Ulrich Herb

#### No agreement with Frontiers in Germany {#no-agreement-with-frontiers-in-germany .wp-block-heading}

As Bernhard Mittermaier, head of the central library of the
Forschungszentrum Jülich, announced yesterday, there will be no
agreement with Frontiers in Germany. The negotiations between the
Forschungszentrum Jülich and the Open Access Publisher
[Frontiers](https://www.frontiersin.org/){.rank-math-link
target="_blank" aria-label="Frontiers (opens in a new tab)"
rel="noreferrer noopener"} on a nationwide framework contract did not
succeed.

In his
[message](https://lists.fu-berlin.de/pipermail/ipoa-forum/2020-December/msg00004.html){.rank-math-link
aria-label="message (opens in a new tab)" target="_blank"
rel="noreferrer noopener"} (in German language, translated for this
posting) he states: The "publishing house Frontiers Media SA and the
Central Library of Forschungszentrum Jülich (...) have been negotiating
a Germany-wide consortium for Frontiers' journals since autumn 2018. In
February 2020, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed, which
contained the status of the negotiations, the points still outstanding,
and a timetable for concluding a contract. Potential participating
institutions were asked for feedback on the MoU by the end of June 2020.
The feedback focused on the criticism of the abolition of an APC cap,
which is currently in place in many cases. Frontiers, however, was not
willing to continue such a cap. (...)  
In view of these developments, Frontiers and Forschungszentrum Jülich
have worked together on a new model for financing open access
publications at Frontiers. Unfortunately, no final agreement could be
reached on this, so it was jointly decided to terminate the
negotiations."

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large">
<div class="cc-attribution-box-container">
<img
src="https://scidecode.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/No-nationwide-framework-agreement-with-the-Open-Access-Publisher-Frontiers-in-Germany.png"
class="wp-image-4780" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="256"
height="159" alt="No agreement with Frontiers in Germany" />
<div class="cc-attribution-box">

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</figure>

#### The criticism {#the-criticism .wp-block-heading}

The criticism on the planned agreement with the Open Access Publisher
Frontiers in Germany stemmed from the fact that many German universities
and universities of applied sciences have set up Open Access funds
funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG) in its program [Open Access
Publizieren](https://www.dfg.de/foerderung/programme/infrastruktur/lis/lis_foerderangebote/open_access/){.rank-math-link
aria-label="Open Access Publizieren (opens in a new tab)"
rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"}, which reimburse APCs in Gold
Open Access Journals up to a maximum of €2000 gross. Many libraries
regard this limit as a suitable means of not overburdening their Open
Access budget and see it as an opportunity to slow down the price
increase of APCs. Two examples of the criticism of the planned Frontiers
agreement mentioned by Mr. Mittermaier can be found online, one by
[Thomas
Krichl](https://inetbib.de/listenarchiv/msg67547.html){.rank-math-link
aria-label="Thomas Krichl (opens in a new tab)"
rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"} and one by [Michael
Wohlgemuth](https://inetbib.de/listenarchiv/msg67548.html){.rank-math-link
aria-label="Michael Wohlgemuth (opens in a new tab)"
rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"}.

#### The key points of the Memorandum {#the-key-points-of-the-memorandum .wp-block-heading}

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large">
<div class="cc-attribution-box-container">
<img
src="https://scidecode.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/LOGO_frontiers-1024x287.png"
class="wp-image-4797" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="250"
height="75" alt="Frontiers" />
<div class="cc-attribution-box">

</div>
</div>
</figure>

In February this year Frontiers [outlined the key points of the aimed
for
agreement](https://blog.frontiersin.org/2020/02/18/forschungszentrum-julich-and-frontiers-develop-worlds-largest-pure-open-access-framework-agreement/){.rank-math-link
aria-label=" outlined the key points of the aimed for agreement (opens in a new tab)"
rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"} as follows: "Specifically,
the two parties have agreed:

- Researchers from participating institutions will be able to publish in
  any of Frontiers' open access journals (currently 79), which includes
  more than 662 academic disciplines.
- The publication costs (Article Processing Charges, or APCs) of
  eligible articles from those researchers will be covered by the
  respective central libraries or departments of participating
  institutions.
- Articles will be published under an open license (CC-BY) allowing
  authors and their institutions the right to retain copyright.
- German institutions will benefit from Frontiers' institutional
  collaboration programme which provides dedicated workflows, support
  and transparent reporting on an institutional as well as national
  level.
- The Helmholtz Centres will be the first participating institutions
  under the Framework and will commit to fund the publication costs,
  estimated to be a total of US\$ 2 Million, for their scientists over
  the next three years.
- As part of the pilot, a new payment mechanism will be tested with the
  Helmholtz Centres. It aims to simplify budget planning and
  administrative costs for libraries. Additionally, a transitional
  solution is to be found for German institutions that depend on DFG
  funding and are current member of Frontiers' institutional membership
  programme.
- All participating institutions will benefit from a national discount."

#### Open Access transformation is facing the price question {#open-access-transformation-is-facing-the-price-question .wp-block-heading}

In view of the cost discussion surrounding the [German DEAL
contracts](https://scidecode.com/2020/08/19/open-access-transformation-in-switzerland-germany/){.rank-math-link
aria-label=" German DEAL contracts (opens in a new tab)"
rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"} and the fact that there will
be no agreement with Frontiers in Germany, the planned Open Access
transformation is facing the price question at the end of 2020. The DEAL
project at least, which was launched with the aim of buying the
publishing portfolios of Elsevier, Springer Nature, and Wiley free for
Open Access and thereby saving costs, removed the statement on cost
savings from its website: "Durch die Effekte eines Konsortialvertrages
auf Bundesebene sollen die einzelnen Einrichtungen finanziell entlastet
und der Zugang zu wissenschaftlicher Literatur für die Wissenschaft auf
breiter und nachhaltiger Ebene verbessert werden." Or in English
language: "The effects of a consortium agreement at the federal level
should relieve the individual institutions financially and improve
access to scientific literature for science on a broad and sustainable
level." This passage was still on the [DEAL website in
2017](https://web.archive.org/web/20170824110754/https://www.projekt-deal.de/aktuelles/){.rank-math-link
aria-label="DEAL website in 2017 (opens in a new tab)"
rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank"}, whereas it is no longer
[there today](https://www.projekt-deal.de/aktuelles/){.rank-math-link
aria-label="there today (opens in a new tab)" rel="noreferrer noopener"
target="_blank"}.

