Libraries, universities and universities of applied sciences (including private ones), research institutions worldwide, civil society organisations, private companies and private individuals are invited to participate in the funding of the journal bundles. They can make a financial contribution so that the journals can exist sustainably as open access journals without charging authors publication costs or fees for reading access. The amount of the support contributions is based on the financing volume of the bundle and is broken down according to KOALA's own price scale (see the respective product data sheet).
Jointly funding Open Access: KOALA at the SLUB
KOALA is the acronym for Building Consortial Open Access Solutions. This initiative gives libraries, research institutions, foundations, companies and individuals the opportunity to establish collaborative funding solutions for open access journals and book series based on fairness, transparency and reliability.
In this way, participants can create a science-friendly alternative to the dominant APC and BPC models (Article and Book Processing Charges). Quality-assured Open Access publications in Diamond Open Access not only reduce financial barriers, but also enable universal access to scientific information. In the course of this, qualitative requirements are defined by minimum standards which editors and publishers of KOALA journals and book series undertake to comply with.
In 2024, the KOALA model developed by the Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB) Hannover and the Communication, Information and Media Centre (KIM) of the University of Konstanz will be piloted as KOALA-SLUB at the SLUB Dresden in order to establish funding for 11 journals, grouped into 3 subject-specific journal bundles.
By contributing to the funding, you can ensure that the publications of these journals can be published as open access without having to charge authors publication costs or fees for reading access. In this way, you can make a valuable contribution to an open access culture.
How long does the funding period run for?
The funding period of the journal bundles is scheduled for 3 years, i.e. 2025, 2026 and 2027.
How can I take part?
Libraries, universities and research institutions that have access to LAS:eRreceive the funding surveys via LAS:eR. If you do not have access to LAS:eR, you can of course still participate. In this case, please contact: koala@slub-dresden.de
KOALA Bundle "History"
Product data sheet with detailed information.
The "History" bundle contains the following magazines:
Contributions to the History of Concepts
Contributions to the History of Concepts is the international peer-reviewed journal of the History of Concepts Group (formerly HPSCG). It is hosted by the Bielefeld University and published by Berghahn Journals. The journal publishes theoretical and methodological articles as well as empirical studies on the history of concepts from various disciplines, such as history, linguistics, or political science. The journal has no regional focus and is published in English. The journal follows a double-blind peer review process soliciting two reviews per article. The average amount of articles published per year is 11 and the issues also include book reviews. It is internationally well-known with a long-standing tradition and is rooted within a well-established research community which provides a stable international readership.
S:I.M.O.N.
S:I.M.O.N. is the open-access peer-reviewed e-journal of the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI). S:I.M.O.N. aims at both a transnational and comparative history of the Holocaust and Jewish studies in Central and Eastern Europe within the broader contexts of European history. Contributions in S:I.M.O.N. are published in English or German. In average 15 to 20 articles are published in S:I.M.O.N. per year. In addition to the research articles, S:I.M.O.N. also publishes readers, essays and reviews. In recent years, S:I.M.O.N. has developed into a central publication forum for Holocaust researchers in Central and Eastern Europe. The open accessibility of the texts, professional editing and academic supervision by VWI staff and the editorial board ensure the high quality of the contributions. At the same time, both younger researchers and established scholars find a publication opportunity here that, thanks to the networks and reputation of the VWI, creates a wide outreach and impact.
KOALA Bundle "Environment"
Product data sheet with detailed information.
The "Environment" bundle contains the following magazines:
Environmental Psychology Open (EPO)
Environmental Psychology Open (EPO) is a Diamond-OA journal that has evolved from the journal Umweltpsychologie (> 25 years, ⌀ 15 articles p.a.) and is endorsed by the DGPs Environmental Psychology Section. EPO aims to make psychological knowledge visible and usable for sustainable improvements of the living environment – with a focus on the research fields environmental psychology and sustainability sciences as well as their areas of application. Submissions are possible in German or English (as research reports, practice reports, case studies, commentaries or registered reports) and are subject to an open peer review process. EPO deliberately has no focus on specific geographical regions. Apart from EPO, there is only one other Diamond OA journal dedicated to environmental psychology research; this journal focuses on contributions with an international orientation and publishes in English only.
Worldwide Waste: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies
Worldwide Waste: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies This English-language journal applies double blind peer review to seven research articles per annum, and also publishes editorials. It is interdisciplinary with a focus in history and social science. Its perspective is worldwide.Worldwide Waste presents innovative research on waste from around the world. It provides the first scholarly platform for open-access scholarship that critically interrogates the cultural, social, economic and political systems within which waste is created, managed and circulated. Devoted to scholarship, the journal privileges no particular theories, debates or trends. Its goal is to actively stimulate publications of innovative scholarship on relatively unexplored topics and/or from geographical areas that have thus far been underrepresented in waste studies.
