Useful information for publishers

Why publish open access?

Research only has an impact when results are visible, verifiable, and reusable. The importance of open and transparent scientific communication is steadily increasing in the international research landscape. Open access makes it possible to make research results immediately and permanently freely accessible. This allows results to be picked up, discussed, and further developed more quickly. Many studies also show that openly accessible publications are read and cited more frequently.

For researchers, open access means above all:

• greater reach and visibility for their own work – regardless of licensing barriers, archives, or institutional access
• better connectivity for their own collaborations, third-party funded projects, and international cooperation
• greater transparency and traceability, increasingly demanded by funding organizations and specialist communities
• permanent availability through secure repositories and stable identifiers

Types of open access journals

• Gold open access journal (also known as fully open access): All articles in the journal are published in open access and publishers are charged publication fees, known as article processing charges (APC).
• Hybrid journal (also known as Open Select, Open Choice, etc.): The journal gives publishers the choice of whether or not their individual articles should be published in open access. Only some of the articles in the journal are published in open access; the remaining articles are behind a paywall and are only accessible to subscribers.
• Diamond open access journals: All articles in the journal are published in open access and publication is free of charge for publishers and readers.

Journals that exclusively publish articles in open access (gold and diamond) and have undergone a quality review are listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).

Dubious journals and conferences

So-called predatory publishers offer to publish scientific articles for a fee, but do not carry out any quality assurance process, or only an inadequate one. Often, the content is not indexed in relevant specialist databases and is therefore not received by the specialist audience.

In principle, exchange with colleagues in the field is indispensable, as they are also the target audience for your publication.

At Think.Check.Submit. you will find checklists that can serve as a guide if you are unsure whether your chosen journal is a high-quality journal.

Publication of a publication

First publication

In order to publish a publication, you must grant the publisher rights of use. If possible, make sure to grant only a simple right of use and not an exclusive right of use. This allows you to continue to decide how you want to use the work. This is not the case when granting exclusive rights of use.

Secondary publication

Many publishers and journals allow you to publish your work elsewhere even after granting exclusive rights of use, enabling you to make a so-called secondary publication of your work, e.g., in the institutional repository Open Access LMU. This can be done either in the published form or in a different version, either simultaneously or after a waiting period of several months. Specific information on individual publishers and journals can be found in the open policy finder, your publishing contract, or on the publishers' websites.

Information on other legal aspects can also be found on the website of open-access.network

Financing of publications

The LMU University Library has concluded agreements with several publishers regarding publication fees, thereby enabling discounts or free publication for corresponding authors from LMU. The conditions under which you can publish open access with these publishers can be found under Publication Fees.

Funding opportunities are available for articles in gold open access journals, monographs, and anthologies through the LMU Open Access Fund.

Open content licenses

Open content licenses are standardized contracts that allow copyrighted works to be used free of charge. Different licenses are suitable depending on the type of publication (text publication, software, research data, etc.). Information on this can be found on the pages of open-access.network

Affiliation

Publications by LMU scientists should be clearly attributable to Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Please therefore note the information on indicating affiliation.

Persistent Identifier

Persistent identifiers are used to clearly identify authors, publications, and institutions and their relationships to each other. Use these to make your research identifiable, visible, and permanently citable.

Important examples in an international context are:

• Research Organization Registry (ROR) https://ror.org/ for research institutions
• DOI https://www.doi.org/ for the permanent citability of publications
• Open Researcher and Contributor ID ORCID https://orcid.org/ for researchers

Further information can be found on the page Your research profile.

Information on DFG-funded research projects

Information on providing funding acknowledgements from the DFG can be found on the website of the German Research Foundation (DFG). Contact persons who can provide you with comprehensive advice on your third-party-funded research project can be found in Division VIII.3 Research Funding.

Your rights and obligations when publishing

Observe copyright law

Works of literature, science, and art are subject to the provisions of copyright law. They enjoy protection under the law, unless the author has explicitly agreed to other arrangements.

Observe good scientific practice

In Germany, freedom of research is guaranteed by the constitution. This freedom comes with the obligation to act responsibly and honestly. All members of LMU Munich who are involved in research are obliged to observe the principles of good scientific practice (LMU Munich regulations for ensuring good scientific practice, PDF (in German)). When working independently on your own research project, it is therefore essential to be familiar with the specifics of scientific work and the rules of good scientific practice.

VG WORT

The collecting society WORT is a legally recognized association in which authors and publishers have joined forces for the joint exploitation of copyrights. Authors of literary works, among others, are eligible to participate in the distributions of VG WORT.

After concluding a free representation agreement (in German) with VG WORT, it depends on whether the works published by the rights holder meet the requirements for distribution as specified in the VG WORT distribution plan.

Avoiding plagiarism

Plagiarism in the scientific community has been a much-discussed topic for several years. To avoid accusations of plagiarism, please observe the rules of good scientific practice.