Open Access Policy of the University of Mannheim

The University of Mannheim’s profile is characterized by its unique blend of renowned economic and social sciences that are interwoven with excellent humanities, business, law, mathematics and informatics. The clear-cut portfolio of academic fields is one of the strengths of the University of Mannheim, and as such, enhances its visibility in research and teaching.

Against this background, the University of Mannheim views open access as a highly effective publication model to enhance the dissemination of knowledge in a sustainable way. According to the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, open access means free and unrestricted worldwide access to academic knowledge via the Internet.

• The University of Mannheim therefore expressly advises its researchers to make their research results available to the international research community as well as to the general public through open access. 

• Open access research results include not only original academic publications, but also research data, meta data, source materials, digital representations of pictorial and graphical materials and scholarly multimedia materials.

• The university welcomes if its researchers in their capacity as editors or reviewers support the transformation of academic journals to open access journals.

• The university mandates the University Library to coordinate the university’s open access activities and to promote these activities through appropriate services. With its institutional repositories MADOC and MADATA, Mannheim University Library provides an open access infrastructure that meets established standards for the long-term accessibility of publications and research data and for the exchange of meta data with national and international servers.

• The University Library gives support and advice to the university’s researchers in all legal and organizational questions of open access publishing.

This Open Access Policy does not impair the free choice of the publication channel for the university’s researchers. It is a recommendation but not an obligation. Academic freedom also includes the free choice of the publication channel. If authors opt for a publication with limited access, the university recommends that the authors reserve non-exclusive rights to electronically publish or archive the work for free-of-charge use and that they exercise their secondary publication rights. Mannheim University Library offers advice and support with regard to this matter.

President Prof. Dr. Ernst-Ludwig von Thadden
5 December 2017