Open Science
Helmholtz Association adopts open access policy
Scientific results should be publicly accessible for sharing with science, industry and society without any barriers
[06. June 2016]
Scientific publications involving scientists from the Helmholtz Association should be freely available to the public. This is the intention of a new open access policy recently adopted by the Assembly of Members of Germany’s largest research organisation. According to this policy, publications in the natural sciences should be made available free of charge within six months at the latest; in the humanities and social sciences the deadline is twelve months.
"By adopting these new guidelines, the Helmholtz Association is promoting sustainable open access to scientific knowledge", said Otmar D. Wiestler, the Association’s President. "It is a way to enhance the comprehensive transfer of our findings to society, science and the economy." In addition, he noted that with this policy the Helmholtz Association is making a concrete contribution to implementing the “open science" strategy proposed by the G7 Science and Technology Ministers’ Meeting, and that it is actively rooting open science in the European Research Area.
According to the guideline the Helmholtz Centres are asking their employees to make those publications accessible and open for sharing that they have authored alone or collectively with others as a result of their work for the Helmholtz Association. The papers should be openly accessible on publication or within six months. "The aims are ambitious, but it is the right way to provide our scientific knowledge worldwide", says Dr Hans Pfeiffenberger from the Alfred Wegener Institute, speaker of the Open Science Working Group of the Helmholtz Association.