Closing the chapter on scidecode – a look back and ahead

After three exciting years, scidecode as a formal company will be discontinued. What began as a label for my freelance work in science consulting in 2012 turned into a collaborative GbR (civil-law partnership) in 2022 with Laura Rothfritz and Pablo de Castro. Our mission was to provide independent, collaborative consulting on open science, research information, and strategic questions around scholarly infrastructures.

Unfortunately, the bureaucratic overhead – especially regarding legal safeguards and the ever-present issue of false self-employment – became increasingly difficult to manage. The German legal framework simply is not built for flexible, informal collaborations of independent professionals.

Although I originally used scidecode as a personal label, it later became a shared identity between Laura, Pablo and myself – so I've also decided not to continue using the name going forward. I would like to thank Laura Rothfritz, Pablo de Castro, as well as our colleagues Joachim Schöpfel and Wolfgang Benedikt Schmal for the successful and enriching collaboration over the past years. You can still browse our work via the Internet Archive.

I'm now continuing as an independent consultant and always open to new collaborations – transparent, project-based, and built on shared responsibility.

Thanks to everyone who supported and followed scidecode over the years!