Project Description

The objective of the project “Distributed Network for Publishing Services” (BUA DNPS) is the cooperative development of consulting and services for scientific publishing as well as the expansion of interlinked open access publishing infrastructures based on distributed competencies focuses. The project, funded by the Berlin University Alliance (BUA), is a cooperation between the Medical Library of Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the university libraries of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Technische Universität Berlin.

The increasingly complex publication landscape requires consulting and services on organizational, legal and technical issues of scientific publishing. In addition, contemporary open access publishing infrastructures for the production, distribution and bibliometric classification of scientific publications must be established and expanded. The BUA DNPS establishes transparency for publication processes, creates legal certainty, increases the visibility of quality-assured publications, and enables the bibliometric classification of published research results. The project thus contributes to the sustainable quality assurance of scientific publishing, to the visibility of excellent research in the Berlin alliance, and takes up essential goals of the excellence strategy.

The new publication network enables open access publications in non-commercial, science-related infrastructures. BUA DNPS supports scientists from the partner institutions of the BUA, visiting fellow as well as employees of collaboration partners or large supra-regional research projects. In addition, the orientation, the program, and the structure of the publication network are anchored in the need for specialist cultures – including interdisciplinary ones.

Open access has arrived in science and is increasingly gaining acceptance as a publication model. The direct accessibility of scientific results is also increasingly integrated into the requirements of international research funders. Global visibility and accessibility, as well as new forms and methods of scientific publishing, make it possible for research results to be published transparently, widely received, and conveniently reused. For many years, Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin backed by the Senate Chancellery for Science and Research, have been strongly committed to advancing open access and significantly increasing the number of primary publications by their scientists in open access.

Berlin Universities Publishing

Berlin Universities Publishing (BerlinUP) is the open-access publishing press of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Publication services of the BUA institutions will be offered jointly. Three areas are planned for the services of “Berlin Universities Publishing”, each of which is located at one of the alliance universities:

1. The scientific journals section is the responsibility of the university library of Freie Universität Berlin. To this end, the internationally widely used publication platform Open Journal Systems (OJS) has been expanded in such a way that it can be used by all the partner institutions of the BUA. The focus is on publication models that can be financed without article fees.
2. Regarding the publication of books, there are 50 years of publishing experience at Technische Universität Berlin. The university library has established an open access publishing platform for books (high-quality series, monographs, edited volumes, conference volumes) of all partner institutions. For this purpose, it is planned to use a powerful technical infrastructure as well as to cooperate with commercial and non-commercial publishers.
3. A publication network requires quality assurance according to subject-specific standards and excellent support for authors, publishers, and editors.

For these two fields, the competences are bundled at the university library of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin The libraries of the other partner institutions are integrated. Consultancy services for authors on publishing as well as on rights and licenses are being developed, especially regarding image rights and the linking of research data. In addition, publishers of existing journals or book series should be enabled to switch to an open access publishing model.

Contact

Project management:
Freie Universität Berlin: Dr. Andreas Brandtner
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin: Martin Lee
Technische Universität Berlin: Jürgen Christof
Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin: Ursula Flitner

Project coordination:
Freie Universität Berlin: Dr. Christina Riesenweber
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin: Marc Lange (temporary)
Technische Universität Berlin: Dagmar Schobert
Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin: Jenny Delasalle

Project collaboration:
Freie Universität Berlin: Dr. Michael Kleineberg, Dr. Ronald Steffen
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin: Maike Birzle-Zante, Marc Lange
Technische Universität Berlin: Robert Wiese
Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin: Dr. Christine Mieck