Open Access Declaration of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Following the ideal of the Humboldt-Universität:
"Around the world, universities orient themselves on the ideal of a unity between research and teaching, advocated by Humboldt. This includes transfer of knowledge gained from research and the idea of research-based teaching. Students and tutors are united in their critical analysis of existing knowledge and in the active participation in the augmentation of knowledge. This is why the Humboldt-Universität encourages the social and communicative competencies of its members and supports their own initiatives.” (Paragraph 4)
the scientists of the university support the worldwide Open Access initiative and join the "Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities".
Open Access means free and public access to scientific results via the Internet. Users have unlimited access to read, copy, distribute, print, search in, refer to and use full text versions in any other legal way they like - without hitting financial, legal or technical barriers. The authors’ copyrights will not be affected; the obligation for users to quote the authors’ names goes without saying.
In accordance with the ideal of the university, Open Access is based on the principle that all people should have free, equal access to the results of scientific work. Open Access publications achieve a high standard of general access and availability. It has been proven that OA publications are more frequently read than publications with limited access. This means that the university’s scientists themselves and their achievements will receive a higher degree of publicity.
Therefore Humboldt-Universität recommends all scientists to submit their articles to Open Access journals and to publish monographs and collected works on Open Access platforms. Copies of already published articles (post-print versions) should be deposited on the document and publication server of the university (http://edoc.hu-berlin.de). This server is also available for pre-print versions. The university vouches for the authenticity and integrity of the publications deposited on this server and ensures that all articles can be quoted unequivocally. A deposit on this server guarantees worldwide availability and long-term archiving.
The Humboldt-Universität emphatically encourages all scientists to insist on their exploitation rights for electronic versions when signing author contracts with scientific publishing companies.
Apart from the effects of free and unlimited access to the results of creative work, the increasing offers of Open Access documents give an impressive general view of the scientific operations within the Humboldt-Universität.
Passed on the 9th May 2006 by the Academic Senate of the Humboldt-Universität Berlin.