The University of Münster is committed to open access publishing. In spring 2012, the university management adopted an open access declaration. In this declaration, the University of Münster encourages and supports its scientists to make the results of their research freely accessible. The university also recommends that authors secure the right to further electronic use of their own works in publishing contracts.
Based on a senate resolution, the University of Münster has adopted a code of honour "Rules of Good Scientific Practice", which commits the university's academics to the principles of scientific honesty and fairness as well as to the principles of scientifically appropriate publication behavior.
All publishers of the University of Münster are obliged to state their institutional affiliation in a uniform manner. Among other things this is important to increase the visibility of the University of Münster. Details can be found in the affiliation guidelines of the University of Münster.
Research data are a central element of scientific activity and the associated gain in knowledge. In this context, research data refers to all data that are collected, collected, simulated or derived as part of a research process. The University of Münster understands research data as a scientific work and attaches great importance to it. The University Management and the Senate of the University of Münster therefore adopted principles for handling research data in the summer of 2017.
ULB Münster is committed to the Open Access concept and offers a comprehensive portfolio of services in the field of Open Access and digital publishing. In addition, it is actively involved in the field of Linked Open Data in order to support the free worldwide exchange of literature and information.
With the adoption of an Open Digitization Policy, the University and State Library of Münster would like to sustainably support and strengthen the open access idea. Its declared goal is therefore to offer the digitized copies of its public domain holdings released on the Kulturgut digital portal for unrestricted and free use.
At the same time, the University of Münster signed the Berlin declaration on open access to scientific knowledge. In doing so, it is committed to strengthening sustainable scholarly communication in the spirit of open access. The Berlin declaration of 22.10.2003 is considered an important milestone in the open access movement. In addition to leading German and international research organizations as initiating members, the declaration has now been signed by more than 670 institutions (signatories of the Berlin declaration).
The Digital University North Rhine Westphalia (DH.NRW) – a cooperation between 42 universities and the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia – has developed a state strategy to promote Open Access and Open Science. In july 2023 saw the publication of an Open Access strategy, positioning the 42 DH NRW universities with regards to Open Access. The strategy’s goal: "Free access and comprehensive usability of scientific publications should be standard in North Rhine Westphalia – regardless of the type of publication."
On behalf of Münster University Prof. Dr. Mitja Back contributed to the development of the strategy paper.
The university management signed the "Expression of Interest in the Large-scale Implementation of Open Access to Scholarly Journals" in December 2017. open access 2020 is an international initiative of funding and research institutions, higher education organizations, and universities that advocates replacing the current subscription model of scholarly journals with an open access model. To this end, resources that have so far been used to fund subscriptions to scientific journals are increasingly being redirected to the sustainable promotion of open access publishing models. In addition to leading German and international research organizations, the Expression of Interest has now been signed by almost 150 institutions (signatories).
The University and State Library of Münster signed the "Mission Statement der ENABLE! community" in May 2020. The platform ENABLE! – Bibliotheken, Verlage und Autor*innen für Open Access in den Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften serves to address the challenges and opportunities that open access offers to all participants in the scholarly publishing process in the form of a community-building process. The aim is to create a network of partners from the individual players – libraries, publishers, intermediaries, distributors, and authors – to jointly enable OA publishing and to develop new, innovative models.
