TIB advances implementation of transition towards Open Access in high energy physics

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has provided funding for a project entitled “The opportunities and challenges involved in the national implementation of an international Open Access transition project using the example of high energy physics (CHOAT-HEP)”, initiated by the Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB) – German National Library of Science and Technology.

With its idea for the project, TIB had applied for financial support within the “Funding programme for the free flow of information in science – Open Access”. Funding has been awarded for the period from 1 January 2018 through to 31 December 2019.

High energy physics (HEP) is a pioneer in the area of Open Science, and in particular when it comes to Open Access publishing. With the new addition of the American Physical Society (APS) journals in 2018, SCOAP³ – the worldwide Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics – now covers 87 per cent of all scientific publications in the field of high energy physics via Gold Open Access.

The transformation of publishing from a system based on subscriptions to one financed by publishing fees (referred to as article processing charges, or APCs for short) therefore now enters a very important phase: firstly, all HEP articles are to be provided Open Access in future years, and, secondly, the contribution of costs by German higher education institutions must be changed to reflect their real number of publications.

The aim of the approved CHOAT-HEP project is to provide support to German higher education institutions in transforming this process. By 2019, the costs should be distributed fully according to the institution’s actual number of publications for the first time.

This transition represents a major challenge for German higher education institutions, because it may result in major shifts in costs, among other things. Within the CHOAT-HEP project, TIB will communicate the cost developments to higher education institutions and bridge possible financing gaps that may occur in the course of a transition period.

These measures should help secure these processes at German higher education institutions so as to enable the Open Access transition in the area of HEP to be established as the standard system at these institutions in future years. TIB will be able to use the experience gained from this process to transform other subject areas, enabling it to play a key role in Open Access transition.

About TIB
Acting in the capacity of the German national library of technology, as well as architecture, chemistry, computer science, mathematics and physics, the TIB –Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology and University Library provides academia, research, industry and business with literature and information in printed and electronic form.

TIB is continuously expanding its role as a German information centre for the digitisation of science and technology. The library provides scientific content, digital services and methodological skills to specialist and research communities at www.tib.eu, supporting the different stages of scientific work. The library’s search and order portal offers users access to more than 80 million technical and scientific datasets indexed by TIB.

The library’s outstanding quality-assured collections also include knowledge objects such as audiovisual media, 3D models and research data. Thanks to specially developed search technologies, TIB’s AV-Portal (https://av.tib.eu/) can be used to search for specific content from scientific videos from the fields of science and technology. As a research library, TIB conducts applied research and development in order to generate new services and optimise existing ones. The key areas of research are in the fields of data science, non-textual material, Open Science and visual analytics.

TIB is a public-law foundation of the Federal State of Lower Saxony. The library is a member of the Leibniz Association.

https://www.tib.eu/en – More information about the Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB) – German National Library of Science and Technology