Open Access Publishing Service

All members of Leipzig Universities have the opportunity to publish sicentific documents using the institutional repository. It is possible to self-archiving copies or author manuscripts of published journal articles as well as publicate textbooks, conference proceedings or other types of publications.

All authors retain full copyright when publishing with us, but they do allow Leipzig University Library to irrevocably deposit their work on the repository.

To maximize distribution and re-use of your publication, we recommend to publish under a Creative Commons Licence.

Our Service

We identify your options for open access publishing, take care of compliance with embargo periods and formating restrictions and assure timely publication.

Your Advantage

Your work will be digitally available worldwide and free of charge. Professional catalogueing and indexing will make your publication findable through popular search engines like google scholar, harvesting by aggregators like BASE Search and OpenAire further increases the reach of your research. A durable URN (uniform ressource name) assigned by the German National Library allows stable citability and longterm accessibilty. You will obtain a freely accessible and legal version of your article, that can conveniently be used as a link-out from your personal publication list.

All you need to do:

1. Notify us about your latest paper.
2. Prepare an authors manuscripts according to the specifications provided.
3. E-mail us manuscript alongside the signed publishing agreement (PDF).

Publishing your Thesis

Publishing your thesis digitally and open access on the Leipzig University Repository will increase the visibility of your work greatly. In addition to traditional library catalogues, your work will be accessible through google scholar, BASE and Open Access Thesis and Dissertations (OADT).

Most examination regulations of Leipzig University acknowledge the release of the digital version on the repository as publication. Detailed information can be found in the respective examination regulations.  

More information about submitting your thesis to the libary can be found here.

If you publish your thesis through a professional publisher, you can still publish open access. We recommend to negotiate your publishing contract and keep the rights to publish a digital version of your thesis, maybe after an embargo period.

Bachelor, master, magister or diploma thesis cannot be published on the repository unless we receive a written statement of the supervisor recommending its publication.

Leipzig University helps its researchers and scholars to found new open access journals as well as to add existing series and journals to the open access movement. To this end, Leipzig University has teamed up with Saxon State and University Library Dresden (SLUB) to provide a publishing platform known as Qucosa.Journals. It’s based on the journal management and publication software Open Journal Systems. OJS enables the integrated management and publishing of electronic journals every step of the way including editorial management, the submission of articles, a multi-stage review process, and publication. Individual articles are given a unique persistent address in the form of a DOI (Digital Object Identifier).

Our Service

The Open Science Office can support the creation of your open access journal by hosting the OJS e-journal software and assisting you with setup and configuration. We will also ensure the long-term archiving of your journal. In addition, we offer a whole range of administrative and library services as well as advice and training for editors. For example, we can provide you with a design template for your journal, assign persistent identifiers (DOIs) to your documents, and handle the ISSN registration of your serial publications as well as its cataloguing in the ZDB (Zeitschriftendatenbank – Database of Journals) and the EZB (Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek – Library of Electronic Journals). Moreover, we can help you use OJS, and support you when it comes to raising the profile of your publications by indexing them in relevant databases and directories.

How you can benefit

Open access publishing increases the (international) prominence of your journal and individual articles. In addition to being freely available worldwide, they can also be easily discovered by being listed in relevant databases and catalogues ranging from Leipzig University Library’s catalogue, WorldCat and Google Scholar to the open access search engine BASE. Furthermore, the assignment of DOIs ensures stable citation and that your publications will remain discoverable.

Just get in touch with us!

You want to maximize the visibility and reach of your research through open access? We will prepare lists with popular open access journals in your discipline. On demand, we will indicated indexing of the different journals by bibliographic databases such as PubMed or Web of Science. Additionally, we will research the self-archiving policies of your preferred subscription journals, manage possible embargos and publish your author manuscript – it is straightforward and it is legal.
Make all your future publications available to your peers, publish open access!

Please contact us for further information. 

You would like to publish your work open access, but you are not familiar with the options? You know colleagues and co-workers that are interested in the topic, but cannot spend the time to work out the details on their own? In those cases, do not hesitate to contact us for specific and customized information. We will visit your research group or institute and answer your specific questions about open access, with info sessions taylored to your needs.

Please contact us to specifiy your interests and to make an appointment.

• How and when is it legal to upload my publications on a website? 
• How do I find a suitable open access journal for my research?
• Can I apply to the open access fund of Leipzig University?
• What is the difference between the creative commons licences?
• What are my rights as an author and what does the german UrhG §38(4) allow me to do?

Please contact us for an appointment and to specify your interests: openscience@ub.uni-leipzig.de

• Jisc Open Policy Finder
  Database with information about self-archiving policies of scientific journals and open access mandates and policies of national and international research funders.
• FAQ-Check Zweitverwertungsrecht (German only)
  Short FAQ about self-archiving
• Creativecommons.org
  Information about CC licences, the widely used licences for OA publications
• Leitfaden CC Lizenzen (PDF)
  Guideline for choosing the right CC licence, focusing on the "non commercial" (NC) licence type (german only)
• open access network
  Compilation of information on various topics and forms of open access publishing
• Handreichungen zum wissenschaftsgeleiteten Publizieren (German only)
  Practice-oriented guidelines on technology & infrastructures, copyright & data protection, procedures & workflows, communication & distribution, cost structures & business models, governance & legal forms