Informationsplattform Open Access: History

History

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

 

General information on Open Access in the field of history

Historians are generally well disposed towards all forms of Open Access. The historians Professor Gudrun Gersmann, director of the German Historical Institute in Paris, and Professor emeritus Winfried Schulze of the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich are two of the best-known German advocates of OA.

As early as 2002, the ECHO Project published on its website a declaration endorsing OA. In the Echo Charter, the partners in the EU-funded project - a network of research institutes, museums, archives, libraries and other institutions - emphasised the importance of making European cultural heritage, and the IT-tools developed by ECHO for accessing this heritage, openly accessible. ECHO offers an extensive collection of digital documents on a wide variety of scientific and cultural topics, especially on the history of science.

In June 2007, the Census of Antique Works of Art and Architecture Known in the Renaissance made its extensive database openly accessible online. The database covers some 6,500 antique works linked to approximately 28,000 Renaissance text and image documents. The Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences (BBAW), one of the earliest signatories of the Berlin Declaration on Open Access, considers the conversion of the database to OA to be a further step in the implementation of the Declaration. For more information, see the report in the Heise Newsticker (available in German only).

 

The German Internet portal historicum.net provides access to a wide range of historical resources.

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

 

Perspectivia.net, a communication and publication platform for the German Humanities Institutes Abroad, is under construction. The project, which is headed by Professor Dr. Gudrun Gersmann of the German Historical Institute in Paris, went online on 31st October 2008.

 

References

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Open Access journals

German-language OA journals in the field of history:

International OA journals in the field of history:

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Subject-based repositories and databases

  • Historisches Forum is a series of theme issues featuring selected contributions and reports from the field of history. The issues are published in collaboration with partners from Clio-Online and the Humboldt University in Berlin.
  • H-Soz-u-Kult, the leading communication and information platform in the field of history in Germany. Short reports on the subject of OA are posted regularly.
  • Clio-Online, the main portal in the field of history in Germany, features a comprehensive Web Directory. Under the heading Resources, extensive information on exhibitions, teaching material, publications, multimedia-material, sources and software can be found.
  • Under the heading E-Publishing, the virtual art history library arthistoricum.net provides information on opportunities for having art history texts published online.
  • Propylaeum, a virtual academic library of ancient history
  • Census of Antique Works of Art and Architecture Known in the Renaissance – an inter-disciplinary research database focussing on Renaissance research and the reception of antiquity
  • SavifaDok, a digital repository for South Asian studies
  • Das Wörterbuch-Netz, (Dictionary Net) a project of the Kompetenzzentrum für elektronische Erschließungs- und Publikationsverfahren in den Geisteswissenschaften (Competence Centre for Electronic Information Retrieval and Publishing Techniques in the Humanities) at the University of Trier
  • Gutenberg-e, a programme of the American Historical Association and Columbia University Press. The digital monographs published by the Columbia University Press are openly accessible.
  • MALTE, the digitised early prints of the library of the Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) in Munich, is openly accessible.
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Members of the open-access.net Scientific Advisory Board from the field of history

 

Prof. Dr. Gudrun Gersmann - German Historical Institute, Paris, Editor of Zeitenblicke

 

Prof. Dr. Juergen Renn - Director at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG), Berlin

 

Other board members

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Content mentor

Edited/compiled byMentors:

Dr. Joachim Losehand, University of Oldenburg, Institute of History

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