News
News
Please find older news releases in our News Archive.
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UpVerse – a New Desktop Application for Edmond
We have developed a new desktop application for Edmond. UpVerse is a standalone application that you can install on your laptop. The application allows you to easily publish a lot of data and whole folder structures via click & drop to Edmond. Technically, it also works via the API interface. However, UpVerse has an attractive user interface so that it can be used without prior IT knowledge.
UpVerse is now online and works on Windows, Apple, and Linux. It is available to the Edmond/MPG community but also to the entire Dataverse community (Open Source Community). Additionally, you can find a tutorial and visual documents for easy handling on GitHub.
More Info:
UpVerse App here
Go to Edmond
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Sixth bloxberg Summit: research institutions in Belgrade for transparent, efficient, and secure international collaboration in science
The sixth bloxberg Summit took place this year in Belgrade on October 26-27. The Summit was hosted by the Faculty of Organizational Sciences of the University of Belgrade in cooperation with the Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL). The expansion of the world's largest proof-of-authority network, operated exclusively by scientific institutions, was discussed. The technology, developed under the MPDL initiative and launched in 2019 with ten international universities, is a groundbreaking example of the application of blockchain in science. bloxberg acts as a pioneer for decentralized global infrastructure in the scientific field.
During the summit, Max Planck Society (MPG) was appointed Chair of the Board of the Association. It is represented by MPDL. For the very first time, the Summit was also opened to the general public on the second day. Under the theme "Blockchain Adaptation in Science," attendees had the opportunity to engage and network with prominent industry leaders such as Wolfram Alpha, Ethernity Cloud, ScieNFT, and other respected third parties.
For more detailed information, read the official bloxberg Association press release here.
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Edmond now certified with CoreTrustSeal
The Open Research Data Repository Edmond received certification from the CoreTrustSeal Foundation in October 2023. The CoreTrustSeal is an internationally recognized award for digital repositories that meet the highest standards in research data management.
The certification confirms the repository's commitment to long-term data storage, data integrity, and openness. Edmond has thus demonstrated that it complies with international best practices for the management and provision of research data.
The award of the Core Trust Seal is an important recognition for Edmond and underlines its role as a trusted repository for high-quality research data. Researchers can now access Edmond's extensive database with even more confidence, publish their research data, and benefit from its high-quality content.
More info:
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Max Planck Society joins Germany-wide open access publishing agreement with Elsevier
Following the announcement of the open access agreement between the DEAL Consortium and Elsevier last month, the Max Planck Society has now officially signed up as a participating institution, in a significant broadening of open access publication and reading options for Max Planck authors.
The agreement, which is in effect since 16 October, 2023 and runs through the end of 2028, allows authors across the Society to publish their research in Elsevier's journals—including well-known journal brands such as Cell Press and The Lancet—as Open Access articles under an open license retaining their copyright, with the publication fees being centrally covered by the Max Planck Digital Library. This comes in addition to the reestablishment of comprehensive reading access to virtually the entire Elsevier journal collection hosted on ScienceDirect.
DEAL-Elsevier agreement details
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A new chapter and a new home for the MPDL!
Since October 2023 the MPDL has a new home! From now on we can be found at Landsberger Straße 346 in Munich. The move to the "MARK" building highlights the beginning of an exciting new chapter and creates new opportunities for the services of the MPDL, which are provided to the scientists of the Max Planck Society.
The building was constructed with environmental sustainability in mind and contributes to our commitment to a green future. By doing so, we are pleased to be able to contribute to the promotion of sustainable working environments in the scientific community.
MPDL employees were closely involved in the conception and design of the space and common areas. The result is a modern and inspiring work environment that also provides numerous opportunities to meet and exchange ideas to foster a forward-thinking and innovative work culture.
We warmly welcome all employees of the Max Planck Society to our new home in Munich-Laim!
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FAIR Principles for Research Software Become More Visible
The conscious use of research software is becoming increasingly important. The Max Planck Digital Library supports scientists in this. To this end, the MPDL has written an application for software management plans (SMP). It can be used to organize projects with research software in the open-source application RDMO. This application has now been revised and handed over to the RDMO community.
At the same time, the MPDL team has written an additional application to look at the own software according to the FAIR principles for research software (FAIR4RS). This complements the work with an SMP and enables scientists to check the FAIRness of their own code. In addition to quality management, this can, i.e. also be used for third-party funding applications.
More info:
RDMO for MPG hier
MPDL RDMO Support: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Open Access agreement between Projekt DEAL and Elsevier
Germany’s Projekt DEAL and Elsevier have entered into a new transformative agreement, in line with the objectives of the Open Access 2020 Initiative. The agreement has been officially announced earlier today.
Universities and research institutions in Germany are invited to sign up to the agreement.
Researchers will be able to publish Open Access in Elsevier journals under the DEAL agreement once their institution has joined the consortium. The agreement also grants reading rights for all Elsevier journal content to all participating institutions.
The consortium is organized by MPDL Services gGmbH, which will send the DEAL-eligible institutions (which include about 900 universities, universities of applied sciences, federal and state research institutions, etc.) the participation documents by the beginning of October.
