As part of the campaign week, the University Library will be providing an introduction to their document and publication server that members of Freie Universität can use to make published articles freely available and to publish their dissertations. The Center for Digital Systems – Competence Center for E-Learning and Multimedia at Freie Universität Berlin – will be presenting its various open access projects. They include the information platform "open-access.net" that is supported by numerous national scientific institutions as well as "Forum qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Research" (FQS), considered the world's largest online journal for qualitative research. The Social Science Open Access Repository, an international document server for the social sciences, will also be introduced.
The Center for the Promotion of Women's and Gender Studies will present its open access journal querelles-net and related activities. For students there will be an introduction to open access publishing. A workshop will be held for editors, publishers, and editors of scientific journals as well as others with an interest in the subject. On Thursday, October 22, representatives of universities and science organizations in Berlin and Brandenburg will discuss the opportunities and funding opportunities of networking in the region.
The aim of the Open Access Week is to take up the topic of open access to many different places in the world. Scientific institutions take this opportunity to inform their researchers about Open Access. Free access to scientific knowledge from publicly funded research is encouraged. On July 23, 2008, the Academic Senate of Freie Universität Berlin adopted a so-called open-access policy, recommending that all university members make their research and scholarly works available electronically and free of charge.
The term open access means free access to scientific information. Using a variety of activities, scientific knowledge is made freely available worldwide at no charge. For scientists open access has advantages over publishing in journals and books. Their publications are easier to find and they are cited more often. The efficiency of scientific work is enhanced, as research that is available through open access can be discussed more quickly.
