OpenAccess.net

Abstract

The open-access.net platform provides comprehensive information on the subject of Open Access (OA) and offers practical advice on its implementation. Developed collaboratively by the Freie Universität Berlin and the Universities of Goettingen, Konstanz, and Bielefeld, open-access.net first went online at the beginning of May 2007. The platform’s target groups include all relevant stakeholders in the science sector, especially the scientists and scholars themselves, university and research institution managers, infrastructure service providers such as libraries and data centres, and funding agencies and policy makers. open-access.net provides easy, one-stop access to comprehensive information on OA.

Aspects covered include OA concepts, legal, organisational and technical frameworks, concrete implementation experiences, initiatives, services, service providers, and position papers. The target-group-oriented and discipline-specific presentation of the content enables users to access relevant themes quickly and efficiently. Moreover, the platform offers practical implementation advice and answers to fundamental questions regarding OA. In collaboration with cooperation partners in Austria (the University of Vienna) and Switzerland (the University of Zurich), country-specific web pages for these two countries have been integrated into the platform - especially in the Legal Issues section.

Each year since 2007, the information platform has organised the “Open Access Days” at alternating venues in collaboration with local partners. This event is the key conference on OA and Open Science in the German-speaking area.

With funding from the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts (MWK) of the State of Baden-Württemberg, the platform underwent a complete technical and substantive overhaul in 2015.