Informationsplattform Open Access: Education

Education

In this section we have compiled information on Open Access (OA) in the field of education. If you have any comments or suggestions on this topic, please do not hesitate to send us an E-mail.

 

General information on Open Access in the field of education

During the Science Forum which took place within the framework of the 60th Frankfurt Book Fair, representatives from the science and publishing sectors and members of the German Institute for International Education Research (DIPF) addressed the question: Is Open Access of relevance to educational science? Reporting on the discussion, the German Education Server's blog noted: "Considering the fact that the debate on Open Access has been quite fraught with conflict in the last few years, the absence of fundamental controversies was remarkable. In fact, the discussion focussed on the roles which the individual sectors should play in making scholarly literature and resources openly accessible. In other words: Open Access has arrived in educational science." A summary of the podium discussion and an audio recording of the entire discussion can be found on the Education Server Blog.

The German Eduserver (Deutscher Bildungsserver) provides interested users with fast, up-to-date, comprehensive and free access to fundamental, high-quality information and Internet sources. The server's website features detailed information on OA and a well-arranged collection of links on the subject of OA and OA journals in the field of education. As of December 2007, the server's German-language lexicon of education BildungsWiki, (Education Wiki) contained some 750 articles, some of which were imported from Wikipedia's collection and processed for presentation in BildungsWiki.

The German Education Portal (Fachportal Paedagogik) is Germany's central point of access to databases in the field of education. It also offers information on institutions and projects. The portal's meta-search function facilitates a comprehensive literature search and, whenever possible, free electronic access to full texts. The subject-based document server pedocs, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and operated by the German Institute for International Education Research (DIPF), aims to bundle electronic full-text contributions in the field of pedagogics and education research, to specify the quality-control criteria (for example, peer review) that they fulfil, and to preserve them on a long-term basis. The fact that pedocs is integrated in the German Education Portal, the German Education Index (FIS) and the German Eduserver, and that full-text documents are findable via search engines and library catalogues, ensures global availability of its content. A number of publishers in the field of education cooperate with pedocs (see Kooperierende Verlage).

The areas of education which deal with E-learning are particularly well-disposed towards OA. The use of the Internet as a learning medium and the possibility of making learning material openly accessible and of having unrestricted access to scientific and scholarly information are of particular interest here.

The German Institute for Adult Education (DIE) has been practising OA in the area of further education since the end of the 1990s. The Institute's E-publication collection texts.online contains both research-based and practice-orientated contributions on adult education which can be downloaded free of charge. DIE submits its metadata to the German Education Index (FIS) and is thus also represented in the German Education Portal. Some of its authors are members of the Institute, others are external (for example, students, practitioners, researchers – also from neighbouring disciplines). Copyright permitting, the Institute provides free access to online versions of its internal print publications on its website.

The Comenius Institute has set up an OA section on its website where topical publications can be downloaded free of charge. The Web portal reticon – education and new media keeps its users up to date on OA developments in the field of education.

The Literature Database for Vocational Education and Training (LDBB) is the only literature database in Germany on research in vocational education. It has been openly accessible for all to search online since 2005. For the years of publication 2004-2007, OA records with a direct link to full texts accounted for 25% of all records.

OnlinePublishing – Online Literature Social Research is a useful German-language online portal on OA. It provides an overview of OA social research journals.

The OpenCourseWare Consortium has its own blog (OCW Blog) which provides information on topics such as Open Educational Resources (OERs). OCW Blog is a member of OER Blogs, a group of blogs on OERs and Open Access.

The Hamburg University Press, which publishes many monographs in the humanities and the social sciences, expressly supports the OA movement.

References

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Open Access journals

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Subject-based repositories

Pedocs, the subject-based full-text server provides electronic full-text contributions from the field of pedagogics and educational research.

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Member of the open-access.net Scientific Advisory Board from the field of education

 

 

Prof. Dr. Ingrid Gogolin of the University of Hamburg, Faculty of Education, Psychology and Human Movement; President of the European Educational Research Association (EERA), member of the Academic Council of the University of Hamburg.

 

Other members of the board

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Content mentor

Edited/compiled by:

Sandra Schaffert, salzburg research, Webblog Sandra Schaffert

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