Open Access is a form of academic publishing in which publications are not hidden behind paywalls but are made freely accessible online for everyone. Open Access thus realises open and equal access to scientific information for all.

Open Access has two advantages for researchers: If many scientists choose open access as a form of publication, researchers have broader access to scientific findings. In addition, researchers gain more visibility for their own research by publishing in open access. Open access therefore benefits science as a whole as well as individual scientists.

Because Open Access is gaining in importance worldwide, more and more funding organisations are also encouraging the researchers they fund to use Open Access. The Open Access Network provides more information on this and many other issues relating to Open Access.

You can publish both scientific articles and monographs in open access. We recommend one of the following routes:

• The Green Open Access Route means that you post your publication as a secondary publication in a freely accessible online repository in addition to publishing it with a publisher or in a journal. Embargo periods and secondary publication rights must be observed.
• The Gold Open Access Route refers to a first publication with an OA publisher or in an OA journal. This guarantees the open availability of your publication from the outset. However, there is a publication fee for authors.
• The Diamond Open Access Route refers to publishing with OA publishers or journals that do not charge a publication fee because they are institutionally funded and do not follow a commercial business model.

We are happy to support you in selecting a subject-specific repository or a quality-assured Open Access journal. We also recommend these tools for searching for suitable OA journals:

• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
• oa.finder
• B!SON

We are also happy to advise you on your "green" secondary publication. Via FulDok you can make your secondary publications available free of charge as Green Open Access. Of course, first publications are also possible in FulDok.

If you want to find out which policy a journal pursues with regard to temporary publications, we recommend using the Sherpa Romeo tool. OpenDOAR can help you search for open access repositories.