Religious Studies

In Germany, religious studies is one of the small disciplines, and is considered an independent humanities and cultural studies discipline distinct from the theologies. In other countries, for example in Britain and North America, the (institutional) separation of religious studies and the theologies is to some extent less pronounced.

Research in religious studies takes place in a professionally and methodologically broad, heterogeneous environment. Overlaps exist inter alia with the ethnological disciplines, with sociology, philosophy, historical studies and classical studies, and also with various area studies disciplines (e.g. African Studies) and the theologies. In religious studies, as in other humanities disciplines, great importance continues to be attached to print books in general, as well to the publication of contributions in edited collections and conference proceedings.

However, in dialogue with the religious studies community, an increasing openness towards the reception and production of open access publications is apparent. Reservations towards open access relate inter alia to fears of compromised quality and additional effort and costs (e.g. when converting journals to open access), as well as to concerns with regard to higher publication costs for authors.

To date, neither the German Association for the study of Religion (Deutsche Vereinigung für Religionswissenschaft, DVRW), nor the European Association for the Study of Religions (EASR) nor the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR) has taken a clear position on open access. The DVRW’s journal, Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft, is still published in closed access. By contrast, associations for the study of religion in some other European countries (inter alia the Czech Association for the Study of Religions and the British Association for the Study of Religions) have been successfully publishing open access journals for some years now.

In the English-language literature, the topic of open access in religious studies has been reflected on in several contributions – both from the perspective of the editors of individual scholarly journals (Drees, 2015; Drees, 2017; Wildman et al., 2019; Petersen, 2021) and from the perspective of individual scholars (Clasquin-Johnson, 2008; Cavallin, 2013). An added value of open access is seen especially in the fact that it can also make scientific participation easier for financially insecure institutions and researchers worldwide, who are unable to access expensive licensed resources.

For authors, on the other hand, open access may also become a hurdle if, for example, they cannot afford the sometimes-considerable publication fees charged by the publishers (Frank et al., 2023).

As of April 2024, the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) listed 142 titles under the subject Religion: general, and the online library of open access books OAPEN listed 149 titles under Religion: general.

In religious studies, the publication of books in open access has only recently gained in importance. Some publishers, for example transcript and DeGruyter, offer this option, and it has already been availed of (in addition to the print version) for many religious studies titles. The greatest challenge in this regard is considered to be the financing of the publication fees (book processing charges, BPCs), which is most likely possible within the framework of a project.

With RelBib, the FID for the Study of Religion at Tübingen University Library operates an international online bibliography for the study of religion that can be used free of charge. RelBib collaborates very closely with the international bibliography for theology and religious studies Index Theologicus (IxTheo). In RelBib, monographs, journals, journal articles and edited collections, websites, blogs, research data, and many other resources are indexed. As new titles and updates are regularly imported, RelBib offers the most up-to-date specialised information. A steadily growing number of journals of relevance to religious studies are continuously analysed at article level. As RelBib’s focus is on providing open access content, priority is given to titles with immediate and open access to full texts. Search results can be narrowed to freely accessible titles by applying the open access filter. In addition, there is also a full-text search option in RelBib.

With the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform RelBib Open Journals, the FID for the Study of Religion promotes the conversion of journals or series to open access or the founding of new open access journals and series. In addition to the publishing system, the FID provides advice on these topics to interested parties beforehand and supports editors in founding new open access journals or series or in migrating existing journals or series to open access. It also offers hands-on support with technical queries.

Blogs

• RelBib Newsfeedaggregator: the latest contributions from international blogs and podcasts of relevance to religious studies

Platforms

• Mapping Religionswissenschaft: a project for thematic exchanges in religious studies
• Netzwerk un-sichtbar: a project for the transfer of religious studies knowledge to the public

Databases

• Database of Religious History (DRH): a collaborative open access encyclopaedia of religious cultural history
• The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA): a large collection of freely available statistical data from religion-related population surveys

Further open access religious studies content is made available on the platforms Project Muse (as of July 2024, 293 titles: monographs in the research area “religion”) and JSTOR (as of July 2024, 34,915 titles: essays from journals and edited volumes on the subject of “religion”.