Open Access

Preamble

ZEW has gained a strong reputation as a non-profit economic research institute both within Germany and abroad for conducting internationally comparative investigations within the European context as well as constructing databases which form an indispensable basis for scientific research activities.

Research results are not only shared within the scientific community but also communicated to private companies, associations and economic policy-makers through studies and other publications, the media, and educational events. A central strand of ZEW’s mission is the transfer of insights gleaned from scientific research to the arena of politics and public debate. As a member of the Leibniz Association, ZEW is committed to Open Access and has set itself the objective of making quality-controlled research findings freely accessible to all.

This is in accordance with the “Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities”  and the “Open Access policy of the Leibniz Association”.

Aims and Concrete Measures

ZEW requests that its researchers publish their research findings in accordance with the principles of Open Access. This involves the publication of research findings in Open Access publication media as soon as feasibly possible. These publications should also – as far as the law allows – simultaneously, or as soon after initial publication as possible, be made accessible via document servers (repositories). For direct Open Access publication, the institute recommends publishing under a public copyright licence (currently e.g. Creative Commons Attribution).

In cases of simultaneous or subsequent Open Access publication, ZEW researchers are requested to retain the post-print version of the paper or demand it from the publisher to allow for publication under Section 38, Article 4 of the German Urheberrechtsgesetz (Act on Copyright and Related Rights).

As well as publications, ZEW also sees research data as a valuable product of its research activities and believes that this data should also be made publicly available for future use. ZEW will create its own policy for the handling of this research data and how it is to be made available.

ZEW encourages Open Access by:

• Identifying publications by research staff that can legally be made freely available (for example through integration with publication management) and uploading them to EconStor.
• Supplying publications by research staff that can legally be made freely available to the specialist economics document server RePEc for Open Access publication.
• Registering freely available publications by research staff on LeibnizOpen.
• Informing and advising research staff on Open Access as well as providing support with regard to legal issues arising from Open Access publication of their research findings. For this purpose, ZEW has created the position of Open Access Representative.
• Advising ZEW research staff on the variety of publication options open to them (online, print, Closed Access, Open Access, hybrid journals).
• Supporting research staff in the handling of publication fees.
• Documenting Open Access and/or secondary publications through publication management.