Selecting the Most Suitable Kind of Open Access

We advise the following procedures:

  1. Select a high-quality Open Access publication location that is appropriate according to subject-specific criteria. Publication in Open Access makes your work immediately freely accessible and often allows you to retain full rights to your work. You should think twice about publishing in a hybrid journal, as this business model is contentious. If there is a framework agreement in place for the hybrid journal in question, such as DEAL exists for the respective hybrid journal, however, publishing in a hybrid journal can be a good compromise in terms of Open Access. In the introductions you will find entries with tips for finding a suitable journal and tools for the selection of the appropriate journal/publication location.
  2. Share a version of your work in an institutional repository. If you decide against Open Access for the first publication, or if you want to make a work accessible that you have already published without Open Access, many publishers will offer you the opportunity to publish an earlier version of your work in an institutional repository.

These possibilities are not mutually exclusive. You can combine them to guarantee maximum dissemination of your work and satisfy the regulations on intellectual property at the same time.