The University of Bremen has positioned itself as a forerunner among German research institutions by committing to fund open access publications. By taking this step the University hopes to boost the motivation of its members to make their publications available online in so-called open access journals. A condition is that suitable quality control measures are assured. In this way the University is doing its part towards guaranteeing free worldwide access to research results via the Internet and making research made-in-Bremen more visible internationally.

But even free access has its price: the business models of open access journals foresee that it is the authors and not the readers who bear the costs – in return, the journals accept responsibility for guaranteeing the academic quality of what they publish. In front of this backdrop, in 2010 the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) [German Research Society] launched a new funding program designed to finance and promote open access publication. Prerequisite: the journals have to ensure that content is peer reviewed prior to publication. The University of Bremen is among the very first research institutions in Germany to benefit from this DFG program. With immediate effect, members of the University of Bremen are now able to publish their work in renowned electronic open access journals at no cost to themselves.

Open access means that research results can be disseminated via the Internet free of charge. The concept is gaining broad international popularity. By the same token, Bremen academics can also avail themselves of a multitude of electronic articles free of charge The University Library already lists over three million references in its open access catalogue – that is almost as many as its entire stock of printed editions.