German Studies

A trend towards greater openness and acceptance of open access can be observed in German studies. In this respect, the discipline resembles other philologies, for example comparative literature, where similar developments are taking place. Nonetheless, the fixation on print is still dominant in German studies, and the publisher–academic reputation nexus remains close. Besides concerns about scholarly quality, prejudices towards open access relate also to the long-term availability of research contributions published exclusively online. Bibliometric indicators such as the Journal Impact Factor , citation rates etc. generally play only a minor role in publishing practice in German studies.

The business models of many publishing houses with a humanities focus are in a state of flux, not least because of the open access policies of the major national research funding organisations. Prestigious publishers now enable and promote gold open access and are also (more) open towards green open access. At the same time, there are an increasing number of institutional offerings to promote open access monographs and edited collections. They include, for example, open access publication funds, the payment of publication charges from third-party funds, and the German Research Foundation’s (DFG) Publication Grants Programme. These developments result in more works being published open access. In addition, more and more researchers are availing of the possibility of self-archiving their publications in the repositories of their university libraries or research institutions or in central disciplinary repositories such as GiNDok. This can be expected to continue slowly but surely.

The German Association of Germanists (Deutscher Germanistenverband, DGV) has yet to adopt a clear position on open access. However, the association established two working groups (Digitales in Forschung und Lehre [Digitality in Research and Teaching] and Germanistik im digitalen Zeitalter [German Studies in the Digital Age]) to address the topic of digitalisation and the changing work, teaching, and research practices in the discipline. Engagement with open access publishing plays an important role in this regard. The working group Germanistik im digitalen Zeitalter has since been dissolved.

The responsible persons at the Institut für Textkritik (Institute for Textual Criticism) frequently express criticism of open access.

As of March 2024, the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) listed 166 titles under “German literature”, 217 titles under “German language”, 22 titles under “German linguistics”, and 171 titles under “German studies”.

German-studies-related books published under a diamond open access model – that is, published open access without charging book processing charges (BPCs) – can also be found under German Studies on the Open Book Publishers website.

The Specialised Information Service (FID) German Studies has published a series of German-language tutorials that provide information on, among other things, the benefits of open access publishing, as well as listing in a compact and understandable way relevant practical information on topics such as long-term archiving and the citation of digital publications.