Open Access is the free and public access to scientific articles via Internet. Interested parties should be able, in an unrestricted manner, to read, download, copy, distribute, print, look through, refer to and use the complete texts in any legal way, without financial, legal or technical barriers. The copyright of any authors remains unaffected throughout, for users see quoting in a scientifically correct manner as a matter-of-course duty.

The Wuppertal Institute supports the global Open Access Initiative and sees the "Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities" as pioneering. For the promotion of Open Access, the Wuppertal Institute has decided on the following guidelines:

"Results of the Wuppertal Institute's research should, where possible, be published digitally and be freely accessible. The scientists may decide on the format, location and manner of publication.

The Wuppertal Institute expects its researchers to publish their results using the Open Access model, be this in an Open-Access journal or by saving a copy of the examined and published article on the Wuppertal Institute's publication server.

In any case, it is up to the authors to secure for themselves the copyright, in order to allow, in addition to possible commercial usages through any publishers, other researchers access to their work. This requires the provision of a digital copy of the articles. In addition, the Wuppertal Institute works towards securing agreements with employers of third party projects and where applicable also with project partners, in order to make project reports freely available. For this, the Wuppertal Institute places a standardised formulation aid at the author's disposal.

Authors allow free access to the results of their research by saving them in a digital format in an institutional archive that is freely accessible through the Internet. This takes place at the earliest possible time after publication, preferably on the Wuppertal Institute's publication server.

The publication server offers authors global access to complete texts and long-term storage of their publications. With the aid of structured metadata, the articles will be bibliographically described and will be made available through national and international library catalogues, search engines and other research tools.

For the publication on this server, the scientific quality assurance has developed suitable procedures and oversees their compliance.

The implementation and further development of these guidelines is based on national and international activities of scientific organisations and respective communities.

The Wuppertal Institute supports the researchers in the implementation of these guidelines and is readily available to provide any advice."