As a full-scale university of the 21st century, the University of Freiburg is tasked with driving the future of innovation and ensuring the education of generations to come. As an independent entity that casts a critical eye over society, it is the freedom of research and teaching that enables us to do this. We stand by our obligation of making knowledge and the joint efforts of our academics available to society. Open access publication models give the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg a pioneering opportunity to allow every person free and equal access to the findings of academic research and, at the same time, to ensure that academic findings are disseminated in the best way possible. According to the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, a work published under the principles of open access must fulfil the following two conditions:
Open access publications in recognised and scientifically proven media are generally more available than comparable publications in media with access restrictions. As such, works published in the open access procedure also increase the availability of each of the academic works and make academics and the universities and institutions behind them more visible to the outside world. By international standards, the university’s publication platform FreiDok is an excellent option for publishing works in the open access procedure. This is further demonstrated by FreiDok’s ranking of 47th place in the Ranking Web of World Repositories, which rates institutional repositories around the world (updated: 01/2010)10. FreiDok is a platform for both primary and secondary publications. As open access publications are increasing in importance, the functions of the FreiDok publication portal are being constantly expanded and adapted to the current requirements of academics.
As such, the University of Freiburg explicitly encourages and supports its academics in presenting their research findings to the global academic community and the general public through the open access route. In so doing, this audience should ensure they observe the electronic versions’ rights of use. University Library Freiburg is happy to provide advice and support in this regard.
Resolved by the rectorate on 31 March 2010
Prof. Dr Hans-Jochen Schiewer, Rector
10 The ranking takes into consideration factors such as online visibility, data volume, the number of indexed documents and the current listings on Google Scholar. FreiDok is known for its excellent visibility, which is certainly an important factor in terms of university marketing.