A new research project has been launched at Paderborn University with the aim of systematically improving the open access culture (OA) at universities throughout Germany. Free access to research results and data offers numerous advantages not only for academics, but also for interested parties worldwide. Paderborn University is being used as a case study in the project, which is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) until March 2026. The results could therefore become a blueprint for the German science system.
As part of "OASE" (Systematic Development of an Open Access Culture at the University - a development-oriented empirical case study) - the title of the project - Prof. Dr Dorothee M. Meister from the "Media Education and Empirical Media Research" department, Dr Dietmar Haubfleisch as Director of the University Library and Prof. Dr Gudrun Oevel as CIO of the University and Head of the "Centre for Information and Media Technologies" (IMT) will investigate and improve measures for the further development of the Open Access culture.
The project builds on the current status of Open Access (OA) services at Paderborn University (including a policy and a publication fund) and aims to increase the willingness to use OA publishing. Meister explains: "We want to familiarise researchers with the advantages of open access publishing - in other words, making new research findings available quickly and freely to a global audience. The project has set itself the task of developing various measures and is striving for a lively and comprehensive OA practice." On this basis, the team is developing a concept that should contribute to a sustainable change in processes at Paderborn University and be transferable to other universities.
In line with design- and development-orientated educational research, the experts are taking a step-by-step approach: "This means that both existing and newly developed measures - such as training courses - are evaluated in several stages and continuously improved. The model of collective change developed at Paderborn University serves as the theoretical basis for this," explains Oevel.
The team expects the first results in summer 2024.
Further information can be found on the project website.
This text has been translated automatically.
