Project DEAL

The DEAL project is committed to concluding new contracts for publishing with major academic publishers (Wiley, Springer, Elsevier) throughout Germany. The cornerstones of these contracts are access to the complete journal portfolio of the respective publisher, open access to publications by German authors, and pricing based on the publication volume of each institution.

Currently, there are contracts with Wiley (2019/22) and Springer (2020/22).

Both contracts allow free publication in subscription journals (Hybrid OA) throughout Germany within the framework of the so-called "Publish & Read model". RUB authors must select Ruhr-Universität Bochum as affiliation in the submission process. Please do not deselect Open Access here, as costs are also incurred for these so-called "opt-out articles".

For publications in pure Open Access journals (Gold OA) with Wiley or Springer (incl. BMC), the DEAL contracts guarantee a discount of 20% in advance. In addition, if the eligibility criteria of the publication fund are reached, an application for funding can be submitted.

The article costs for Gold Open Access articles are invoiced by the publishers on a quarterly or biannual basis; invoicing for individual articles is not possible. The University Library pays in advance and invoices internally afterwards, usually via transfer postings.

Further information and the journal lists can be found at: https://deal-operations.de/en/

Perspective

As of 2023 (Wiley and Springer), the above-mentioned "Publish & Read model" is to be changed to a Publish model throughout Germany, at which point article-based billing will be required. Authors will continue to have the right to decide for or against Open Access, the political desire supported by the Ruhr University is to publish Open Access under a CC BY licence.