The MPDL is organizing the participation of the entire Max Planck Society in DEAL and will now start preparing the next steps. We will update our websites with the relevant information as soon as it is available.
Information on the terms and conditions of the contract can be found on the DEAL Konsortium website and if you have any questions or comments, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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16th Berlin Open Access Conference outcomes now online
In early June, national-level delegations representing research communities from 38 countries across six continents gathered at the 16th Berlin Open Access Conference (B16).
Hosted by the Max Planck Society, initiator of the Berlin conference series, and organized by the Max Planck Digital Library’s Open Access 2020 Initiative (OA2020), the conference was held as a strategy meeting of global actors in research communication committed to advancing viable strategies to replace the subscription paywall model underlying the bulk of today’s scholarly journals with transparent and sustainable models that deliver immediate and open access to the results of research, enabling maximum scientific and societal impact.
B16 conference outcomes, including key insights to guide the research community’s next steps and final statement for publishers, are now available on the OA2020 website.
Participants of B16Photo: © CC-BY-SA Georg Botz -
MPDL @ Festival of the Future
We are excited to have participated in the Festival of the Future at the renowned Deutsches Museum, showcasing the benefits of the bloxberg blockchain as one of the founding members. Our team successfully introduced bloxberg to diverse audiences, including universities, organizations, students, startups, and curious individuals. The response to our blockchain technology was overwhelmingly positive, highlighting the growing demand for decentralized science.
During this event, our deputy managers, provided valuable insights into how to blockchainify your data as well as the demand for decentralized science. This was also further discussed in a connected panel discussion on "DeSci Meets GovTech: Unlocking the Power of Blockchain".
Moreover, our team could attend numerous fascinating talks on AI, Life Sciences, Quantum Computing, New Space, Metaverse, Energy, Mobility, ClimateTech, Communications, and Web3. All discussions gave us valuable insights into cutting-edge technologies and their potential applications.
Overall, the Festival of the Future was an incredible platform for us to promote bloxberg, our work within the MPDL and connect with like-minded individuals, and contribute to the discourse on the future of technology. We are genuinely excited about the new connections forged and the new opportunities that have emerged.
More info:
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bloxberg @ NFDI InfraTalk: learn the benefits of certifying Research Data on a blockchain
We are thrilled to share some interesting news: Distributed ledger technologies, including blockchain infrastructures, are on the verge of transforming the scientific community. On June 19, MPDL presented the bloxberg blockchain to the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) Community during the NFDI InfraTalk, showcasing its potential impact on scientific research.
In the NFDI InfraTalk, scientists from different disciplines present exciting topics around NFDI and research data management. In this recent episode "Protect Your Intellectual Property: The Benefits of Certifying Your Research Data on the World's Largest Scientific Blockchain Network bloxberg", we provided valuable insights into the largest international scientific blockchain with a proof-of-authority consensus.Recognized for its high potential in scientific endeavors, bloxberg allows researchers worldwide to create a transparent record of their work without disclosing its contents, timestamping their research data, and safeguarding their intellectual property.
NFDI systematically connects and makes valuable scientific data accessible for the entire German science system. Its primary objective is to create a permanent digital knowledge repository, following the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable). NFDI consortia, consisting of various research institutions, collaborate interdisciplinary to achieve this goal.
MPDL is actively working to monitor and stay updated on the activities of MPIs within the NFDI. Additionally, MPDL is actively participating in an MPG working group dedicated to the advancement of the German National Research Data Infrastructure.
More info:
Watch the full talk here
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The MPDL has a new home!
Exciting news: We're moving! The MPDL is spreading its digital wings and opening a new chapter full of innovation, collaborations and novel services.
Starting in the third quarter, the MPDL is moving together with MPDL Services (MPDLS) to MARK in Munich Laim. With contemporary offices, clever concepts such as co-working, flex-space and conference zones, state-of-the-art technical equipment and sophisticated communication zones, the new building offers the best conditions for creative exchange and effective collaboration. With the arrival of the MPDL and MPDLS, another building block is being created to revitalize Munich's 25th district. With the presence of the MPDL, Laim is complemented by one of the lighthouses for digital transformation in science, thus forming a cornerstone for the expansion of a sustainable, scientific user structure of the neighborhood.
With one laughing and one crying eye, we say "bye bye Amalienstraße!" and at the same time look forward with great anticipation to a new, exciting chapter ahead. Moving to our new home not only brings a breath of fresh air, but also opens up a wide range of new possibilities and opportunities for us.
(Source: Knight Frank München)
More info:
Press Release -
16th Berlin Open Access Conference: Together for Transformation
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the seminal Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities. In the upcoming 16th Berlin Open Access Conference, organized by the OA2020 Initiative and hosted by the Max Planck Society, we will return to the setting where the Berlin Declaration originated. There, we will refine and renew our approaches to achieving the vision for an open information environment in the service of science and society, with a particular focus on transformative agreements (TAs).
