Munich

Germany's main scientific organizations have issued a joint statement backing initiatives that provide free scientific information over the Internet.

After a three-day meeting in Berlin, organizations including the Max Planck Society (MPS) and Germany's main research-funding agency, the DFG, were due to issue the call for open access on 22 October. Open-access backers say this is the first time that they have won formal support from all major research organizations in a large nation.

The MPS, for example, is changing scientists' employment contracts, requiring them to return the copyright of their work to the society. Researchers will still be able to publish in scientific journals, but after a grace period — the length of which is still being discussed — their papers must be deposited in at least one online repository.

The declaration evolved from a European Union-funded digital project, European Cultural Heritage Online (ECHO), which facilitates access to cultural materials (see Nature 424, 491; 200310.1038/424491b).

Robert Schlögl, a chemist at the MPS's Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin, and co-organizer of the meeting, emphasizes that a smooth transition is necessary. “This has nothing to do with confrontation, but it has everything to do with starting a dialogue with publishing houses about a new division of labour,” he says.