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Funding criteria for books

In addition to the general funding criteria, other criteria are used to fund books.

Please note the following funding criteria for publications such as monographs, textbooks, edited volumes, and conference proceedings:

Basic principles

  • Applications are open to members of the WI and/or of WI subprojects run by network partners, and to former members of the WI if the research work underpinning the publication was primarily carried out while they were a member of the WI (e.g., doctoral dissertations).
  • The maximum cost of €4,200 net (excluding VAT) for previously unpublished open access monographs, textbooks, edited volumes, and conference proceedings (first publications) must not be exceeded.
  • Funding can be provided for OA production costs for the digital version of the publication. Costs for graphics, illustrations, traditional printing costs and associated costs (e.g. additional costs for colour illustrations) are not eligible for funding.
  • Individual chapters in collective works that do not appear in open access in their entirety are not eligible for funding.
  • Dissertations by WI members can be funded if they are graded summa cum laude or magna cum laude.
  • An application for support for publication costs should be submitted no later than the start of contract negotiations with a publisher.

Requirements relating to the publication and the publisher

  • Rights associated with images and other third-party material have been clarified by the applicants.
  • Long-term archiving is guaranteed (e.g., via the German National Library (DNB).
  • The publisher must be listed as an open access publisher, for instance in the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) or as a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA).
  • Standardised, complete and machine-readable metadata (including persistent identifiers [PIDs]) should be confirmed in databases such as DOAB, OAPEN and other relevant specialist databases.

In addition, as a basic principle, the quality standards applied by the German Research Foundation (DFG) to open access books must be met (see AG UV 2022).