Open Access in Bremen

Open Access backed by the University and German Research Foundation

Author pays? More and more scholarly journals do not sell subscriptions but give away the content open access, i.e. for free. Instead the publishers have the authors pay to publish.

• Pro: Open Access publications get higher visibility and greater impact.
• Con: Authors have to afford the fees which may amount to 1,000-2,500 euros for a paper.

Starting in 2010, Bremen University has been supporting Open Access publishing and is offering funding for "Article Processing Charges" or "Publication Fees" in Open Access publications to its members.

As the initial funding was provided by the German Research Foundation (DFG) the DFG's rules for funding continue to apply:

• The submitting author ("corresponding author", "submitting author" etc.) is a member of the University of Bremen. Members of Bremen universities of applied sciences and affiliated institutions with a different funding body are not eligible.
• The journal in which the content is to be published offers true Open Access, i.e. the online contents must be accessible free of charge and without restrictions. So-called hybrid journals are not eligible, as they offer paid subscriptions and on top give authors the option to pay extra fees to turn their paper into open access.
• In order to maintain scientific standards and quality, the journal must subject submissions to peer review by distinguished scholars of the field.
  Publications in so-called predatory journals will not be supported: Predatory publishers charge APCs or attendance fees for conferences but provide only superficial or fake peer review. Predatory journals list reviewers and editors often without their consent or knowledge, they use fake impact metrics and try to attract new customers by spam e-mail. Financial damage aside, publishing with predatory journals may hurt the author’s reputation.
  How to spot predatory publishers:
  • Lists and directories, e.g. Quality Open Access Market (QOAM), Beall's List of Predatory Publishers and Journals, Stop Predatory Journals,
  • Checklists, e.g. Think. Check. Submit.
  • Do your own research in search engines and talk to your fellow scientists

How to obtain funding for "Open Access Publishing" via SuUB Bremen

A number of publishers (Copernicus Publications, BioMed Central, Frontiers, MDPI ) charge their publication costs directly to SuUB Bremen, i.e. the submitting author will not receive an invoice. With other platforms (e.g. PLOS, Springer Nature Open Research, Hindawi) we ask authors to forward the original bill to SuUB:

Contact: Benjamin Ahlborn, tel. 0421 218 59440 ahlborn@suub.uni-bremen.de and tel. 0421 218 59415 publizieren@suub.uni-bremen.de

We will check the invoice and effect payment to the publisher. For authors to be on the safe side we strongly recommend contacting SuUB before submission to publishers not listed here or if in doubt, - we will check whether the publisher or journal is are in agreement with funding guidelines and then give a commitment to cover the costs.