OLEcon services for editors
Information for Editors
The OLEcon team supports journal editors with establishing a scholar-led Diamond Open Access model and in setting up a sustainable funding model.
New round of applications for scholar-led Diamond Open Access journals
The call for applications for 2026 has ended!
Are you an editor of a journal that would like to switch to Diamond Open Access?
Are you planning to set up a new Diamond Open Access journal?
For questions about an application, please contact: olecon@zbw-online.eu
You can find the information about the content of expressions of interest here.
Conditions & criteria for funding
OLEcon is addressed to editors of scholarly journals that …
— relate to business and economics research, i.e. the journals publish research findings
from business, economics or related disciplines;
— are aimed primarily at the academic researcher community;
— publish research findings from different national and/or international
scientific institutions;
— comply with basic scholarly standards of quality (in particular peer review
of scholarly papers);
— are, or intend to become scholar-led.
Editors can apply who:
— are currently publishing their journal in Open Access and want to
use the funding to develop a sustainable business model;
— are currently publishing their journal in a subscription model and
want to use the funding period to change to an Open Access model;
— want to establish a new journal as an Open Access journal.
Our Offer
Funding
OLEcon supports journals during the transformation with transitional co-funding. The funding can be used for purposes that relate directly to journal publication, e.g., costs for staff or costs for making back issues of a journal available in Open Access.
With the project OLEKonsort, we build a sustainable financing structure for the funded journals.
Advice
The OLEcon team advises you during the transformation of your journal to Open Access and/or another funding model. Our team has many skills and much experience in the area of publishing services and negotiations with publishers. We are happy to support you, if needed, in any questions arising during the transformation of your journal. We can help you e.g. by planning the time schedule or costs issues regarding the transformation, or we can support you, when negotiating with your current publisher.
Public Relations and presenation
We help you communicate the transformation of your journal through ZBW public relations channels.
Journal Hosting
There are two options for the hosting of your journal.
a) REMAIN:
You can stay with your current hosting provider as a service provider. For this, the service provider needs to comply with certain technical criteria of quality. This applies regardless of whether your service provider is a non-commercial provider, such as a university library, or a commercial publisher.
b) CHANGE:
You can change to the non-commercial institutional publishing service provider TIB Open Publishing. TIB Open Publishing is a cooperation partner of OLEcon. TIB Open Publishing offers the following services in cooperation with OLEcon:
— Technical setup of the journal and support for the software Open Journal Systems (OJS)
— Trainings for the software OJS
— Semi-automatic production of articles
— Indexation of the journal in pertinent databases
— Use of Crossref Similarity Check software for plagiarism checks
— Crossref DOI registration
— Registration or transfer of an eISSN
— Ingest into the Open Access Repository EconStor
— Long-term digital preservation
— Conformity with data protection requirements
You can find more information about their services on the website of TIB Open Publishing.
Both options are financially supported by OLEcon.
Standards & Guidelines
Quality standards
The ZBW puts particular emphasis on compliance with quality standards in OLEcon. A peer review process is a prerequisite for funding from OLEcon.
We also have technical standards for quality which the service provider hosting the journal must comply with. The quality of the journal’s content is the responsibility of the journal’s editors.
Open Access standards
After the transformation to Open Access, the journals should comply with the criteria of “real” Open Access as laid down in the Berlin Declaration on open access to knowledge in the
sciences and humanities. This includes publication under a Creative Commons CC-BY licence for scholarly content.
An easy introduction to Creative Commons licences can be found in the flyer produced by the OGeSoMo project (University Duisburg-Essen).
Open Data
We welcome the open publication of research data together with their related scholarly papers. Editors of OLEcon journals can use a ZBW web service for the publication of research data, if required: the Journal Data Archive.
Process of application for funding by OLEcon
The decision for funding by OLEcon is made through a grant procedure. It serves to ensure transparency, non-discrimination, and efficiency in funding. The formal invitation to tender is published on an online portal.
The grant procedure has two steps:
The first step is the expression of interest. Here you need to give some information about the journal. During this step we check if the journal fulfils formal criteria. A comparative evaluation of all journals follows in the second step. At the end a grant for funding is made.
The procedure takes approximately six months.
Do you have any questions about the grant procedure?
Get in touch with us.
Weitere Informationen Rund um das Thema Diamond Open Access
Für weitere Informationen zum Konsortium hören Sie doch gerne die Folge 39 „Das OLEcon-Konsortium“ des Podcasts „The Future is Open Science“ rein.
Die Podcastfolge finden Sie hier:
Speziell an Herausgebende von wissenschaftsgeleiteten Zeitschriften richten sich die Handreichungen des Alexander von Humboldt Instituts für Internet und Gesellschaft:
Finger, Juliane / Schäfer, Lisa: Die Open Library Economics: wissenschaftsgeleiteter Open Access für die deutsche Wirtschaftsforschung. In: Ertl, Hubert, Rödel, Bodo (Eds.): Offene Zusammenhänge. Open Access in der Berufsbildungsforschung, ISBN 978-3-8474-2680-6, Leverkusen: Verlag Barbara Budrich, 2022, pp. 243-253 Link zum Volltext (PDF)
