Free publishing opportunity for researchers in eleven countries / Research community-led infrastructure strengthens open science

As of 2 November, the open access platform Open Research Europe is available at a new address to all researchers working in one of ORE’s eleven member countries, including Germany, regardless of whether they receive project funding. Researchers at all career stages can publish their research results on the platform free of charge and have them assessed through a transparent peer review process.

Open Research Europe (ORE) is a research community-led open access publishing platform that has been jointly supported by research funding organisations and research organisations from eleven European countries since the beginning of this year.

“I hope as many researchers as possible will use Open Research Europe. As an initiative run by the research community for the research community, the platform is an important component of a comprehensive open science culture,” said DFG Secretary General Dr. Heide Ahrens to mark the opening of the publishing platform to all researchers in eleven European countries. 

The platform aims to make research findings, methods and processes as open, transparent and reusable as possible. In addition to conventional research articles, submissions may include case studies, research essays and data publications. By offering this broad range of publication formats, the infrastructure is to help make the diversity of research contributions more visible.

“Through ORE, we support a publishing culture that focuses on quality, transparency and dialogue within the research community. At the same time, we are strengthening the research community’s capacity to develop essential infrastructure for its own work collectively and independently,” said Heide Ahrens.

ORE follows the Publish, Review, Curate model for peer review. Once they have passed pre-publication integrity checks, submitted articles are published directly and subsequently undergo open peer review. The peer review reports and scholarly discussion of the findings are documented transparently, and articles that receive positive reviews are included in disciplinary collections. The design of the platform directly reflects the 2023 EU Council Conclusions(externer Link) on “high-quality, transparent, open, trustworthy and equitable scholarly publishing”. 

The supporting consortium comprises 17 research organisations and research funding organisations from Austria, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. The platform has been operated by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) since the beginning of this year. 

The Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) is the consortium’s official contracting partner on the German side. The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) implements the initiative at national level and represents the interests of the German research community on the platform’s governance bodies.

As part of the platform’s restructuring and the expansion of its supporting consortium, three representatives of the German research community were recently appointed to the newly constituted Scientific Advisory Board of Open Research Europe. The new Scientific Advisory Board includes cognitive psychologist Professor Dr. Markus Huff (University of Tübingen / Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien), doctoral researcher Amelya Keles Slevogt (Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Experimental Neurology / German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Berlin) and DFG Vice President Professor Dr. Caren Sureth-Sloane (Paderborn University, Business Administration). 

“It’s an honour to have the opportunity to promote open and transparent research as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board. My own research profile is guided by the principle of transparency – a principle that is also indispensable to safeguarding research integrity in the publishing process. I look forward to actively contributing my experience in research funding and evaluation to ORE’s strategic development,” said Caren Sureth-Sloane.

Researchers wishing to publish their research results on Open Research Europe can visit the Open Research Europe(externer Link) website for information on eligibility, the available publication formats, the peer review process and the applicable policies. 

Further Information

CERN is offering a webinar(externer Link) for authors on 1 December to provide further information. 

Open Research Europe(externer Link)

DFG: Open Research Europe(interner Link)