The current growing body of TAs negotiated worldwide—from Peru to Canada, from South Africa to Norway, and from Australia to China—demonstrates that this approach to dismantling the deficiencies and inequities of the subscription-based system in scholarly publishing is both viable and scalable. With the first movers to integrate TAs into their national open access strategies now nearing their goals of open access to 100% of their research outputs and setting their sights on broader open science objectives, the way is paved for the global research community to swiftly forge ahead, together.
The 16th Berlin Open Access Conference: Together for Transformation, will assemble national-level delegations, including scientists and scholars, senior library, higher education, funder and government leaders from 38 countries around the world. Together, they will assess the performance of scholarly publishers in meeting the objectives and expectations set out by the research community engaged in transformative open access negotiations and formulate collective next steps to shape an open scholarly publishing paradigm in the service of science that is transparent, inclusive, sustainable and financially equitable on a global scale.
Outcomes of the conference will be shared with the broader research community on the B16 webpage.
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Max Planck Society signs transformative agreement with PNAS
The Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL), on behalf of the Max Planck Society, has reached a three-year transformative agreement with the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The agreement covers open access (OA) publishing of articles in PNAS.
The three-year pilot agreement, which runs from May 1, 2023 through April 30, 2026, enables corresponding authors affiliated with the Max Planck Society to publish their research articles open access in PNAS without paying individual article processing charges (APCs). The agreement also includes access to PNAS content for all Max Planck Society researchers.
Ádám Dér, Head of the Scientific Information Provision at MPDL, commented: “This transformative agreement with PNAS marks another important step in enabling Max Planck authors to publish their research open access, increasing their global impact and readership. By making our researchers’ work widely and freely available to fellow scientists wherever they may be, we further implement the vision of the OA2020 Initiative.”
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Revolutionary Publication Marketplace: the bloxberg Blockchain will Power OpenSci.net
We are thrilled to announce its partnership with the project OpenSci.net, an innovative open-access publication marketplace for scientific content that connects researchers, publishers, and readers through a secure and transparent DLT-based platform. The innovative open-access publication marketplace for scientific content will use the bloxberg blockchain, initiated by MPDL, to provide a decentralized and tamper-proof system for managing the publication process.
This will allow for greater transparency and accountability while giving authors and readers greater control over the publishing process. Through their collaboration, OpenSci.net and bloxberg aim to make the benefits of blockchain technology accessible to the scientific community and develop new standards in scientific publishing services.
Read the press release here.More info:
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The MPG Labfolder User Workshop 2023 is here!
We are organizing a Labfolder User Workshop on the 11-12 of May, 2023, at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics.
Labfolder is an electronic laboratory notebook, becoming increasingly popular within the Max Planck Society, with users being spread across many different institutions and locations. Therefore, we are organizing a workshop for the key users of Labfolder within the Max Planck Society. The event is intended as a place to share and learn about people using Labfolder in their daily routines, offering you many opportunities to exchange, expand your knowledge and learn.
The primary target audience are those colleagues who use Labfolder in their daily work. The event is intended as a place to share and learn about people using Labfolder in their daily routines. Have you been working with Labfolder regularly for a longer time? Do you write your lab book with it? Do you use or interact with the REST API automatically or with scripts? Then this workshop offers you many opportunities to exchange, expand your knowledge and learn.
The workshop is not planned in a presentation-discussion mode. Instead, we would like to encourage conversation with each other. Therefore, we are not looking for presentations. In contrast, we have included a lot of time for discussion in the program. At the same time, such an event lives from active participation. To encourage this, we would like to introduce the various Labfolder solutions at Max Planck Institutes via short introductory lightning talks. For this, we are looking for colleagues who can briefly present their local Labfolder applications in two minutes. Do you want to contribute with a 2-minute talk? Please let us know via rdm [at] mpdl [dot] mpg [dot] de.Weitere Infos:
RDM Website
Labfolder Workshop Program
Register here
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The Max Planck Digital Library joins the 1st NEB Digital Talk Series webinar
Exciting news! On February 14, 2023, the Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL) joined the first NEB Digital Talk Series webinar hosted by digiNEB, where they showcased the bloxberg blockchain and its potential use in the creative industries.
bloxberg is a secure global blockchain that was founded by the MPDL, which allows scientists to certify raw research data on a blockchain, ensuring the protection of intellectual property and the authenticity of data. It is also part of the broad Research Service Catalog of the MPDL, which includes various tools and services for scientists of the Max Planck Society. The MPDL is constantly working to optimize the research process of MPG scientists by providing reliable and effective digital solutions. Blockchain technology has been proven to be a helpful tool for this purpose.
The NEB Digital Talk Series was organized by the New European Bauhaus (NEB), a creative and transdisciplinary initiative that aims to connect the European Green Deal to people's daily lives and living spaces. The event highlighted bloxberg's already existing use cases in registering ideas and promoting fair attribution, encouraging greater sharing of ideas in co-creation processes. For more information on using bloxberg for intellectual property in the creative and cultural environment, visit the bloxberg website.