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No agreement with Frontiers in Germany   As Bernhard Mittermaier, head of the central library of the Forschungszentrum Jülich, announced yesterday, there will be no agreement with Frontiers in Germany. The negotiations between the Forschungszentrum Jülich and the Open Access Publisher Frontiers on a nationwide framework contract did not succeed.

No agreement with Frontiers in Germany

The Forschungszentrum Jülich and Frontiers signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a German Consortium with the Open Access publisher Frontiers.

A German Consortium with the Open Access publisher Frontiers is to be
set up. In February, the Forschungszentrum (in charge of the
negotiations) and the publisher signed a Memorandum of Understanding for
a new agreement that will allow researchers to publish in Frontiers
journals in a streamlined procedure.

Forschungszentrum Jülich conducted the two-year negotiations on behalf
of the members of the Helmholtz Association, the largest scientific
organization in Germany. The agreement allows all German research
institutions and universities to participate. A corresponding agreement
is to be concluded before the end of this year.

A key point of the agreement is that it is open to all institutions
involved in the
[DEAL](https://scidecode.com/2019/04/20/does-the-french-couperin-consortium-beat-the-german-wiley-deal/){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} project. More than 700 publicly and privately funded
science and research organisations in Germany are involved in DEAL. The
German Consortium with the Open Access publisher Frontiers will
initially last for three years.

More details can be found in the [press release of the
Forschungszentrum](https://www.fz-juelich.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/UK/DE/2020/2020-02-18-frontiers.html){rel="noreferrer noopener"
aria-label="press release of the Forschungszentrum (öffnet in neuem Tab)"
target="_blank"} (in German language).

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rel="noopener"} []{.cc-cgb-text}
:::


A German Consortium with the Open Access publisher Frontiers is to be set up. In February, the Forschungszentrum (in charge of the negotiations) and the publisher signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a new agreement that will allow researchers to publish in Frontiers journals in a streamlined procedure.

German Consortium with the Open Access publisher Frontiers

Björn Brembs

Apparently, the outrage of science denialists over their exposure in a
recent psychological paper [shows no signs of
abating](https://quakerattled.wordpress.com/2014/05/05/its-a-conspiracy/).
It was denialists' complaints and legal threats of libel/defamation
suits that started the investigation of the paper and also in the
comments to my [post announcing my
resignation](https://bjoern.brembs.net/2014/04/resigning-from-frontiers/)
as editor for *Frontiers*, the denialists complained that their public
blog comments were used in a scientific paper. Blog responses by Henry
Markram, editor-in-chief of *Frontiers*, confirmed my decision to
resign: essentially, [he sided with the
denialists](https://www.frontiersin.org/blog/Rights_of_Human_Subjects_in_Scientific_Papers/830)
and opined that public comments were not fair sources for psychological
study.

Let's stop for a moment and ponder if there are some analogous offline
scenarios to taking a public online comment and analyzing it.

Literature springs to mind: every literature department at every
university takes published words and analyzes them. Apparently, Markram
and the science denialists think this should all be abolished, or at
least that it is a questionable practice which ought to be better
regulated. Perhaps they think that literature departments should study
literature without mentioning the authors? Once literature departments
are up for grabs, why stop there? Why not prohibit political analysts
from telling the public about their politicians? Obviously, you'd start
with those analysts unfavorable of the ruling politicians. Why not fire
all music critics from newspapers and magazines (those that still have
such employment, that is)? Heck, isn't "American Idol" or "America's
Next Topmodel" and all the other casting shows exactly analogous: taking
a public performance and scrutinizing it publicly? It's perhaps worth
reminding everybody that online comments are public performances, like
it or not.

In essence, what Lewandowski et al. have done in their 'recursive fury'
paper is in more than a few ways akin to what the jury does in casting
shows. They've been the jury when the science denialists went up on
stage to sing and dance. If that had actually happened offline, maybe
Lewandowski et al.'s jury comments might have gone like this:

"When you sing, it sounds like the quaking of a duck!"

"When you dance, you have the grace and elegance of an antelope -- no,
wait, what was the name of that animal with the trunk again?"

"You are seriously coyote ugly!"

After it occurred to them what fools they had made of themselves on
stage, the denialists went to the TV station airing the show
(*Frontiers*) to complain that broadcasting their embarrassing
performance with the negative jury comments were defamatory. Obviously,
in the real world, the TV channel people would have ROTFLTAO. In science
publishing, *Frontiers* caved in and axed the broadcast.

Morale of the story: if you can't take the consequences, don't get up on
stage.


Apparently, the outrage of science denialists over their exposure in a recent psychological paper shows no signs of abating. It was denialists’ complaints and legal threats of libel/defamation suits that started the investigation of the paper and also in the comments to my post announcing my resignation as editor for
<em>
 Frontiers
</em>
, the denialists complained that their public blog comments were used in a scientific paper.

Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

No agreement with Frontiers in Germany

German Consortium with the Open Access publisher Frontiers

If you comment online, you’re on stage