In 2025, approximately 75.3% of all (electronic) publications at Goethe University Frankfurt were published as Open Access.
The data source for April’s Number of the Month is the Open Access Monitor, which analyzes publication data from three major reference databases (Web of Science, OpenAlex, Scopus) and presents it in various ways. The tool examines Germany’s publication output according to a range of Open Access-related criteria
The monitor distinguishes between various Open Access “colors”:
Closed Access, where readers must purchase or subscribe to access a publication, does not qualify as Open Access under the Berlin Declaration on Open Access. Similarly, Bronze Open Access does not meet the criteria for Open Access either. While publications under Bronze Open Access are freely accessible, they are not available under conditions that allow unrestricted reuse as defined by the Berlin Declaration.
Green Open Access refers to the secondary publication of a Closed Access work, typically in repositories, and can appear in various formats such as preprints, accepted manuscripts, or publisher versions.
Hybrid Open Access involves publishing an Open Access article in a journal that is otherwise not Open Access. A prominent example is provided by the Projekt DEAL agreements with Springer, Wiley, and Elsevier. This type of Open Access is typically facilitated through agreements between publishers and the University Library or consortia and requires the payment of a publication fee, which is often covered by institutional publication funds.
Gold Open Access refers to publications in fully Open Access journals where all articles are Open Access, often involving a publication fee.
Diamond Open Access, by contrast, involves publishing in fully Open Access journals that are typically managed by researchers or academic institutions (“scholar-led”) and do not charge authors any fees.
The above-mentioned value of 75.3% is based on the publication types classified as “Open Access” within the monitor. To calculate this figure, an average was derived from the percentages reported by all three data sources.
Aligned with this focus on Open Access, the University Library offers the workshop series “Data Literacy and Digital Research Practices” in the summer semester of 2026. From 14 April to 14 July (Tuesdays, 2:00–3:30 pm, online via Zoom), participants gain practical insights into research data management, Open Access, and digital methods across the research lifecycle. Participation is free, and sessions may be attended individually.
Further information and registration: https://www.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/veranstaltungen/.