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[NEWS] We are celebrating the Edmonth!
This month we are celebrating the EdMONTH – your opportunity to get to know Edmond – our research data repository for Max Planck researchers – a little better. It is the place to store completed datasets of research data with open access. Edmond serves for the publication of research data from all disciplines and offers scientists the ability to create citable research objects.
With Edmond, MPDL has allowed its users to create citable research objects with DOI without a usage fee or limitations while storing data within the Max Planck Society's infrastructure. Making daily work and the publication & citeability of research data easier and becoming a reliable service for many years.
Over 60 Max-Planck-Institutes uploading data, 199 327 uploaded files, and research data from all over the world show MPG scientists and employees' trust in Edmond. We are looking forward to many more years of open-access research data. We love data, we love Edmond!
More info:
Get to know Edmond here!
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[NEWS] Software Management Plan (SMP) Template for the MPG now available!
A new template for creating software management plans (SMP) is now available on RDMO, making the usage of research software more sustainable.
Software and sustainability in this context are being discussed by many institutions worldwide. The MPDL has therefore made an SMP template available for the RDMO software accessible to the RDMO community with a CC0 waiver. With the software management plan template, scientific software is viewed through the lens of project management. A software management plan (SMP) can make the conception, implementation, and long-term availability significantly easier. The benefit of an SMP completed in advance is the support of the development of an emerging research software with documented information at hand. This clarifies which topics/ project stages still need to be solved or covered.
Sustainability, reproducibility, and reusability are keywords that are being used in the context of research software. In line with the open source idea, we hope for as many re-uses as possible and a concrete added value for others.
The template for a software management plan with its diverse help texts is aimed at scientists. Still, it can also be used by software, information, and infrastructure experts for consultation, project proposals, or needs analysis.
Max Planck scientists and their cooperation partners can now use the SMP template via the RDMO service of the MPDL. All others can use it with their own RDMO instance.
More info:
SMP template via the RDMO
If you would like to test the SMP, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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[NEWS] We are celebrating five years of KEEPER!
This month we are happy to celebrate the fifth birthday of our tool KEEPER, allowing you to sync & share your project data while being properly archived in the Max Planck infrastructure. With KEEPER, MPDL has been providing its users with storage and many collaboration functionalities, making daily work and research easier and becoming a reliable and secure service for five years now. Over 4000 users, 145.3 TB used storage, and around 65.5 Million shared files show the impact KEEPER has made in the daily workflow of MPG scientist, employees, and their cooperation partners. We are looking forward to many more years of organized research data! Happy Birthday, you are a real KEEPER!
More info:
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[NEWS] Max Planck Society and Brill reach agreement for open access books and chapters
The Max Planck Society and Brill have established a new collaboration on Open Access for books. Within this new agreement, Brill offers a discount on the book and chapter publication charge for all affiliates of the Max Planck Institutes. Coordinated by the Max Planck Digital Library, 50% of the book or chapter publication charge is funded centrally. The other 50% of the Open Access costs are funded by the applicable Max Planck Institute.
This extensive agreement covers not only monographs and edited volumes, but also individual chapters from Max Planck-affiliated authors to any Brill volume. All 86 Max Planck Institutes are eligible, and the agreement runs for three years, until October 2025.
Dr. Ralf Schimmer, Head of Information at the Max Planck Digital Library, comments: “With this agreement we respond to the articulated demands of our researchers and offer a new opportunity to publish their research results in Open Access. We acknowledge the commitment of Brill to finding pathways to more openness in the system and are very pleased to collaborate with this distinguished publisher.”
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[NEWS] 5th bloxberg Summit
The fifth bloxberg summit took place as a hybrid conference in Protaras, Cyprus, from October 26-27. This time the annual Consortium meeting was organized for the fifth time in a row by the Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL) in collaboration with the University of Nicosia, one of the bloxberg founders. The meeting was hosted at the Sunrise Pearl Hotel by the University of Nicosia. At this bloxberg summit, the decision on founding the bloxberg Association for the Advancement of Science and Blockchain e.V. under German legislation was finalized. The Association has been established with an in-person signing ceremony by 13 founding members with eleven research organizations and two individual members. Please see the press release for more information on the summit.
We are looking forward to the next summit! This time the summit is going to be hosted in Belgrade, Serbia, by the Faculty of Organizational Sciences of the University of Belgrade, a founding member of bloxberg.
For more info:
Press Release Fourth bloxberg Summit
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[NEWS] New Poster on MPDL Services in Research Data Management
We are happy to present our new poster on MPDL research data management services. It gives an overview of the different offers and services Max Planck Digital Library provides to MPG colleagues and their collaboration partners. Eight services take a central spotlight, which are presented on the poster along with the service addresses and contacts. The poster is available online in print quality. If you are interested in a printed version for your Max Planck Institute, please contact our RDM support.
More info:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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[NEWS] New bloxberg Homepage!
As part and initiator of the bloxberg blockchain – the consortium for the advancement of science and blockchain – we are happy to announce the brand new bloxberg homepage!
