Open Access

Open Access at Helmholtz

The Helmholtz Association was one of the initial signatories of the "Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities" in 2003. This document constitutes the basis for the open science activities of the Helmholtz Association.

The Helmholtz Association operates a distributed repository infrastructure that the Centers maintain as part of their publication management to promote open access (e.g., by making accessible self-archived publications and original open access publications). To promote open access, the Centers have entered consortium agreements with publishers pertaining to aspects of Open Access publication fees. 

The Helmholtz Association also participates in international consortia such as SCOAP3. Furthermore, the Helmholtz Association is a partner in the internationally recognized DEAL project of the Alliance of German Science Organizations and supports the international OA2020 initiative to promote the Open Access transformation. Helmholtz Centers also publish their own publications and operate their own open access publishers. In the increasingly relevant field of diamond open access and science-led publishing, there are numerous activities and contexts within the Helmholtz Association.

The open access rate of the Helmholtz Centers is surveyed annually by the Helmholtz Open Science Office and is part of Helmholtz's internal key figures. For the publication year 2022 it is approx. 84 % across Helmholtz (as of most current survey from 2024).

Implementation of Open Access at the Helmholtz Association

Open Access is implemented in the form of Gold Open Access and Green Open Access. Both of these routes are pursued equally at the Helmholtz Association. The Helmholtz Centers actively promote a variety of projects furthering Open Access on a national and international level. For example, the national Open Access Monitor is operated at Forschungszentrum Jülich.

The advancement of Open Access is also supported through the collaboration of the Helmholtz Open Science Office in third-party funded projects such as e. g., open-access.network and Transform2Open or in the Priority "Digitality in Science" of the Alliance of German Science Organizations.