Open Library Economics: Innovative Open Access for economics

Financing and service for sustainable publications

Dr. Juliane Finger, Kopf von OLEcon, auf der 12. Fachtagung zur Lage der sozial- und geisteswissenschaftlichen Zeitschriften in Hamburg; Foto: Maxim Schulz

Dr Juliane Finger, head of OLEcon, at the 12th symposium on the state of journals in the social sciences and humanities in Hamburg; Photo: Maxim Schulz

OLEcon, the Open Library Economics of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, has established itself as an important platform for the transformation of economics journals into a diamond open access model. With the aim of making scientific findings accessible without barriers and at no cost, OLEcon will be supporting six economics journals that have opted for this forward-looking publication method from 2025. By working with OLEcon, researchers and readers can use scientific content directly and free of charge – a model that is becoming increasingly important and is also attracting international attention as an innovative approach.

Four journals under the OLEcon umbrella

Since its foundation in 2021, OLEcon has steadily gained in importance. The most recent collaboration was with the Verein für Socialpolitik for the open access transformation of the association’s journals “German Economic Review” (GER) and “Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik” (PWP) from 2025. GER is an internationally recognised journal in which research results from the entire spectrum of economic research are published. PWP publishes research papers focussing on economic policy issues and their transfer into practice.

In 2025, OLEcon is funding four other journals in addition to the two journals of the Verein für Socialpolitik:

  1. German Journal of Agricultural Economics (GJAE) – GJAE is the leading platform for research in the field of agricultural and food economics in German-speaking countries. Since 2024, the journal has published entirely in open access, thus expanding the availability of research results for a broader specialist audience and practitioners.
  2. Junior Management Science (JUMS) – Since its foundation in 2017, JUMS has been open access and offers young researchers the opportunity to publish outstanding bachelor’s and master’s theses in business administration. JUMS thus promotes access to innovative approaches and new findings that are often difficult to find and offers young researchers a qualified publication platform.
  3. European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies (EJEEP) is an economics journal that serves as a forum for studies of macroeconomic theory, economic institutions and economic policies. EJEEP has been published in Diamond Open Access since 2023.
  4. Vierteljahrshefte zur Arbeits- und Wirtschaftsforschung (VAW). VAW takes up important current topics in the real economy, labour market development and economic policy and examines them from an applied academic perspective. The new publication follows in the tradition of the “Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung”, which will be discontinued at the end of 2023.

The OLEcon model: Science-led Diamond Open Access

OLEcon supports science-led journals. This means that the decision-making authority over the journals remains with the scientific community. There are no fees for readers or authors. The production costs of the journals are co-financed by a community of academic libraries, a so-called consortium. This offers publishers and scientific societies that do not work commercially a sustainable opportunity to make their content internationally visible and accessible.

Reading tip: Wrzesinski, M. (ed.) (2023): Science-led publishing. Six handouts with practical tips and perspectives. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8169418

Contents:

TECHNOLOGY AND INFRASTRUCTURES: Which digital tools optimise and expand the range of services of a scientific journal?

COPYRIGHT AND DATA PROTECTION: What principles must scientific journals observe when freely licensing and using personal data?

WORKFLOWS AND WORKSTREAMS: How do you ensure the smoothest possible editorial workflows and process quality in a scientific journal?

COMMUNICATION AND DISTRIBUTION: What steps are needed for successful communication and standardised distribution of the content of a scientific journal?

COST STRUCTURES AND BUSINESS MODELS: What cost structures and sustainable funding approaches are there for free scientific journals?

GOVERNANCE AND LEGAL FORM: Which resilient organisational approaches ensure the existence, predictability and quality of a scientific journal?

FAQ on support from OLEcon

1. What financial support does OLEcon offer for the transition to Open Access?

OLEcon provides transitional funding to cover the additional costs during the transformation, for example for personnel support during the organisational changeover or for the release of archive issues. In addition, OLEcon organises co-financing via an open access consortium for the long-term production costs incurred by the journals.

2. To what extent does OLEcon support the planning and implementation of the Open Access transformation?

The OLEcon team, led by Dr Juliane Finger, provides advice throughout the entire transformation process. With expertise in publication services and publisher negotiations, the team offers support with all questions that arise, for example on time planning, cost calculation and discussions with publishers. This ensures a structured and realistic implementation of the open access transition.

3. What role does public relations play in the context of OLEcon support?

OLEcon promotes the publicising of the Open Access transformation through public relations work carried out by the ZBW. The aim is to increase the visibility and acceptance of the converted journals in academic circles and to make the new Open Access content accessible to a wider audience.

4. Which hosting options are available to the magazines?

OLEcon offers two hosting options:

  • (1) Remaining with the current provider: The magazine can remain with the current service provider for hosting, provided that technical quality standards are met. This applies regardless of whether the provider is commercial or non-commercial. The prerequisite is that the provider is actually only a service provider and that governance of the journal lies with the scientific editors.
  • (2) Switch to TIB Open Publishing: As a co-operation partner of OLEcon, TIB Open Publishing offers comprehensive services for Open Access journals, including technical setup and support for Open Journal Systems (OJS), training, article production, indexing, DOI registration and long-term archiving.

OLEcon as a model for Open Access initiatives

OLEcon shows that innovative and science-led open access publication models can be successful and sustainable. Independence from commercial publishers and the immediate availability of research results not only promote scientific exchange, but also offer a sustainable approach for a fairer distribution of knowledge. For libraries, scientific institutions and publishers, OLEcon offers a structured and transparent alternative that is geared towards the needs of science and at the same time reduces financial barriers to access for the scientific community.

The text was written on 28 October 2024.
This text was translated on 20 January 2025 using DeeplPro.



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