With the consortium growing steadily for four years, the new bloxberg homepage is not only getting a fresh look and update but also many new features. Learn about bloxberg’s mission, check out all Consortium members on an interactive world map, discover the developer’s hut and get to know all scientific bloxberg applications that can help ease researchers' daily work.
More info:
bloxberg
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[NEWS] Service Catalog becomes Research Service Catalog!
The MPDL Service Catalog has received a new makeover. You can now browse the catalog in the following three categories: Publishing & Reading, Software & Data Services, and Strategic Services. In addition, new service tiles and new texts quickly provide information about how the service will support your daily workflow and research. The new structure simplifies navigation through MPDL's wide variety of services. The content ranges from scientific databases, and a wealth of open access publication services, to blockchain for your science. The new Research Service Catalog is available now! Discover the right service for your research here.
If you can't find what you are looking for or have any questions, feel free to call us at the MPG-City Service Hotline +49 (0) 89 909311-243 (Monday through Friday 7:00-19:00) or send an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
More info:
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[NEWS] Minerva Messenger Upgrade with Brand New Features!
Our Minerva Messenger aims to provide a great user experience, so the newest server upgrade comes with new functionalities such as voice calling and screen sharing. These share functions make communication in channels more accessible and efficient – with a click of a button, you can join up to three participants in a voice call.
Another available feature is Insights, offering an overview of the most important activities within your Minerva Messenger workspace. Additionally, a message formatting toolbar has been implemented, allowing you to change text appearance, react with emojis and add hyperlinks. Collapsed reply threads to keep your conversations organized are finally available.
The upgrade also fixed minor security level bugs and functionality placements.More Info:
Minerva Messenger Upgrade Details
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[NEWS] RDMO-Service: Horizon Europe DMP template available
Data management is becoming increasingly important for third-party funding applications. Particularly at the European level, requirements for this are increasing. To support this, the MPDL service RDMO for MPG provides a questionnaire on data management for Horizon Europe.
This catalog can be used to organize data management for Horizon Europe projects and ERC grants. For example, it can be used to create data management plans (DMPs). Also, collaborative work can be done on data-specific project management.
More info:
For further questions or onboarding services, please contact our This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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New Preview Features for Edmond
Edmond now offers new preview features for different file formats. All file types, without any restriction, can be published with Edmond, the Open Data Repository for the Max Planck Society. In order to view the content of individual files more quickly, different previews are now available directly on Edmond’s user interface.
With the brand new ZIP previewer, Edmond now automatically displays the folder structure including files of a ZIP archive. At the same time, individual files can also be downloaded from the ZIP archive, so that it is no longer necessary to download the entire ZIP file. This gives users a quicker insight into the published research data.
Furthermore, Edmond now also supports the preview of several individual file formats in the browser. This preview applies especially to various text and image formats, pdf files but also audiovisual formats (MP3 & MP4).
More info:
For more information, please contact the Edmond support team via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Minerva Messenger now has an End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) Plugin
This new plugin enables end-to-end encryption (E2EE) in Minerva Messenger, aiming to authenticate, encrypt, and decrypt messages on the users’ configured devices.
Have you been looking for a safe way to communicate important matters, data, or research findings with your peers and external collaboration partners, without possibly disclosing information? Then this new plugin may be just the thing you were looking for. End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a method of secure communication that keeps your data safe while it is being transferred from one end system or device to another.
The encrypted message can only be read on one platform after setting the current channel in encryption mode. For instance, if you start the E2EE on the Minerva Messenger, desktop client, you will not be able to read old encrypted messages via browser. Therefore, this end-to-end plugin could be sufficient for the needs of the lab work in which several team members may use a shared device. While chatting with the private key on your personal device, other users will not be able to read your old messages from a public laptop.
More info:
Minerva Messenger End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) Plugin
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4th bloxberg Summit 2022
The fourth bloxberg Summit took place as a hybrid conference on Mai 3 – 4, 2022, at the LABS workspace at 90 High Holborn building in London. The bloxberg Summit is the annual meeting of the bloxberg Consortium, organized for the fourth time in a row by the MPDL and was hosted by UCL this time.
The bloxberg Consortium discussed four main proposals, which led to groundbreaking changes for the research network. These significant decisions revolved around its legal entity, governance model, tokenomics, and the architecture of the bloxberg infrastructure. Please see the press release for more information on the Summit.
It has been an exceptional event with fruitful discussions in the center of London with over 25 research organizations from all over the world.
We are excited for the next Summit, which will be taking place October 26-27, 2022. This time the Summit is going to be hosted in Protaras, Cyprus, by the University of Nicosia, a founding member of bloxberg.
For more info:
Press Release Fourth bloxberg Summit
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Max Planck Society signs open access book deal with Springer Nature
Springer Nature has signed its largest institutional OA book deal with the Max Planck Society through the Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL). The agreement covers all Springer Nature book imprints, across a broad range of disciplines, providing OA funding to affiliated authors from over 80 Max Planck Institutes.
