Research News
Contract with Copernicus Publications Facilitates Open Access Publishing
Six Helmholtz centres have entered into an agreement with the Copernicus Publications publishing house to enable scientists to easily publish their research results in Open Access professional journals. Copernicus Publications is the worldwide largest Open Access publishing house in the field of geosciences and publishes 28 professional journals under expert assessment. Moreover, the publishing house sponsors 14 scientific discussion forums. The publications' editors include also scientists from the Helmholtz Association.
In future, author fees chargeable for an Open Access publication with Copernicus Publications will be centrally brought to account with the respective research centre. This means: As they are used to, first-time authors submit their articles directly to the journal of choice. If their article is published, the invoice now is directly sent to their respective research centre. So far, the following Helmholtz centres have signed the agreement: the GEOMAR | Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, the research centre “Forschungszentrum Jülich”, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY. The syndicate is open to admit further Helmholtz centres.
Prof. Dr Hermann Lühr, head of a research group at the GFZ, is a member of the scientific advisory board of Copernicus Publications. He is enthusiastic about the new arrangement: "I myself regularly publish in Copernicus journals and am delighted that now it is made even easier for my colleagues in the field of geosciences to publish their research results in the Open Access system and thereby to place these freely accessible at the disposal of all people interested."
