Helmholtz Association supports Open Access, about the Helmholtz Open Access Project, Focus for 2006 is on "green", Creating access to dat

Bertelmann, R.

Böttcher, I.

Klump, J.

Pfeiffenberger, Hans

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Project WebsiteFor additional information visit our project website at and findout more about Open Access and how to make it part of the scientific work process.http://helmholtz-oa.awi.deThe Helmholtz Association isa community of 15 scientific-technical and biological-medical research centres.These centres have beencommissioned with pursuinglong-term research goals onbehalf of the state andsociety. The Associationstrives to gain insights andknowledge so that it can helpto preserve and improve thefoundations of human life. Itdoes this by identifying andworking on the grandchallenges faced by society,s c i e n c e a n d i n d u s t r y.Helmholtz Centres performtop-class research in strategicprogrammes in six corefields: Energy, Earth andEnvironment, Health, KeyTechnologies, Structure ofMatter, Transport and Space.With its 15 research centresand annual budget of approx2 .2 b i l l i on euros theHelmholtz Association isGermany’s largest researchinstitution. The 24 000employees produce top-ratescientific results in sixr e s e a r c h f i e l d s . T h eHelmhol tz Assoc ia t ionidentifies and takes on thegrand challenges of society,science and the economy, inpart icular through theinvest igat ion of h igh lycomplex systems.".”Professor Dr. Jürgen Mlynek,President of the HelmholtzAssociationOur Mission ...The Helmholtz Associationaims to contribute significantlyto solving the grand challengeswhich face society in the fieldso f E n e r g y, E a r t h a n dEnvironment, Health, KeyTechnologies, Structure ofMatter and Transport andSpaceHelmholtz Association supports Open AccessHelmholtz Open Access ProjectFocus for is on «green»2006 Creating access to dataThe publication of the ‘Berlin Declaration’ was an importantmilestone towards making knowledge in the sciences andhumanities accessible to all. The lays downthe principles of Open Access, under which scientificpublications should be published in future. This paradigm shiftcannot be accomplished immediately, it needs supporting actionand education and has a number of legal implications.‘Berlin Declaration’The Helmholtz Association of National Research Centres wasone of the first signatories of this declaration. The Assembly ofMembers of the Helmholtz Association has confirmed itscommitment and has obliged all its member research centres toimplement Open Access in practice, to create awareness forOpen Access among its scientists, and to make Open Access part ofthe scientific practice in all Helmholtz research centres.With the introduction of Open Access policies and practices in itsresearch centres the Helmholtz Association of National ResearchCentres aims to make its publications accessible to a broaderscientific audience, broaden dissemination and thus further thescientific discourse.In addition, the Helmholtz Association endorses the idea of OpenAccess to data. In this area, the possibilties and limitations will beexplored for each of Helmholtz' research fields. Also, it will bediscussed if and how data publication can become a type ofpublication valued as comparable to journal articles.The ‘Green Way’ is the term used by the Open Access initiativesto describe the publication of manuscripts on institutional webservers or scientist's private web pages. Many publishers alreadyallow the publication of preprints, peer-reviewed post-prints orfinal drafts through institutional repositories.The Helmholtz centres will set up institutional repositories for thesecondary publication and dissemination of post-prints and assistthe authors in preparing their manuscripts for archiving ininstitutional repositories. The research centre libraries have beengiven the task to fill these repositories with content (peer-reviewed papers only) and give authors support in theirpreparation of the papers for archiving in the repository.The initial project focus is on the ‘Green Way’ because here wesee the most effective way to increase the impact of our authors’publications by making their works accessible to everybody.A survey of recent literature shows that scientific literature andscientific data are converging. However, the publication of dataraises a number of questions and tWhat is the licencing situation with respect to data? How should itbe changed to accommodate both Open Access and the author’sintellectual property rights?To answer these questions will require more research. Theproject will also look at the experiences made in different fields,e.g. in the life sciences or in the earth and environmental sciences.he cultures of data access anddata sharing vary significantly from one scientific discipline toanother.Creating AwarenessInformation events for authorsand for decision makers will beheld to inform and to educatethe scientists at Helmholtzresearch centres about OpenAccess. Broad awareness andinstitutional commitment arefirst and necessary steps to winacceptance for Open Accesspublishing. Together with theresearch centres the projectgroup will develop informationmaterial and methods.Implementing the GreenWayIn this work package theHelmholtz centres will set upinstitutional repositories forthe secondary publication anddissemination of post-printsand assist the authors inpreparing their manuscripts forarchiving in institutionalrepositories. The Libraries areseen in a pro-active role for thecreation of content for theserepositories.Supporting the Golden WayThe role of scientific journalsoften goes beyond the merepublication of scientific articlesby providing an editorial framework to help the reader assessthe significance of the publishedw o r k s . T h e r e f o r e t h eHelmholtz Association wills u p p o r t t h e f u r t h e rdevelopment and acceptance ofOpen Access journals byencouraging its scientists to actas authors, reviewers andeditors in these journals.Creating Access to DataWith the publication of data,the project enters a newterrain. Shortly after the ‘BerlinDeclaration’ was published itwas recognised that OpenAccess should extend all theway from data to knowledge.However, the publication ofdata as part of standardscientific practice is still in itsearly stages.The HelmholtzAssociation ofGermanResearchCentresStart 2006 2007 EndProject Time Line

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