The initial three-year agreement, live as of 1st January 2022, will enable authors from all 86 Max Planck Institutes to receive a discount on the standard Book Publishing Charge (BPC) to publish their book OA. MPDL will contribute central funding toward the coverage of the discounted BPC, lowering the costs for authors even further. The discount and funding will be available across all of the publisher's book imprints, under a CC BY licence, ensuring their work is freely accessible and discoverable to all communities across science, technology, medicine, the humanities and social sciences. They will be available to readers around the world via Springer Nature's content platform SpringerLink.
Ralf Schimmer, Head of Information at the MPDL, commented:
“In establishing this new agreement with Springer Nature, we further advance one of our core missions - to support our authors in the dissemination of their research beyond the restrictions of paywalls. By covering a significant share of the open access book publication costs, we are enabling more of our authors to publish their work openly, increasing readership and impact, in particular for those disciplines where books play a crucial role in the scholarly communication process.”
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MPDL is supporting the Peer Community In (PCI) Initiative
Initiated at the request of several Max Planck institutes, the Max Planck Digital Library is supporting the platform „Peer Community in Registered Reports“ by making a one-time funding contribution of 5,000 Euro.
The Peer Community In (PCI) initiative is a non-profit, non-commercial platform that evaluates and recommends preprints in many scientific fields. The overarching aim of this researcher-run organization is to create specific communities of researchers reviewing and recommending, for free, unpublished preprints in their field.
Peer Community in Registered Reports (PCI RR) is a new community dedicated to receiving, reviewing, and recommending Registered Reports (RRs) across the full spectrum of STEM, medicine, the social sciences, and humanities.
RRs are a form of an empirical article in which study proposals are peer-reviewed and pre-accepted before research is undertaken. By deciding, which articles are published based on the question and proposed methods, RRs offer a remedy for a range of research biases, including publication bias and reporting bias.
More info:
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MPDL is now supporting PsyArXiv
In answer to the request of several Max Planck institutes, Max Planck Digital Library now supports PsyArXiv with an annual payment of 1,000 USD over a period of three years. PsyArXiv is a non-commercial preprint server: Preprints and pre-registration are emerging topics within human research. PsyArXiv is a helpful and welcomed tool for a growing number of Max Planck researchers in the field of psychology.
You can find more info here.
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Max Planck Society and IOP Publishing strike a new unlimited open access agreement
The Max Planck Society and IOP Publishing (IOPP) have established a new, unlimited, transformative open access (OA) agreement. The three-year agreement lifts all limitations for Max Planck authors, enabling them to publish all of their articles accepted for publication in IOPP’s full portfolio of 18 fully OA journals and 56 hybrid OA titles openly, with no author-facing article-processing charges.
Thanks to this agreement, the new research produced by the Society's scientists, selected and peer reviewed in IOPP journals will be freely and immediately accessible to scholars everywhere.
The new agreement makes it easier for Max Planck authors to publish open access, as the Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL) covers OA publishing fees centrally, omitting the need for authors to validate the availability of OA publishing funds. Additionally, the new agreement extends all previous reading rights to IOPP journal content.
Julian Wilson, Sales and Marketing Director at IOP Publishing says: “Continuing our valued partnership with the Max Plank Society supports our vision of making universal access to physics research a reality. We know that these agreements encourage greater uptake of OA publication. In fact, in 2021, 65% of research from authors affiliated with the Max Planck Society was published OA with us. We now have transformative agreements with 242 institutions in 14 countries and see them as key to accelerating the open access transition. We will continue to proactively secure these agreements in an inclusive and equitable way.”
Ralf Schimmer, Head of Information and Deputy Director of MPDL says: “IOPP is one of the ten most relevant publishers for Max Planck scientists, in terms of where they choose to publish their articles. Through this new agreement, the Max Planck Society can provide authors with the opportunity to reach the broadest possible readership for their articles and fully implement its OA2020 strategy, repurposing former subscription fees to support open access publishing, thereby contributing to the broader open access transition in scholarly communication.”
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Open Access ermöglichen! Praxisleitfaden erschienen
Bibliotheken habe eine zentrale Rolle in der Open Access-Transformation. Vor allem die Erwerbungsabteilungen der wissenschaftlichen Bibliotheken stehen dabei vor einigen Herausforderungen: Budgets sollen so geplant werden, dass sie die Open Access-Publikationskosten der Einrichtung möglichst umfassend decken. Dabei gilt es abzuschätzen, wie sich das Publikationsaufkommen einer Einrichtung entwickelt und welche Kosten außerhalb der Bibliothek für das wissenschaftliche Publizieren anfallen. Verlage und Konsortien bieten neue Vertragsmodelle an, die bewertet werden müssen und viele der gewohnten Geschäftsgänge verändern sich oder müssen erst neu etabliert werden.
