Open Access in Germany (2013), Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung/ Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

What is this about?

Open Access in Germany (2013), produced by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), is a national policy written in German and aimed at stakeholders in Germany. It sets openness as the default principle, balanced by ethics, privacy, intellectual property, and security, under the maxim “as open as possible, as closed as necessary.” The policy links open access to improving research quality, reproducibility, speed of dissemination, and equitable access to knowledge, particularly for communities lacking subscription access. Key elements include clear compliance routes for open access to publications, Creative Commons licensing, persistent identifiers, and depositing manuscripts or versions of record in trusted repositories. It also promotes FAIR data principles, data management plans, and transparent exceptions for sensitive or commercial data. Operational guidance assigns responsibilities to researchers, institutions, funders, and publishers, emphasizing rights retention, acknowledgment of funding, and justified embargo use. Infrastructure such as repositories, registries, and discovery tools supports compliance, while monitoring relies on reporting and progress indicators. The policy stresses responsible openness, equity, and multilingual communication, with safeguards for personal and sensitive data. For researchers, librarians, funders, and policymakers, it provides a coherent, actionable framework that aligns German practice with international standards. Published in 2013, it remains a benchmark for institutional policies, training, and grant documentation.

For whom is this important?

ResearchersResearch institutionsPublishersPolicy makersLibrarians

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