Global Environment: A Journal of Transdisciplinary History
Global Environment: A Journal of Transdisciplinary HistoryThis English-language journal applies double blind peer review to 15 research articles per annum, and publishes editorials, book reviews and notes. It is interdisciplinary with a focus in history and social science. Its perspective is worldwide with an emphasis on the Global South.Global Environment acts as a forum for studies on the environment and world history, with special focus on modern and contemporary topics. Our intent is to stimulate scholarship that, despite a diversity of approaches, shares an environmental perspective on world history in its various facets, including economic development, social relations, production government, and international relations. The journal aims to facilitate a common language in the study of history by bringing together the natural and the social sciences.
KOALA Bundle "Social and Cultural Anthropology"
Product data sheet with detailed information.
The "Social and Cultural Anthropology" bundle is supported by the FID Social and Cultural Anthropology
The "Social and Cultural Anthropology" bundle contains the following journals:
Berliner Blätter
At the intersection of research, professional practice and studies, the Berliner Blätter offer a forum for ethnographically informed, scientific reflections as well as theoretical, methodological and socio-political discussions in European Ethnology/ Social-Cultural Anthropology. Each year, two to three issues with around eight articles in German or English are published, written from authors at different academic qualification stages. Usually, these are themed issues conceived by a team of editors and closely supervised by the editorial team. This ensures a representation of a wide range of topics and theoretical perspectives, and provides the opportunity for creative formats of knowledge transfer and different text genres and visual and graphic forms of expression (interviews, research sketches, photo essays, etc.). The respective editors are responsible for organizing the review process (mostly editorial and peer review).
Ethnoscripts - Journal for current ethnological studies
Ethnoscripts – Contemporary Anthropologyhas been published since 1999 by the Institute of Anthropology at the University of Hamburg and engages with current anthropological questions and debates. The journal covers all regions of the world and is published annually as an Open Access medium in both German and English. Each issue focuses on a specific theme, which is proposed by guest editors and their groups and then developed through a peer review process. Additionally, the editorial team conducts an editorial peer review. In addition to thematic focuses, the journal includes sections such as research and conference reports, reviews, and interviews. Each issue typically features around 10 publications, of which approximately 6-8 are research articles.
Curare. Journal of Medical Anthropology
Curare. Journal of Medical Anthropology has provided an international and interdisciplinary forum for the discussion of all aspects of health, illness, medicine and healing in the past and present in all regions of the world since 1978. Each year it publishes around 30 contributions. In addition to English, Curare is the only medical anthropology journal that also publishes contributions in German. Two issues are published each year, each with a thematic focus, usually edited by guest editors. The quality assurance of research articles is based on a double-blind peer review process with at least two reviewers. Contributions to the reports and reviews sections as well as the forum, which is open to essayistic interventions and methodological-didactic reflections, are reviewed by the editorial team. The journal is published in Open Access.
Hamburg Journal for Cultural Anthropology (HJK)
The Hamburger Journal für Kulturanthropologie (HJK) is a scientific publication of the Institute for Anthropology Studies in Culture and History at the University of Hamburg. The texts, revised versions after thorough review of the editor of the special issues, are reviewed and edited by two members of the editorial board in a two-stage process. In some cases, the editorial team involves external experts who anonymously check the content of the articles.
The HJK publishes articles in the fields of Anthropology Studies in Culture and History and related disciplines, often as themed issues, sometimes with a regional focus (e.g. Hamburg). Contributions are published in German or English. In the last 5 years an average of 29 articles per year have been published.
Journal for Empirical Cultural Studies (ZEKW)
The Zeitschrift für Empirische Kulturwissenschaft (ZEKW) is a German-language academic journal in the field of Empirical Cultural Studies, European Ethnology, Cultural Anthropology and Folklore, published on behalf of the German Society for Cultural Analysis / European Ethnology – DGEKW (until 2021 Deutsche Gesellschaft für Volkskunde – dgv). It is published twice a year and contains essays, reports and reviews. Between four and six essays/articles appear per issue. All essays go through a peer review process (double blind). Contributions can be published in German and English (other publication languages are possible in consultation with the editors).
A regional focus in the topic design is on Europe; themed issues are possible. The ZEKW is published Open Access under a CC BY 4.0 license. Since 2022 (renaming of the publishing professional association), the ZEKW has directly continued the over a hundred-year tradition of the Zeitschrift für Volkskunde (ZfVk).
Cultural Anthropology Notes (KAN)
The publication series of the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology Frankfurt, Kulturanthropologie Notizen (KAN) is a peer-reviewed journal that deals with current issues and innovative research approaches in cultural anthropology, European ethnology and science and technology studies. KAN publishes approximately 16 research articles per year. KAN covers a wide range of topics, from urban development and migration to medical anthropology and environmental policies with a European focus and planetary horizon. KAN is an important specialist platform with inter- and transdisciplinary links and offers all academic status groups the opportunity to publish their research and, for example, to learn about the latest methodological discussions.
Minimum standards
Journals that participate in KOALA funding undertake to comply with minimum standards. They were developed based on the catalogue of requirements of the Plan S initiative, supplemented by the Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing of COPE, DOAJ, OASPA and WAME. The minimum standards are divided into mandatory requirements and recommendations.
Status August 2024
Copyright and licences
Requirements
Immidiate access to the full text
The full text must be accessible without delay, free of charge and without registration or other technical barriers.
Copyright retention
Authors must retain the copyright and right of use to their work.