Im Nachgang zu einem Webinar zum Thema Transformation und Erwerbung, das die MPDL Services gGmbH in 2021 in der Reihe der DEAL Praxis-Webinare organisiert hatte, haben sich sechs interessierte Bibliothekar*innen aus unterschiedlichen Einrichtungen zusammengetan, um das vorhandene Fachwissen zum Thema zusammenzutragen und systematisch aufzuarbeiten. Die MPDL war mit Kai Geschuhn als eine der beiden Hauptautorinnen federführend an der Erarbeitung des 50 Seiten umfassenden Praxisleitfaden „Open Access ermöglichen“ beteiligt, der jetzt – natürlich Open Access unter einer CC-BY-Lizenz – veröffentlicht wurde. Das Autor*innen-Team möchte mit dem Leitfaden einen praxisorientierten Beitrag zur aktuellen Diskussion um die Open Access-Transformation liefern, die eigenen Erfahrungen mit Fachkolleg*innen teilen, und die Bibliotheksgemeinschaft dazu einladen, das gemeinsame Fachwissen kontinuierlich zu erweitern.
Link zur Veröffentlichung: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6090208
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Minerva Messenger: New Features & New Knowledge Base
It’s that time again: our messaging service Minerva Messenger has new exciting features you shouldn’t miss!
Next to upgraded integrations, we are presenting you new features like Boards, which is a project management tool that will help you track and manage your work across teams. In addition, with Playbooks, we are happy to present you with a feature you can use for staying in command with integrated communication, collaboration, and status dashboards to manage your entire workflow lifecycle. Last but not least, we made some cosmetic changes: You can now adjust a new & improved user interface to your personal preference.Go here and check out our new Knowledge Base for more detailed information. You can learn more about Minerva Messenger or get in touch with us and submit your request via the new platform! We are looking forward to chatting with you on Minerva Messenger!
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Major Edmond update: new interface, new features and many more!
Edmond – the Open Research Data Repository of the Max Planck Society has received a major update. We have replaced the old software solution of Edmond with the Dataverse software.
Dataverse is an open-source software, which is driven by a worldwide community and was initiated at Harvard University. Thanks to this new software and functions, Edmond has to offer many new features. Some of them include:
- A single-sign-on (SSO) for all Max Planck employees – available now
- There is no storage quota for users anymore
- The upload of huge single file sizes is possible
- A new user interface makes working with Edmond even more comfortable
- With DOI, ORCID, and ROR three different types of identifiers are available
- Other possibilities like versioning of datasets or private URLs to unpublished datasets help to address the different needs of the Max Planck community
Virtual Tutorials
To introduce the new features of Edmond we will offer two virtual tutorials of 30 minutes with a short presentation, a live demonstration, and questions & answers. Join us on:
March 23, 2022 | 2pm CET | Language: English
March 24, 2022 | 11am CET | Language: German
Register now on the RDM Website.
You can find more info on Edmond here.
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Migrate your Slack Channels to Minerva Messenger & keep all your data!
MPG researchers now can migrate their Slack channels with all the existing data to Minerva Messenger.
Have you been looking for a safe way to communicate with your peers and external collaboration partners, but you want to keep all the info you already exchanged on Slack? Then become part of the Minerva Messenger community and join the already migrated teams. Minerva Messenger is provided & maintained by the MPDL, which means all your data is safe within our secure MPG infrastructure.Migrate your Slack channels now and keep all your existing data! You only need to follow a few steps for a customized migration. Our This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. will take care of everything else. We are at your side - every step of the way!
For more info please check out our FAQ or just drop us an This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We are looking forward to chatting with you on Minerva Messenger!
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CfP for the Hybrid Workshop: Future Opportunities for Software in Research
We are very pleased to announce our Hybrid Workshop “Future Opportunities for Software in Research”, taking place on May 12-13, 2022. We are now welcoming workshop contributions on the topic of “Future Opportunities for Software in Research”. Software literacy has become a key competence for scientists across all disciplines. Scientists use software every day, and software development is becoming an increasingly important component of scientific productivity. However, the software needed for certain research projects can get highly complex and take up resources otherwise needed for core research. In the demanded professionalization of software development in research, specialized Research Software Engineers have emerged in recent years. With their help, researchers tackle the challenges in the areas of software and data, such as reproducibility, correctness, user-friendliness, performance, or maintenance.
Our two-day workshop provides new opportunities to learn about best practices in scientific software development, like:
- Seeing recent flagship projects in action.
- Discussing software licensing and intellectual property issues.
- Discovering new ways to make your software known and recognized.
Themes and types of contribution
We are looking for prime examples where software-enabled research (day 1) and working practices in research software engineering (day 2).
Who should submit?
We welcome submissions from any people who have an interesting take on research software development, especially:
- Researchers at any career stage who develop software for research purposes
- Software developers working in a research context, whatever their job title or field, maybe
- Those interested in advancing the understanding of how best to use and maintain research software, e.g. concerning openness, reproducibility, sustainability, scalability, or performance
- Organizations providing tools, platforms, or services that foster research software, such as IT infrastructure providers or computing and data centers.
The deadline for CfP submissions is February 28, 2022. Talks may have a length of 15-30 mins. + variable time for Q&A and discussion. If your talk is accepted, you will be notified about the talk length by the session chair.
