Guidelines
Character and purpose of the service
"PUB – Publications at Bielefeld University" is the central service with the task of showcasing the research output of Bielefeld University's scientists. PUB is a hybrid institutional repository for storing, archiving, and distributing publications, publication references, and research data. Bielefeld University's scientists from all disciplines can use the repository to generate and maintain lists of their publications and to render them visible and searchable at a central location on the web.
PUB can be used also to electronically publish theses produced at Bielefeld University and to make them freely available online to users from around the world (PUB Theses). This fulfils the obligation laid down in the doctoral degree regulations whereby doctoral dissertations must be published. Master and Bachelor theses can be included in the repository in exceptional cases, namely, when they constitute outstanding achievements and are recommended by the members of the respective examination committees.
In addition, PUB can be used to self-archive a version of works that have already been published elsewhere ("secondary publication"), thereby making them openly accessible. Hence, the service enables rapid communication in the scientific community worldwide and promotes open and technically and legally barrier-free access to scientific information and findings (see Open Access at Bielefeld University).
In 2013, Bielefeld University adopted a Resolution on Research Data Management, in which PUB was made the University's central storage location for research datasets. The metadata of datasets published elsewhere can be deposited in PUB and, if necessary, enriched. Research datasets that have not yet been published are assigned a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) when they are deposited in PUB, and they are registered via the repository with the international identifier agency DataCite. Publications and research data can be displayed in the scientists' personal publication lists and linked to each other within PUB. To enable the re-use of the data, there are a number of different licensing models to choose from.
Users of the service can deposit the bibliographic data themselves. For this purpose, functions are available for importing data from various literature databases. Alternatively, the data can also be entered manually. Members of Bielefeld University's scientific staff obtain write access to the database via an authentification service (LDAP) provided by the university's data centre, BITS.
Additional publication data are recorded by the library staff and supplemented at regular intervals with imports from citation databases. In both cases, the bibliographic record complies with the usual standards for electronic publications (see Dublin Core, MODS).
Further information on the use of PUB can be found under HowTo and in the overview of the sub-collection PUB Theses.
Long-term availability and archiving
As part of its overall information, communication, and media (ICM) strategy, Bielefeld University ensures within its capabilities the long-term availability of scientific data and publications. Documents that are uploaded to PUB for publication are additionally preserved on the servers of the SAFE Private LOCKSS Network. In concrete terms, this means that the deposited bibliographic data and documents can be stored reliably, securely, and on a long-term basis. Documents cannot be retrospectively replaced with substantively amended versions. However, a new version of a document can be uploaded as an independent document. The deletion of documents is not provided for. However, in substantiated exceptional cases, individual documents can be removed from public view. The long-term preservation of online publications is, moreover, ensured via the obligation to submit deposit copies to the German National Library (pursuant to §§14ff. of the Law Regarding the German National Library, DNBG). At the German National Library, the documents are assigned citable persistent identifiers in the form of URNs (Uniform Resource Names), which ensure permanent access via the German National Library's URN resolving service. The publication service PUB is geared towards sustainable availability. Irrespective of the further technical development of formats and viewing and conversion software, preservation is guaranteed for at least ten years.
File formats
PUB supports widely used, standard file formats such as PDF, DVI, HL and PostScript, as well as compressed file archives in the formats GZ and ZIP. However, in order to keep the publications as barrier-free as possible and to ensure their long-term availability, preference should be given to the formats PDF and PDF/A, and, where possible, one file per document should be uploaded. Moreover, the files must be free of technical protection measures. Should you need any help in converting file formats, please contact publikationsdienste.ub@uni-bielefeld.de.
Legal parameters, deposit policy, and data usage policy
Many scholarly publishers allow authors to self-archive a version of their works in an open access institutional repository after publication. Authors make their scientific documents available on the publication server in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy.
When doing so, responsibility for ensuring that copyright provisions are respected lies with the author(s) or editor(s) of the work. They must give an assurance to PUB that no rights of third parties will be infringed by publishing the work. The author undertakes to inform Publication Services Support immediately should claims be made after publication that the rights of third parties have been infringed. The University Library assumes that the author has made enquiries with the publisher beforehand about its self-archiving policy. (The self-archiving policies of a large number of publishers are aggregated in the JISC Open Policy Finder.)
Authors grant to Bielefeld University a non-exclusive right to store their works electronically and to make them publicly accessible on a long-term basis for online use (i.e., for individual retrieval, for on-screen display, and for printing out by the user), especially in databases and data networks. Publication of the documents in PUB does not preclude their publication in scholarly journals, monographs, or on other servers.
By agreeing to the Deposit Policy, the rightholder grants PUB the right to report and pass on the documents to third parties, for example to the German National Library for archiving and to the SAFE Private LOCKSS Network for preservation. This grant of rights includes also the right to produce copies of the documents and to convert the documents into other electronic or physical formats.
Also in the case of works deposited with the restriction "Request a copy (closed access except on request)", Bielefeld University is entitled to electronically store these works on a long-term basis; in this case, the author reserves the exclusive right to make the work available.
By uploading scientific documents to PUB for publication, the author also agrees to the transfer and public accessibility of all related metadata (upload documents) in Bielefeld University's Research and Information System (BIS) (FIS and FIS portal). The metadata transferred from PUB to FIS depends on the publication type of the respective publication. As a rule, the following metadata is transferred from PUB to FIS: author/creator type, first name, last name, organisational affiliation, PUB ID (=PEVZ ID), ORCID ID (if available). In addition: publication type, publication date, publication status, visibility status of the publication (the transfer from FIS to the FIS portal depends on this), peer-reviewed, series, volume, conference name, editor (as corporate body), defence date, various identifiers, edition, issue, page range, keywords, language, publisher, place of publication, link to the project (if available), link to the full text (if available), citation formats. Depending on the visibility status, which can be set independently in PUB, all metadata is also transferred from FIS to the FIS portal (exception: annotations).
When depositing and publishing research data on the publication server PUB, researchers are responsible for ensuring that they hold or have obtained the necessary rights and permissions to upload and distribute the data. Persons who re-use or re-distribute research data stored in PUB are requested to observe and comply with the copyright and licensing rights provisions that apply to these data.
Open Access
Bielefeld University supports the science policy call for open access to scientific publications laid down in the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities of October 2003 and concretised in Southampton, England in March 2005 in the Berlin 3 roadmap towards open access. In the spirit of the Berlin Declaration, Bielefeld University's Rectorate adopted on 7 June 2005 a Resolution to Support Open Access, in which the University's scientific authors are urged to deposit a copy of the post-print version of all their published scientific articles on the University's scientific publications server if the publisher has given its permission - individually or in the form of a general policy (see the JISC Open Policy Finder) - for the work to be self-archived in an open access repository. Documents that are available in open access are findable via the search filter OA Full Texts. Theses published for the first time are collected in the sub-collection PUB Theses.
Authors are at liberty to support the Resolution of the University of Bielefeld. For documents that are not intended to be made available in open access, authors can choose from a number of access-level options that restrict the usability of the documents to the campus network or to specific groups of persons.
Contact person
If you have any questions about the publication server and the related services, please contact:
Publication Services Support
Phone: +49 521 106-2545
Email: publikationsdienste.ub@uni-bielefeld.de