Macht und Entscheidung im Publikationswesen
Der freie Zugang zu Publikationsmöglichkeiten und zur Rezeption wissenschaftlicher Erkenntnisse – wie ihn das Modell des Diamond Open Access im Kern vorsieht – sollte Leitprinzip bei Förderentscheidungen sein. Bislang ist das aufgrund vielfältiger Interessenlagen nur eingeschränkt möglich. Die maßgeblichen Akteure verfügen aber schon jetzt über Entscheidungsräume, um Förderentscheidungen stärker an DOA-Prinzipien zu orientieren. Perspektivisch kann ein gemeinsames und zielgerichtetes Handeln einen echten Wandel im Publikationswesen bewirken.
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Open Access Done Right
Diamond Open Access is the latest big thing in academic publishing, promising salvation from a rigged system. But a flashy label alone will not save us if we are not willing to address deep-rooted and newly emerging problems of a system that has largely failed in terms of quality, power, and trust.
Continue reading >>Rechnungshof statt Redaktionsschluss
Journale wie aus dem Jahr 1665, Preise wie bei MrBeast-Meet&Greets, Datenschutz wie bei Facebook, Verlässlichkeit wie bei TikTok-Lifehacks: Warum es höchste Zeit war, dass die EU die Wissenschaft befreit. Wenn man sie denn lässt.
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The Revolution Will Not Be Institutionalized
The academic publishing system is expensive and generates staggering profits for a few enterprises, while they outsource a considerable amount of the work to the scientific community. Despite ever-growing criticism, there appears to be no alternative to those commercial structures, but measured against the nearly 400-year history of modern scientific publishing, they are quite new and only emerged after the Second World War.
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The Revolution Will Not Be Institutionalized
Das wissenschaftliche Publikationssystem ist teuer und beschert einigen Unternehmen schwindelerregende Profite, während sie einen beträchtlichen Teil der Arbeit an die Wissenschaft auslagern. Trotz stetig wachsender Kritik erscheinen die kommerziellen Strukturen als alternativlos, aber gemessen an der fast 400-jährigen Geschichte des wissenschaftlichen Publizierens sind sie recht neu und haben sich erst nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg herausgebildet.
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Beyond Copyright
Open Access is seen as a terrific opportunity for researchers to spread knowledge at unprecedented speed and increase society’s wider participation in cultural life. In contrast, traditional publishing models, with their rigid market dynamics, are aimed at rewarding rightsholders but feature visible contractual asymmetries that put researchers’ freedoms at stake, an imbalance that Second Publication Rights aim to redress.
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Who is In, Who is Out?
In our blog post “Access Denied”, we informed the research and Open Access (OA) community about Verfassungsblog’s removal from the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). With the publication of our appeal – which was ultimately rejected by DOAJ – we also announced our intention to initiate a broader discussion with DOAJ and the OA community about the directory’s admission and removal processes. As DOAJ is a central and established instrument in the Open Access movement, we believe this discussion is vital. To enable an open and constructive conversation, I will revisit the arguments from our appeal and connect them to broader issues of Open Access publishing, funding, and DOAJ’s role in this process. Since Matt Hodgkinson, Head of Editorial at DOAJ, has recently published DOAJ’s response, I will engage with some of his key points.
Continue reading >>Access Denied
In January 2025, we were notified that Verfassungsblog had been removed from the DOAJ, our subsequent appeal was rejected. We want to take this as an opportunity and initiate a debate about standards, formats, and diversity of the Diamond OA publishing community. As a first step, DOAJ has kindly permitted us to publish our appeal as well as their appeals decision so that our community and partners are able to follow the respective reasonings.
Continue reading >>Money, Trust and Tools
Verfassungsblog faces the same challenges as any independent, non-profit, and community-led publication platform committed to Diamond Open Access (DOA). Recently, two projects were launched to strengthen DOA as a publishing model across borders and with a global reach. I attended the kick-off conference in Madrid to find out what we can learn from their approach, how we can benefit from their results and in what ways we can get involved to help shape the future of academic publishing.
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