Open access and publishing

Unrestricted access to scientific information for everyone, everywhere, free of charge – that is Open Access.

Reutlingen University’s OA Policy

Open Access (OA) improves the provision of information to the academic community, facilitates the transfer of research findings to industry and enables easy access to knowledge and information. Freely accessible open access publications are also open to innovative analysis and evaluation. Through the continued use of scientific findings, new research approaches and innovations are made possible.

Reutlingen University supports the expansion of open access through providing the relevant infrastructure, procedures and contacts. The University advocates that, for the benefit of science and society, research results be made universally accessible without restrictions.

Reutlingen University encourages its authors to present research findings in peer-reviewed OA journals with relevant quality assurance measures and to publish monographs and anthologies with OA publishers or on OA platforms.
Reutlingen University calls on its authors to deposit, where possible, academic papers in the University’s repository. The repository aims to provide a complete overview of Reutlingen University's publications.
In the case of closed access publication, Reutlingen University recommends avoiding granting exclusive rights of use to the publisher and reserving at least a non-exclusive right to make the work available to the public, so that you are still able to deposit it in the Reutlingen University repository.
The interests of researchers, partners and clients shall be safeguarded: the protection of data rights and copyright and the observance of rules of academic practice are a matter of course. Discipline-specific differences in publishing are also to be taken into account.

The University Library is the university-wide contact point for all questions relating to open access.

Reutlingen University's open access policy serves as a recommendation. Freedom of science also includes the free choice of publication. The promotion of open access does not restrict the academic freedom of researchers.

As stated by the Executive Board of Reutlingen University on 05.04.2017.

Reutlingen University's Open Access Policy

Teaching materials free of charge, to be used, edited and distributed – these are Open Educational Resources (OER).

Reutlingen University’s OER policy

Open Educational Resources (OER) are “teaching, learning and research materials […] that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open licence that permits no-cost access, use, adaption and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions”.

The open licensing of OER enables the simple continued use and reworking of the material. This reduces the effort involved in creating teaching and learning materials and facilitates the adaption of these materials to the needs of the students. OER makes new collaborative and participative forms of teaching and learning possible and can make the teaching expertise of the University visible, both regionally and internationally.

1. Reutlingen University recommends its members to use, create and publish open educational resources (OER). In line with Reutlingen University’s goals, OER can make a substantial contribution to the digitisation of teaching and the development of teaching and learning culture. OER also promote students’ personal responsibility and digital competence. When using, creating and publishing OER, the rules of good scientific practice, copyright regulations and the requirements of open licences must be observed.

2. Reutlingen University recommends its members to publish OER with a CC-BY licence or a CC-BY-SA licence. Other Creative Commons licences (e.g. restricting commercial use) or other open licences may be used if necessary or appropriate in that case. This particularly applies if the license terms (of the third-party content used in the materials) so require.

3. Reutlingen University recommends that the teaching materials be published in a manner best able to increase their visibility and reusability. The Central OER Repository of the state universities in Baden-Württemberg (ZOERR) is recommended as the preferred place of publication. A reference to teaching materials published elsewhere can also be made on the ZOERR.

The University Library is the university-wide contact point for all questions on open educational resources.

As stated by the Executive Board of Reutlingen University on 27.03.2019.

Reutlingen University's OER Policy

The Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts (MWK) in Baden-Württemberg supports open access publishing with a funding programme, which is managed by the Konsortium Baden-Württemberg’s office.

Funding requirements:

You are a member of Reutlingen University and are the “submitting author” or “corresponding author” of the article
The article appears in an open access journal that has a strict quality assurance procedure. You can find an overview of such journals in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
Articles in hybrid journals are not eligible for funding
The publication fee does not exceed 2,000€ (gross)

Click here for the application form

Reutlingen University participates in the German DEAL agreement with the academic publishers Wiley and Springer Nature.

When you, as an employee of the university, publish in a “Gold” open access journal from Wiley or Springer Nature, you will receive a 20 percent discount on the listed publication fee. The costs of the open access publication are borne by the university.

If you are an employee of the university and choose to publish in a Wiley or Springer Nature journal, choose “open access” as the license option. We recommend a “CC-BY” license. The costs of the open access publication are borne by the university.

Springer Nature - Information for authors

Wiley - Information for authors

The University Bibliography is the central database for publications by authors at Reutlingen University. It is also our repository for both primary and secondary publication of research results as open access.

The university library and RRI work together closely to provide all relevant information for the annual research report. Our goal is for all publications produced at Reutlingen University to be listed, based on what is reported to us by the authors.

Guide: Reporting your publications

ORCID is an organisation that provides researchers and authors with a unique ID (ORCID iD). An ORCID iD ensures that your publications can be correctly attributed to you as a researcher, regardless of whether your name is spelt differently, whether someone else has the same name as you or whether your name changes. We recommend that you register with ORCID: as well as quickly becoming an international norm, many publishers and funding agencies require you to provide your ORCID iD when you submit publications or proposals.

In the University Bibliography, a link is also provided from your publications to your ORCID record.

Find out more about using ORCID iD

With the support of the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts, Tübingen University Library created the Central OER Repository of the state universities in Baden-Württemberg (ZOERR), which it operates as a service for all universities in Baden-Württemberg. Reutlingen University has been a partner in this project since 2017.

Teachers at Reutlingen University can publish their teaching materials in ZOERR and thus make their teaching achievements more visible.

Publication guide (german)

video on using ZOERR