Appear - Open Access Policy

"Conventional subscription journals cause high costs for higher education institutions and for some universities it might be difficult to provide all the relevant scientific journals to their staff and students. It is even more difficult for universities, researchers and students in the Global South to get or maintain access to subscription journals. Regarding equal distribution of knowledge and fair access to sources of knowledge Open Access is not only a great chance for research in general but especially for researchers and students in the Global South. With regard to sustainable development and fair distribution of knowledge APPEAR promotes the idea of Open Access. Research findings and publications of APPEAR projects become freely available and offer opportunities for further build-up on project results. Thereby Open Access can contribute to the sustainability of the programme. In the framework of APPEAR project partners have to support free and permanent access to scientific publications. This means that Open Access is obligatory for scientific publications that result from APPEAR-funded projects or from findings thereof. APPEAR funds the publication of scientific findings gained during APPEAR projects in the Gold Open Access or Hybrid Open Access scheme. Publications according to Green Open Access are not eligible for funding. If a publication is not published according to the Gold or Hybrid Open Access schemes the Green Open Access is scheme is obligatory. Open Access is not obligatory for publications that are intended for the dissemination of project-based content that is relevant in terms of development policy ..."