OPEN ACCESS
In the meantime, it has been about ten years since the Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau has offered a range of services that have to do with electronic publications and open access service. It all began when the Berlin declaration was signed, a document which supports open access to academic knowledge. It also served in establishing an open access policy in 2007.
All publications produced at the Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau are on record at PubLister, the university’s online bibliography. Full texts of open access publications are published in DINI certified open access repositories. Furthermore, the university library helps university faculty, employees and students to implement Green Open Access by verifying whether they have the right to publish elsewhere.
Open Access Repository
Faculty, staff and students at the Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau can publish scientific articles and research papers and post them on the public domain. This repository contains more than 650 articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, reports, theses, as well as other types of documents. All documents are sent to the German National Library in order to assure long-term access and the greatest possible visibility and circulation.
In many cases, the library takes care of uploading and publishing the documents for the authors. The number of publications each year has grown consistently in the past years. The articles in the repository were downloaded more than 47,000 times during 2016.
Green Open Access
In 2016 we introduced a new service for users searching on Green Open Access. Green Open Access describes the simultaneous release of publications that have already appeared in a closed access journal, such as a professional or institutional repository. There are a number of legal aspects that must be considered while using this green service, for one, which can be looked up on SHERPA/RoMBO.
In the library, we analyze lists of publications submitted by university faculty and compile an overview about when (after a reasonable period?) and in what way (publisher’s PDF?, a pre-print?, a post-print?) a subsequent publication is allowed. If there is a case that seems to be unclear, the library takes over and liaises with publishers. This support system is designed to help make as many publications as possible available accessible free of charge. Alternatively, these publications would otherwise only be available to those that have a costly subscription or are paid for individually.
User Statistics of the University Repository 2016
PubLister
Publister is a public, openly accessible online university bibliography and gives an overview of all publications written at the Technical University of Applied Sciences. The university publication policy gives a set of guidelines, as to what exactly may be published. Publications can only be accepted once these pre-requisites are fulfilled. This policy allows for a clear, consistent and first-class basis for the Publister database.
The library receives ongoing information about new publications through weekly alerts from a number of different databases and also through a networking system of researchers at the university called, Research Gate. This information is then compared with the data on Publister.
Approximately 1600 publications could be found on Publister up to April 2017. The largest share at 68% consisted of journal articles, conference proceedings held 13 % and book chapters made up 11 %. One-fourth of all publications on Publister are open access contributions.
Looking into the Future
After attaining the DINI Certificate 2013, we are planning to apply for the updated version of the 2016 certificate this year. Therefore, the library will be up-to-date concerning top-notch, dependable repositories.
In the coming Winter Semester 2017/2018, there are plans to install the Open Journal Systems Software (OJS) to be used for the Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau’s open access academic journal. This open source software, which is used for administration and publication purposes of electronic academic journals, should help minimize the editorial workload. As a result, this should influence the journal’s image outside of the university favorably. The library will be in charge of hosting the software. The workflow will be decided on in collaboration with editorial staff and we shall be available for any questions pertaining to OJS.
We applied for a research grant for open access publishing from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) ,(German Research Association), in order to support university faculty not only through Green Open Access, but also on the golden open access path. With the help of this support program, we are applying for funds for 2018 and 2019, in order to establish a publishing fund where Technical University of Applied Sciences faculty members can be compensated with publication fees for publications in golden Open Access journals.
