The University of Tübingen subsidizes the publication of academic books in Open Access in order to make the results of research carried out at the university freely and widely accessible. Funding is available for monographs, anthologies, and dissertations that result from projects funded by the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the German Research Foundation) and are being published for the first time. A subsidy of up to €5,000 gross (€4,200 net) can be awarded per title. These grants are funded by the DFG and are available for books published between 2026 and 2028.

Official affiliates of the University of Tübingen who are authors or editors and are responsible for paying publication fees (e.g., book processing charges, or BPCs) are eligible to apply for the Open Access Publication Fund – Books. In the case of anthologies, one person per book should submit the funding application in order to avoid duplicate applications. 

Only previously unpublished monographs, anthologies, or dissertations directly resulting from DFG projects are eligible for funding. Anthologies can only be considered if the publisher charges a BPC for the entire work as individual contributions within anthologies are not eligible for funding. We are also unable to provide financial support for retroactive Open Access conversions (i.e., purchasing rights for previously published books for the purpose of republishing in Open Access).

All grant-funded publications must be published under a free Creative Commons license, preferably CC BY, alternatively CC BY-SA. All components of the funded publication must be permanently accessible online, free of charge, and available worldwide immediately upon publication. The Open Access version must be published at the same time as or before any print version. All publications must include a DOI and an ISBN. The DOI, ISBN, and license information should be included in the publication and stored in the associated metadata. The publication’s metadata must be made freely available according to the guidelines in the CC0 license. Your publication must also be added to the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB).

The Open Access team does not verify the scientific content of publications submitted for funding. We do, however, require proof of a recognized quality assurance procedure by the publisher or within your department (e.g., peer review or editorial review).

The affiliation of the authors or editors with the University of Tübingen must be clearly indicated in the publication. 

Each publication should contain an explicit reference to the third-party funded project where the research was carried out as well as to the financial support provided by the publication fund. These requirements would be met by including a statement such as the following in your book: 

“Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) - [9-digit DFG project number].”

“This publication was funded by the Open Access Publication Fund of the University of Tübingen.”

After publication, each funded publication will also be listed in the University of Tübingen Repository and made available there.

The publisher must meet the requirements of the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) or be listed as a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA). University press Open Access publishers, such as Tübingen University Press (TUP), meet the necessary requirements for this grant.

The publisher's cost estimate and the invoice submitted with your application must contain a transparent, comprehensible, and consistent cost breakdown that clearly shows the Open Access-related costs separately from printing and production costs. Only pure Open Access fees (e.g., DOI and license assignment, metadata management, long-term archiving, indexing) are eligible for funding. Costs for publishing services that would also be incurred for publications without Open Access are not eligible for funding. Printing costs, typesetting and layout costs, surcharges for color illustrations or page counts, and other production costs (e.g., cover design, editing, proofreading) are not covered. 

The application consists of an online form which will solicit all required information; no additional cover letters or proposals are necessary. If you have questions about licenses, cost calculations, or comparative offers, we recommend that you meet with us for a one-on-one consultation or e-mail us as early in your publication process as possible so that we can give you information tailored to your situation.

After the application has been reviewed by the Open Access team, we will issue a temporary funding commitment. You must submit the invoice to the Open Access team before the deadline listed in the funding commitment. Payment will be made upon presentation of the invoice and will cover only the costs relevant to Open Access. If the book is not published within the agreed-upon period, a new application must be submitted.