Free research materials at a click

Open Science Spotlight opens the treasure chest of research: The University of Konstanz's new online section presents free and open data, publications as well as educational resources.

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UNIVERSITY OF KONSTANZ

Are you looking for free learning materials or texts because you want to expand your knowledge in your spare time? Are you a journalist or researcher who would like to dive deeper into a topic and therefore need access to the original data? Or are you a doctoral researcher about to write your first paper and are searching for authentic examples of the peer review process?  Then you should definitely browse through the University of Konstanz’s new Open Science Spotlight. The OSS showcases open access (OA) publications, open research data, software and open educational resources published by the university’s researchers and lecturers, thus making it easy for everyone to explore the university's research.
 

“Many of our members are very active in the field of Open Access publishing, following highest open science standards. There is a real treasure trove of open science materials at the University of Konstanz, and the Open Science Spotlight will help to lift it and bring it to light,” says Christine Peter, Vice Rector for Sustainability, Information and Communication Technology at the University of Konstanz.
 

Well-structured and in two languages
The OSS is available in an English and a German edition. Short features describe what kind of materials on which topic are freely available and contain direct links for downloads. Filter options on the home page make it easier to search for specific formats. Currently, selectable formats include different OA text formats (articles, books and entire journals), freely available datasets, software and code as well as open educational resources and open peer reviews.

A few examples:
 

• The free data from a survey provide information on how people in Germany have been dealing with the social and political consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.
• A freely accessible platform with software applications allows the processing, analysis and display of complex animal movement data.
• A video collection of over 200 physics lecture experiments explains physical principles. The material may be reused.

Open Science: a key issue
Open Science is a key issue for the University of Konstanz: It was one of the first universities in Germany to adopt an Open Science Policy, and in the renowned CWTS Leiden Ranking it has consistently been ranked as the German university with the highest proportion of open access publications. Together with other measures, such as the university's own document and research data repositories KOPS and KonDATA, the OSS will further strengthen the University of Konstanz's pioneering role in the field of open science.

 

Key facts:
 

• The University of Konstanz launched the "Open Science Spotlight" (OSS), a new section of its online magazine campus.kn
• The OSS showcases open access publications, open research data, open-source software and open educational resources published by the university’s researchers and lecturers.
• Materials can be filtered by eight categories:
  • OA articles
  • OA books
  • OA journals
  • Open research data
  • Open educational resources
  • Open-source software
  • Open scripts
  • Open peer review
• The OSS is available in an English and a German edition.

 

Contact:

University of Konstanz

Communications and Marketing

Email: kum@uni-konstanz.de

 

- uni.kn/en