CC BY as the standard license
All publications need to carry a Creative Commons license. CC BY should be the default license, while CC BY-SA and CC0 are also accepted. CC BY-ND can be used if an author explicitely requests it and the use is justified.
Machine-readable license in the metadata
The applied license needs to be embedded in a machine-readable format in the metadata.
Human-readable license in all text formats
All published text versions (HTML, PDF, ePub etc.) need to carry the applied license in plain text.
Recommendations
Machine-readable license in the full text
It is recommended to embed a machine-readable version of the applied license in the full text.
Published Open Access statement
The journal or book series should publish an Open Access statement, such as:
"All contributions to the journal XYZ are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. You may freely use the published contributions under the terms of the licence. There is no exclusive transfer of rights of use ("copyright transfer") to the journal. XYZ does not charge authors any costs for publication (so-called Article Processing Charges, APC/Book Processing Charges, BPC) or submission (so-called Submission Charges)."
Technical specifications, metadata and indexing
Requirements
Long-term digital preservation
Digital long-term digital preservation of the content must be guaranteed (if necessary by a service provider).
ISSN/eISSN
The journal or book series must have an ISSN or eISSN.
Indexing in DOAJ or DOAB
The journal or the titles of the book series must be indexed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) or the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) or in the process of being indexed.
Use of DOI or other PIDs for every article/volume
Each journal article or volume of a book series must be furnished with a separate Persistent Identifier (PID), e. g. DOI or URN. There must be versioning, e. g. for revisions.
Metadata under CC0
The publications (article, contribution to an anthology, volume, etc.) must be provided with metadata in a common, non-proprietary format (e. g. according to the Dublin Core scheme in JATS) under CC0.
Information about funding in the metadata
In the metadata of the publication (article, contribution to an anthology, volume, etc.), there must be a separate metadata field to be filled in optionally to indicate any funding received.
No data tracking
The technical systems used must not collect any data on usage that goes beyond what is technically necessary. The data collected must be described in a data protection declaration in accordance with the applicable regulations (e. g. GDPR).
Recommendations
Deposit Open Access Policy with Sherpa Romeo
It is recommended to register the self-archiving policy of the journal or book series in Sherpa Romeo.
PIDs at chapter level
For the individual volumes of a publication series, it is recommended that separate PIDs be assigned at chapter level. This applies to both contributions in anthologies and chapters in monographs.
Availability of citation data
It is recommended that bibliographic and citation data be made openly available in accordance with the principles of Open Citations.
Technical support or interfaces for PID for authors (ORCID iD) and institutions (ROR)
It is recommended to implement interfaces to support the use of Persistent Identifiers for authors (ORCID iD) and institutions (ROR).
Funding
Requirement
Transparent funding without author-facing costs
Journals and publication series funded by KOALA consortia may not charge any author-facing costs, including charges for colour illustrations, overlong articles or similar. Transparency is expected towards the consortium leader with regard to financial expenditure. If the journal or book series, the editorial staff, or the editors regularly receive grants from third parties, this must be reported on the website.
Editorial policies, review processes, scope etc.
Requirements
No mirror/sister journal
There must be no so-called mirror or sister journal, i.e. a thematically similar subscription journal where there is significant overlap in the editorial team.
Transparent ownership and management information
Information about the ownership and management of the journal or book series must be published on the publication's website.
Information about the editorial board and editors
Information on the editorial board and/or the editors of the journal or series must be published on the website. At a minimum, the names of the editorial board members or editors, their institutional affiliation and, if applicable, their role must be mentioned. At least one contact option (via contact form or by providing an email address) must be available.
Established (peer) review process
The journal or book series must have a solid process of content quality assurance (peer review) according to the standards of the discipline. If the practice of editorial review is common in the respective discipline, there must be at least two reviewers per text. Detailed information on the review process and the reviewers as well as the review criteria must be published on the website.
Publication of statistics on the number of submissions, reviews, etc.
Key statistics must be published annually:
- Number of submissions
- Number of reviews requested
- Number of reviews received
- Number of accepted submissions
- Average time between submission and publication.
Information about the publication frequency
The publication frequency of the journal or book series must be published on the website. For book series, an approximate indication (e. g. "2-4 volumes per year") is sufficient.
Information about aims and scope
Information about the aims and scope of the journal or book series must be available on the website, e. g. in a section titled "About the journal".
Recommendations
Publication date, submission date and date of acceptance
It is recommended to publish the publication date, submission date and acceptance date for each article or volume.
Publication of instructions for authors
It is recommended to provide information and guidelines for authoring, formatting, citation styles, etc.
No advertising
It is recommended that no third party advertisements be placed on the website and that a statement about this is published on the website.
Ethical guidelines
It is recommended that ethical guidelines are established and published. These should address the following issues:
- how complaints are handled;
- how conflicts of interest are identified and made transparent;
- if relevant, which policies on data sharing and reproducibility are in place;
- if relevant, how how consent was obtained for publications that affect personal rights;
- if relevant, which policies for publications regarding vulnerable populations, minors or research using animals are in place;
- wich options there are for for post-publication discussions and corrections.