The TUHH University Library has agreed to participate in the funding community for the scholar-led open access journal Quantum. the open journal for quantum science. In doing so, we are supporting cost-free publishing in a highly innovative field of research at the TUHH.
The journal Quantum publishes around 220 articles a year and plays an increasingly important role in quantum physics research. Prof. Dr. Martin Kliesch, professor for Quantum Inspired and Quantum Optimization at Hamburg University of Technology, confirms this:
“The Quantum Journal is a young but increasingly important journal in our community. It was founded by the community, is supported by outstanding scientists and is exclusively committed to scientific standards. As a result, Quantum’s peer reviews are among the most thorough and of the highest quality in the field, thus ensuring the high quality of the publications that appear there. As an ArXiv overlay, it is also particularly cost-effective and I believe that it sets new standards in terms of modern, high-quality scientific publishing.
I therefore strongly support TUB’s participation in the funding of Quantum.”Prof. Dr. Martin Kliesch
The TUB sees it as its task to test alternative financing models for the provision of scientific media. By participating in Diamond Open Access funding consortia, we are investing in a promising and forward-looking way to promote open science beyond the rising costs of subscription and publication. Our contribution to the joint financing of journal operating costs as part of this Diamond Open Access consortium is € 2,700 p. a. (plus VAT) for a period of three years. A prerequisite for the realization of the consortium is the fulfillment of the funding target.
Background
The German National Library of Science and Technology TIB organizes funding consortia for quality-assured Diamond Open Access journals. Under the name KOALA (“Establishing Consortial Open Access Solutions”), TIB annually solicits contributions from academic libraries and research institutions in order to secure funding for one journal bundle each over a fixed period of three years. Central features of the KOALA model are
- the guarantee of full financing of the journal operating costs, including annual usage reports for full cost transparency,
- a price scale for participating institutions and
- the organization of the financing consortia including contract conclusion, invoice verification and financing handling by the TIB.
The KOALA consortium model represents a science-friendly alternative to fee-based publishing and is widely supported by science policy.[1] The participation survey for the “KOALA Quantum Science 2025-2027” bundle is currently active.
Several such consortia have been successfully funded to date, some with the participation of TUB.
[1] See, for example, the call for proposals “New Dynamics in Diamond Open Access” of the DFG’s LIS funding program “Infrastructures for Scholarly Publishing” (2024) and the call of the EU Council Presidency to the member states (2023) to take decisive measures to enforce Open Science, including the promotion of APC-free Open Access publication infrastructures.