, among others, expanded to include the specific requirements for certification of Austrian publication services. Further information.

During the Annual Conference, DINI members also elected a new board and a new main committee for the term 2022 to 2024. Among others, Roland Bertelmann, head of the Helmholtz Open Science Office, was elected to the board. Previously, Heinz Pampel, also from the Helmholtz Open Science Office Team, had been a member of the DINI board for many years.

5. FZJ Involved in Swiss Open Access Monitor

The Swiss Open Access Monitor provides information on the development of Open Access in Switzerland. According to the Swiss National Strategy on Open Access, Switzerland's scientific publications should be freely accessible by 2024. The monitor consists of the Journal Monitor (OAM-CH) and the Repository Monitor. OAM-CH indicates the publication volume of Swiss academic institutions in scientific journals. OAM-CH was developed by the Central Library of Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) on behalf of the Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries.

6. International Open Access Week 2022: “Open for Climate Justice”

The International Open Access Week 2022 will take place from October 24 to 30, 2022 under the motto "Open for Climate Justice". Numerous national and international events on the topic of openness in science will be held as part of the annual Open Access Week. This year’s theme seeks to encourage connection and collaboration among the climate movement and the international open community. Sharing knowledge is a human right, and tackling the climate crisis requires the rapid exchange of knowledge across geographic, economic, and disciplinary boundaries. As part of the International Open Access Week, from Helmholtz the Central Library of Forschungszentrum Jülich is offering several information events, and our collaborative project open-access.network has also created this overview of activities for International Open Access Week 2022 at other academic institutions. More information can be found here.

7. "Think. Check. Submit." with New Website

The Think. Check. Submit. website was relaunched in August 2022 with updated content and a new design. In more than 40 languages, information is provided on how to recognize dubious publishing offers ("predatory publishing"). Among other aspects, interactive checklists are provided to help authors find a trustworthy publication venue.

8. Celebrating Tenth Anniversary of re3data

The Registry of Research Data Repositories – re3data celebrates its tenth birthday this year. re3data is the largest registry of research data repositories and is used and recommended by researchers, funding agencies, publishers, scientific institutions, and other services worldwide. Great thanks to all those who have suggested new repositories for indexing or contributed in other ways to the development of re3data over the years. New posts on the DataCite blog as well as on the ZBW Media Talk blog honor the anniversary of service.

9. Open Source Software Brochure Updated

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) has published version 2.0 of its open source brochure (an English edition will be available soon). In addition to suggestions on publishing software as open source software, it contains recommendations on the use of various open source licenses and information on DLR's position on open source software. Thus, the new brochure can be a valuable guide for all organizations that come into contact with open source software one way or another.

10. Overview of Mirror Journals Published

A mirror journal or companion journal is an open access journal that is published as a counterpart to a closed access journal, using largely the same scope and editorial board. Because of the risk of “double dipping", funders exclude the payment of publication fees for these journals. With the participation of Forschungszentrum Jülich, a helpful list of mirror journals has been published. 

11. News from ORCID in Helmholtz

As of September 1, 2022, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research UFZ, among others, joined the ORCID Germany Consortium. With the UFZ joining, nine of the 18 Helmholtz centers are now represented in the consortium.

The ORCID Germany Consortium was established in 2016 as part of the ORCID DE project and, with 84 members (as of Sept. 2022), is one of the largest ORCID consortia worldwide. Universities make up the majority with 60 members, followed by 17 non-university research organizations - which include the Helmholtz Centers - and another seven scientific organizations.

The Helmholtz Open Science Office has been promoting the establishment of the ORCID iD in Germany from the very beginning. Since 2016, it has been a project partner in the ORCID DE project.

12. Briefing on Good (Digital) Research Practice and Open Science Translated to English

The German Research Foundation’s (DFG) Code of Conduct “Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice” has been in force since August 1, 2019. Open science aspects are of relevance to many of the guidelines contained in the Code. The Helmholtz Open Science Office provides the present guide for these aspects. Based on selected recommendations in the DFG Code, it describes in a practical way the relevance of open science when implementing the Code at the Helmholtz Centers. With this guide, the Helmholtz Open Science Office aims to provide an impetus for embedding open science in good (digital) research practice. This briefing has now been translated into English: https://doi.org/10.48440/os.helmholtz.052 (German version: https://doi.org/10.48440/os.helmholtz.027).

13. Federal Government's Digital Strategy approved – Data Access Rights under discussion

On August 31, 2022, the federal cabinet approved the federal government's digital strategy, which was developed by all ministries under the leadership of the Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport. The strategy identifies three fields of action: (1) Connected and digitally sovereign society, (2) Innovative economy, working world, science and research", and (3) Learning, digital state. A separate subchapter is devoted to the topic of "Science and Research" within the chapter on the field of action "Innovative Economy, World of Work, Science and Research." A broad spectrum of topics is addressed there, from increasing data literacy to leap innovation. One issue that has already become the subject of controversial debate is the establishment of data access rights for research. A key statement on this is: "In 2025, we want to be judged by whether a research data law has comprehensively improved and simplified access to research data for public and private research, and research clauses have been introduced." This goal can affect publicly funded research in two ways: New legal regulations can open up or facilitate access to data for researchers; at the same time, these same researchers may also encounter funding conditions in the future that regulate the public accessibility of data in a more binding way than is currently the case. In publicly funded science, efforts have been underway for years to make more research data publicly accessible. In contrast, the Federation of German Industries (BDI), for example, has been postulating for some time that the principle of voluntariness should be observed when designing regulations for sharing data of private companies.

