Open Access¶
The Helmholtz Association has a distributed repository infrastructure that the centers operate as part of their publication management to promote Open Access (e.g., by making second publications and original Open Access publications accessible). To promote open access, the centers have entered into consortium agreements with publishers around the handling of open access publication fees. The UFZ library collects all relevant information on the topic of Open Access.
Licensing¶
In addition to free access to scientific results, the second central component of Open Access is the widest possible subsequent use of these results. It is up to the authors themselves to decide how freely they want to allow their works to be used. By issuing licenses for use, they regulate what rights third parties have in the use of the research results. The Creative Commons licenses, which are now widely used, are ideal for this purpose.
Particularly recommended is the use of the CC-BY license, which allows free, worldwide access to a publication and enables its subsequent use, e.g., by copying, distributing, transmitting, publicly reproducing, or editing for all. Correct information on authorship is obligatory for subsequent use. Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization that offers assistance to authors in releasing legally protected content in the form of ready-made license agreements. Specifically, CC offers six different standard license agreements that can be used to define the legal terms and conditions for the distribution of creative content.
ORCID ID, DOI and ROR ID¶
The ORCID ID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is an indefinitely valid identification number for authors. If you change your name or your university, you will have a permanent ID that will follow you your entire career. Even if your research results and activities are not recorded in databases such as Web of Science or Scopus, they can still be correctly and automatically assigned to you and can be found at any time. Since 2022 the UFZ is an institutional member of the ORCID DE consortium in order to promote the dissemination of ORCID at the UFZ and to profit from the advantages of the technical synchronization of the institution's own infrastructure with the ORCID database. Information about this offers the UFZ library.
The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is used to uniquely and permanently identify physical, digital and abstract objects. DOI enables the sustainable linking of scientific publications in the World Wide Web, even if the URL changes. The metadata of the publications are directly linked to the individual identifiers. Both factors significantly increase the findability and visibility of research results.
ROR is a global, community-led registry of open persistent identifiers for research organizations. The ROR ID thus enables the unique linking of affiliated research institutes and universities and simplifies the recording of the publication output of the institutions. Helpful information on data publication can also be found in the UFZ guidelines at 09 Publishing Research Data and DOI registration for research data.
Further information can also be found at open-access.network.