Project DEAL & more
Here you can find out the most important things to know about open-access infrastructure.
Open-access transformation
© Wissenschaftsrat, "Open Access – Transformation wissenschaftlichen Publizierens / Pressegespräch am 24.01.2022"
Anyone who works with open access is bound to come across the term transformation sooner or later. It means a complete switchover of the academic publishing industry to open access—a key step on the path to open infrastructure. This is also the reason why transformation has become a major policy objective.
Many initiatives are implementing this transformation through their joint efforts, the best-known being the DEAL project. The German Council of Science and Humanities ("Wissenschaftsrat") has also issued recommendations in this regard.
The DEAL project
Germany’s universities and research institutions teamed up to launch the DEAL project. Working together, they aim to negotiate a new financing model for open access with the largest publishers. You as a researcher working in Germany will thus be able to retain the rights to your work and publish freely in periodicals of your choosing, giving your research maximum visibility and impact.
Submitting corresponding authors can publish their articles on an open-access basis for free in periodicals published by Wiley and Springer Nature. From 1st January 1 2024, this also applies to the journals published by Elsevier.
Your articles are made open access automatically (CC-BY license, including peer review).
You enjoy permanent read access to the whole portfolio of titles (e-journals) produced by the selected publishers.
Confirming your entitlement in the authors’ portal is easy.
What do I as an author need to do?
Log into the authors' portal for the respective publisher, Wiley, Springer Nature, or starting on 1st January 2024 also Elsevier. Submit your article. Enter "University of Bonn" or "University Hospital Bonn" as your affiliation.
You will be notified that your institution is a signatory to an agreement with the publisher. You can now make your article open access free of charge.
Your article will appear on a “dashboard," where we check all articles for eligibility. Please take note of the exceptions that apply (see below).
If you qualify, your publication fees will be billed to us, so you should not receive an invoice for any APCs yourself.
Please note
We only finance publications by submitting corresponding authors with the primary affiliation "University of Bonn". In publications with multiple corresponding authors, we regard the primary insitution of the submitting person as responsible for financing.
Once your article has been accepted, you will be able to choose whether you want it to be made open access or not. We recommend publishing your article on an open-access basis. Click on "Yes, submit for approval" in the authors’ portal to do this. The University of Bonn will cover the costs for you!
If you decide against open access, we will still be charged the full fee by the publisher. You will also surrender the usual usage rights to your publication to the publisher and thus prevent your work from being reused more freely.
FAQ about the "DEAL"
- E-books are not covered under the DEAL. These are acquired and made available to you at our own cost under license agreements.
- Additional services such as color charges are not covered by the DEAL either. You will still need to cover these costs yourself.
- Articles that deal with primary research findings and the description of trends and developments (research papers and reviews) are eligible, but types such as editorials, community news, book or media reviews, etc. are not.
- Yes. The University pays a flat fee to the publishers for the privilege that includes the publication fees for making articles in the publisher's licensed periodicals ("subscription journals") open access (the "article processing charges," or APCs).
- Our agreements with all three publishers run until the end of 2028.
The negotiations with the three largest academic publishers: Wiley, Springer Nature and Elsevier were successful. They were intended to achieve the following:
- All publications by authors from German institutions are to be made open access by default (CC-BY, including peer review).
- The participating institutions are to have permanent access to the whole portfolio of titles (e-journals) produced by the publishers.
- The price is to be based on a simple pricing model in line with publication volume (Publish & Read).
The negotiations with Wiley and Springer Nature led to agreements being concluded, to which the University of Bonn is a signatory.
Useful links
The DEAL agreements only relate to periodicals, although nearly all periodicals are covered.