What do I have to consider when publishing?

Before signing a publishing contract, you should make sure that your rights are protected and check, whether the publication is serious.

How do I check the quality of OA journals?

With the emergence of the various OA publishing models and new OA journals, dubious journals are also entering the publication market. So-called ‘predatory journals’ or ‘predatory publishers’ demand publication fees for editorial services that they do not provide or that are of inferior quality. These dubious business practices harm not only the authors, but the entire scientific publishing landscape.

Online resources comparing the OA publishing conditions of research institutions, funders, and scientific journals:

the Open Access Chek Tool (OACT)
the Journal Comparison Service by cOAlition S

Criteria for assessing the quality of (OA) journals: the check list Think. Check. Submit.

Legal considerations

Publishing contracts

Clarify your rights before signing a contract with a publisher. Make sure that you do not assign the rights to your texts to the publisher exclusively and for an unlimited period of time and insist on a licence that allows you to meet the specifications of your funding institution and university.

If you are unsure before signing the contract, we will be happy to advise you: b3Blbm5lc3NAZmhudy5jaA==.

Creative Commons licenses

As the author of scientific and artistic works, you can use Creative Commons licences (CC licences for short) to determine the legal conditions under which your works may be published, redistributed, and used. This is subject to the condition that you, as the author, have not yet transferred the exclusive rights of use to anyone else. The CC licences are a global and uniform system that is available in many languages. Various symbols are used to visualise and explain which conditions must be observed for further use. They are therefore easy for users to understand even without legal knowledge.

The CC licences work like a modular system. The licence conditions can be combined with each other, resulting in a total of six different licence types. Depending on the combination, open or restrictive use of the content can be permitted.

Research funders and universities recommend using a licence that is as open as possible, such as CC BY (author must be named). More about CC licences.