Open access has changed. At the beginning of the millennium, it was portrayed in a romanticizing way and was embedded in a conceptual ensemble of participation, democratization, digital commons and equality. Nowadays, open access seems to be exclusive: to the extent that commercial players have discovered it as a business model and article fees…[Read more]

This text was published as a book chapter in the publication “Praxishandbuch Open Access” (“Open Access Handbook”) edited by Konstanze Söllner and Bernhard Mittermaier. It reflects the current state of Open Access to text publications, data and software in the Social Sciences.

Publishing and bibliometric indicators are of utmost relevance for scientists and research institutions as the impact or importance of a publication is mostly regarded to be equivalent to a citation based indicator, e.g. in form of the Journal Impact Factor or the Hirsch-Index.
Performance measurement both on an individual and institutional…[Read more]

Open Access war anfangs der 2000er Jahre von Umbruchstimmung, Euphorie und Idealismus getragen. Die Erwartungen waren klar umrissen: Wissenschaftlern war an rascher Verbreitung wissenschaftlicher Texte gelegen, Bibliothekaren an einer Abhilfe für stark steigende Journalpreise, den Wissenschaftseinrichtungen an effizienter und freier Verbreitung…[Read more]