We would like to cordially invite all interested scientists, research software engineers, IT and computing specialists, and individuals involved in creating, using, or otherwise dealing with research software in the Max Planck Society. We also welcome participants from other research institutions.
The workshop will be held in hybrid form, so you will be able to connect remotely or come to the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön.
Organization Team
Holger Dinkel (Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics)
Conrad Droste (Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology)
Carsten Fortmann-Grote (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology)
Michael Franke (Max Planck Digital Library)
Maximilian Funk (General Headquarter of the Max Planck Society)
Yves Vincent Grossmann (Max Planck Digital Library)
Stephan Janosch (Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics)
Sven Willner (Max Planck Institute for Meteorology)
You can reach the organizers via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
You can find info about the event is on the website.
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Minerva Messenger Plugin Release & Update January 2022
We are happy to inform you about the newest update of our messaging service – Minerva Messenger. The Minerva Messenger (based on Mattermost) brings all MPG communication together, making it searchable, accessible & easy to use – anywhere. That is why we are constantly keen on providing you with new updates and ensuring all functionalities are working well.
The Minerva Messenger January 2022 update entails the following integrations and upgrades:
- GitLab Plugin Release
Accessing your GWDG GitLab account from inside Minerva Messenger is possible now. With this plugin, you can receive updates on GWDG GitLab repositories and manage the issues directly in Minerva Messenger. - BigBlueButton (GWDG Meet integration) upgrade to v4.3.0
Improved join meeting UX and optimized the UI in dark theme. Added max length limit on the external user name. Fixed a bug where meetings with no recording were polled forever. Now only the creator of the meeting can end the conference. - Server upgrade to v5.37.5
Fixed the issue that OpenID redirect did not work when hosting Mattermost on a subdirectory. Fixed the issue that v5.37 reported an incorrect mmctl version.
You can find additional details in our Minerva Messenger Knowledge Base.
If you are not on Minerva Messenger yet, check it out here.
- GitLab Plugin Release
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LabCam is now KEEPER Cam!
With the new KEEPER Cam, you have the same functionalities as LabCam while storing all your taken photos directly on KEEPER, even offline. Do you find something interesting at a conference or exhibition? Do you want to record your experiment in real-time? Or you would like to share precious moments with your colleagues? This is made possible with KEEPER Cam, which is an office application to associate the camera of your mobile devices with your cloud storage space in your KEEPER account. In addition, the OCR function makes it easy to extract and store the full text from photos, which significantly improves your work efficiency.
An upgrade and new features will be available soon!
KEEPER Cam is available in Google Play, Apple App Store, and mPad Store – check it out and make your daily work routine easier!
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New ESAC Resources on Transformative Agreements
Whether assessing a publisher “read and publish” offer for the first time or developing a strategic plan to navigate the open access transition, adapting to the evolution of scholarly publishing is a challenge that librarians everywhere are facing. Some first movers have already worked through the transition locally and are looking at what comes after their transformative agreement phase, while many others are just starting out on their transformation pathway.
To support the global library and library consortium community in this process, the ESAC Initiative - an initiative coordinated by the Max Planck Digital Library - has introduced three incredibly rich and authoritative resources, fruit of dedicated efforts by members the international ESAC community that have accumulated first-hand experience and deep knowledge of the strategic and operational aspects of negotiating and implementing transformative and central open access publishing agreements.
Read more here.
ABOUT THE ESAC INITIATIVE
ESAC is coordinated by the Max Planck Digital Library, in consultation an international advisory group comprised of library and consortium leaders with deep knowledge of the operational aspects of negotiating and implementing transformative and central open access publishing agreements with scholarly publishers. The ESAC community includes library practitioners who collaborate to produce open resources and who exchange experiences and insights via mentorship, dedicated working groups and other activities focusing on open access author and library workflows, data gathering and analytics, agreement terms, and stakeholder engagement.
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New Service Alert: RDMO for MPG!
We are pleased to announce a new service: RDMO for MPG – a tool to support the planning, implementation, and organization of research data management. The Research Data Management Organizer (RDMO) is a free service of the Max Planck Digital Library for all MPG researchers and staff. The software allows its users to create and write data management plans for various funding organizations. It also provides the ability to cooperate on plans with a team, providing an overview of your project's work progress. The plans can be updated throughout the various project phases and forwarded to funding bodies. Additionally, RDMO grants an export of your project plans, creating snapshots of your work and assigning roles to project members.
The web-based software is open source (https://rdmorganiser.github.io).
For more info, visit the RDMO website.
If you have more questions check out the FAQ.
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Max Planck Digital Library and Microbiology Society sign transformative agreement
The Microbiology Society and the Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL) have announced a three-year transformative agreement starting in 2022. The Publish and Read model will enable researchers of 86 Max Planck Institutes in Germany to publish any article accepted for publication in the journals of the Society open access, without having to pay Article Processing Charges (APCs). Through the agreement, MPDL will cover costs of open access publishing of articles in both fully open access and hybrid journals, allowing scientists to retain copyright and secure the broadest possible readership for their work.
Read the full press release
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