Open-access policy of the Leibniz Center for Contemporary History (ZZF), Potsdam.

Background

Open access stands for unrestricted and free access to quality-controlled scholarly information on the Internet. By eliminating technical, financial and legal barriers, open access helps accelerate scholarly innovation processes and improve the visibility of research results. This supports researchers in their work and publication while enhancing the benefit of publicly funded research. As a member of the Leibniz Association, the Leibniz Center for Contemporary History (ZZF) in Potsdam is committed to the principle of open access. The following will outline the Open Access Policy of the Leibniz Association, 2016-2020. The ZZF has years of experience in the area of open-access publishing. With its specialist portal “Zeitgeschichte-online” established in 2004, the print-Internet hybrid “Zeithistorische Forschungen / Studies in Contemporary History,” and the online reference work “Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte” in existence since 2010, the institute has well-established open publication platforms that are continually evolving. Moreover, retrodigitized monographs and edited volumes have been available to a specialist public at the institute’s own document server since 2016.

Recommendations and obligations

The ZZF encourages its scholars to publish their research in the spirit of the open-access principle. This occurs directly at the ZZF if possible by means of publishing in open-access media and – as far as legally possible – by making these publications available at parallel document servers (repositories) at the same time or as rapidly as possible. In the case of direct open-access publication, the institute recommends publishing under a free user license allowing for non-commercial use, with permission from the author and/or provider (ZZF) only being required in the case of republications.

In the case of parallel or subsequent open-access publication, scholars at the ZZF are urged when concluding contracts with publishers not to grant them exclusive rights of use on publications but – if possible – to secure their own permanent copyright and transfer a non-exclusive right of use to the ZZF for open-access publication. This enables publishers to use the work commercially while also guaranteeing free access. The ZZF encourages its scholars to obtain external funding for open-access publications when applying for projects. For the ZZF publication series “Zeithistorische Studien,” “Geschichte der Gegenwart,” “Medien und Gesellschaftswandel im 20. Jahrhundert” and “Kommunismus und Gesellschaft,” agreements were reached with the respective publishers enabling open-access publication of their monographs and edited volumes with a Moving Wall delay of two years in most cases.

Implementation

The ZZF promotes open access by:

• operating its own document server as part of the overall service provided by „Zeitgeschichte digital“.
• identifying and making available on its document server the publications of its scholars in cases where their free access is legally permissible;
• listing at LeibnizOpen the freely available publications of its scholars;
• offering its scholars funding opportunities to offset the publication fees of open-access publication media, e.g., through a publishing fund;
• operating the open-access publication outlets „Zeithistorische Forschungen“, „Zeitgeschichte-online“,
„Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte“, „Visual History“ as well as playing a vital role in editing the „H-Soz-Kult“ information and communications platform for historians;
• informing and advising its scholars about open access as well as offering its support in clarifying any legal issues in connection with the open-access publication of their research.
To this end the ZZF has created the position of an open-access contact person:

Contact:Karsten Borgmann Tel. 0331 28991 16

Stand: 07.05.2019