14. Retrospective: Helmholtz Open Science Forum Publication Cost Management

On September 14, 2022, the Helmholtz Open Science Office hosted a forum on the topic of publication cost management. The virtual event was dedicated to the challenges of monitoring and analyzing publications and costs in the context of the open access transformation. Together with the speakers and about 50 participants from within Helmholtz, strategies and practices of the Helmholtz Centers and their libraries in this field of action were highlighted. A report documents the event: https://doi.org/10.48440/os.helmholtz.053 (German only).

15. Retrospective: open-access.network Workshops on Open Access Monographs

The first workshop "Über sieben Brücken musst du gehen – Realisierung von Open-Access-Buchprojekten aus der Perspektive von Autor*innen" in September 2022 has opened up the series of online workshops on the topic of open access monographs organized by the Helmholtz Open Science Office as part of the BMBF-funded open-access.network.The public event was aimed primarily at academic authors who want to carry out an open access (OA) book project and at staff who advise them. Around 70 participants discussed, among other things, funding opportunities and quality criteria for OA books. The presentation slides of the workshop have been published in open access and are linked on the event website.

A second workshop entitled "Open-Access-Transformation der wissenschaftlichen Buchproduktion aus der Perspektive von Institutionen" was held at the beginning of October 2022. The Helmholtz Open Science Office is involved in open-access.network as a project partner.

16. Retrospective: Open Access Days 2022

This year's Open Access Days took place from September 19 to 21, 2022. After being held online in previous years, this year's conference was once again in person, and took place at the Gurten in Bern, Switzerland.

The Helmholtz Association was widely represented with its contributions. Colleagues from Forschungszentrum Jülich reported on the development of an Open Access Monitor for Switzerland based on the model of the German Open Access Monitor, and colleagues from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) spoke about their experiences in co-publishing open access monographs. In the context of the ORCID DE project, in which the Helmholtz Open Science Office is also involved, a talk on "Persistent Identifiers in Open Access Publication Workflows" was given.

The Helmholtz Open Science Office was again represented in the program committee of the Open Access Days this year. In addition, colleagues from the DINI Electronic Publishing Working Group, together with our team member Antonia C. Schrader won second place in the poster competition with their poster on the DINI Certificate 2022.

The following Open Access Days will take place in Berlin.

Recommended Reading

Angelopoulos, C. (2022). Study on EU copyright and related rights and access to and reuse of scientific publications, including open access. Exceptions and limitations, rights retention strategies and the secondary publication right. European Commission - Directorate-General for Research and Innovation. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2777/891665

Anger, M., Wendelborn, C., Winkler, E. C., & Schickhardt, C. (2022). Neither carrots nor sticks? Challenges surrounding data sharing from the perspective of research funding agencies—A qualitative expert interview study. PLOS ONE, 17(9), e0273259. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273259

Arning, U., Bargheer, M., Meinecke, I., Putnings, M., Schobert, D., Tobias, R., & Winkler, M. (2022). Qualitätsstandards für Open-Access-Bücher. Arbeitsgemeinschaft Universitätsverlage. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7075761

Cadwallader, L., & Hrynaszkiewicz, I. (2022). A survey of researchers’ code sharing and code reuse practices, and assessment of interactive notebook prototypes. PeerJ, 10, e13933. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13933

Federer, L. M. (2022). Long-term availability of data associated with articles in PLOS ONE. PLOS ONE, 17(8), e0272845. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272845

Fischer, G. (2022). Im Ringen um Erkenntnis und Anerkennung: Wie Rechtswissenschaftler*innen das eigene akademische Publizieren im Zuge von Open Access sehen. RuZ - Recht Und Zugang, 3(1), 19–49. https://doi.org/10.5771/2699-1284-2022-1-19

Mittermaier, B. (2022). Das Informationsbudget – Konzept und Werkstattbericht. Preprint. https://hdl.handle.net/2128/31739

Open Knowledge Network Roadmap: Powering the next data revolution. (2022). National Science Foundation. https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/2022-09/OKN%20Roadmap%20-%20Report_v03.pdf

Rooryck, J. (2022). Plan S: estimating future developments. Science Editing, 9, 149–154. https://doi.org/10.6087/kcse.281

Ruediger, D., MacDougall, R., Cooper, D., Carlson, J., Herndon, J., & Johnston, L. (2022). Leveraging Data Communities to Advance Open Science: Findings from an Incubation Workshop Series. Ithaka S+R. https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.317145