Rights notices and licences

Which licenses play a role on Gutenberg Open Science?

The publication on Gutenberg Open Science is done under a standardized license of the University of Mainz (Deposit License). In addition, by granting a Creative Commons License (CC License), you can specify the modalities of subsequent use of your publication by third parties. The license granted to the University of Mainz and a CC license have in common that both contain copyright regulations. However, they concern different legal relationships.

What is a Deposit License and can I still publish my publication with a publisher after I have already published it on Gutenberg Open Science?

As the term Deposit License implies, this is a deposit or archiving license. A written agreement ("licence") regulates the rights and obligations between authors and the University Library. You can view and download this license agreement here. You can view an English version here. Please note that this is a courtesy translation. Only the German version of this document is legally binding. Please sign the German version.

Authors transfer the simple right of use of the publications to the University Library. Thus, publication on Gutenberg Open Science does not prevent further publication in journals or monographs or in other electronic systems.

  • The granting of the simple right of use means that you yourself can put your publication online elsewhere (e.g. on your own homepage) or even print it without having to ask the University Library for permission. You can also grant a third party the right to put your publication online elsewhere or to print it. However, you can no longer grant an exclusive right of use to a third party.
  • If other authors are involved in the publication in addition to yourself, you need their permission. Furthermore, by granting rights, you confirm that the publication on Gutenberg Open Science does not infringe the rights of third parties.
  • It is the responsibility of the authors or publishers of the documents to observe the copyrights and exploitation rights of third parties. Numerous publishers allow parallel publication of documents on full-text servers such as Gutenberg Open Science. Further information can be found here
  • If your publication has already been published as a published version under the CC BY license with a publisher, then you do not need to submit the deposit license.

Which privacy issues do I need to address before uploading?

It may be that other persons are named in the publication or were involved in the publication. Please clarify whether they agree to the publication of their name. This can be done in a confirmation by mail or in another form.

  • If only one or more co-authors are involved in your dissertation, the Deposit Licence is sufficient. All co-authors have to sign the license as well.
  • Supervisor: Often the authors, but also the supervisors of theses want the supervisor relationship to be reflected in the publication of the thesis. In this case, the supervisor should agree to the use of the name in the context of the publication of the thesis as well as to the catalog entry of the name in a field provided for this purpose. If the consent is given, a link will be made to standard data sets of the GND of the German National Library. This enables a clear assignment of the supervisors to the individual theses.
  • Person(s) who have acted in a supporting capacity: Persons who have supported the publication without becoming co-authors are often named in scientific works and theses. These are, for example, persons who have carried out activities in the laboratory and collected data. Publication of the works with the names given and corresponding cataloging requires a declaration of consent under data protection law from this person/these persons.
  • Acknowledgments: Scientific works and theses often contain acknowledgments to various persons who are named. The publication of these acknowledgements is only permitted with the consent of the persons named. No cataloging is made in this context.
  • In principle, the requirements of the DS-GVO apply as soon as personal data are processed. It does not matter whether these are purely scientific acknowledgements or acknowledgements to private third parties. We recommend the following procedure regarding the naming of persons involved in the context of purely scientific acknowledgements: It is the responsibility of the author of the work, as the person responsible under data protection law, to obtain consent under data protection law.

What are usage rights and CC licenses?

The CC license determines the relationship with the readers of the publication. This defines the conditions under which the copyrighted content may be used. Here you have the possibility to decide between different concrete types of use. The use of a CC licence is not compulsory, but is recommended by renowned organisations such as the German National Library (DNB), as this creates legal certainty for users regarding permitted uses. CC licenses are now well known and are explained in an understandable way.

The individual CC licenses at a glance:

IMPORTANT : Once the document has been published on Gutenberg Open Science, the chosen CC license cannot be changed. More information about CC licenses can be found in this handout and on the Creative Commons homepage.

Can I publish Open Access if my publication is published by a publisher?

A second publication can also significantly increase the reach and reception of your publication. In its Open-Access policy, the University of Mainz therefore explicitly encourages researchers to take advantage of this opportunity.

In the case of a second publication in Open Access, a publication that has already appeared elsewhere and is subject to costs or subscriptions is made freely available in a repository with a certain time delay. A distinction is made between institutional repositories such as Gutenberg Open Science, which are operated by one (scientific) institution, and disciplinary repositories which specialise in certain subject areas and work across institutions. The OpenDOAR service provides an international directory of repositories.

The right of secondary publication is generally reserved for the authors. However, the possibilities for this vary from publisher to publisher and can be found on the provider's website or in the SHERPA/RoMEO directory. There you will also find information on whether the so-called "Publisher PDF" (the version published by the publisher) or the "Accepted Version" (the version of the manuscript accepted after review) may be used.

Irrespective of these regulations of the individual publishers, authors have had a legal right of secondary publication since 2014 if their publication is first published by a German publisher. This right, which is regulated in Section 38 (4) UrhG, is subject to the following conditions:

  • They must be scientific publications from public funding.
  • The right applies only to contributions in periodical publications (e.g. magazines, collections).
  • The second publication may not be made before 12 months after the first publication.
  • Only the manuscript version accepted by the publisher may be used.
  • The secondary publication may not be made for commercial purposes.
  • The exact bibliographical data of the first publication must be given with the second publication.

See this list from TUUB for information on publishers guidelines for reuse of journal articles in dissertations and on cumulative dissertations.

If you would like to use Gutenberg Open Science to upload a secondary publication, please contact us, e-mail: publikationssysteme@ub.uni-mainz.de

Where can I find further information about licenses and copyright?