BerlinUP Journals only publishes journals in open access.

• The contributions to a journal are freely accessible and reusable immediately upon publication.
• As a rule, the journal publishes its contributions under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. In exceptional cases, such as particularly in the case of open access transformations of existing journals, more restrictive CC licences may also be permitted. The rights of third parties (e.g. image rights) must not be violated during publication.
• The journal does not charge publication fees for authors.

BerlinUP Journals exclusively publishes academic journals with quality-assured content.

• The content of the publishing program covers all scientific fields and research areas of our four institutions: Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin or Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin.
• The content-related orientation of the journal must be clearly represented by delimitable research fields, subject disciplines or scientific communities. This also includes inter- or transdisciplinary research fields, as long as there are clear demarcation criteria for the scope of the journal.
• The journal has a named editorial board that contributes to scientific quality assurance.
• Scientific contributions to the journal must undergo review procedures appropriate to the respective research community. The nature and scope of the review process must be explained and presented on the journal's website. Common review procedures include single-blind peer review, double-blind peer review, editorial review and variants of open peer review and post-publication review. BerlinUP explicitly supports the development of open peer review procedures. Different sections of a journal may use different review procedures if these are clearly stated.
• The editors, the members of the editorial board as well as the reviewers must have appropriate professional knowledge of the mentioned research fields, which can be proven by relevant teaching, research or publication activities.
• The editors, authors and reviewers of the journal contributions are committed to the DFG's Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice.
• The editors are responsible for scientific quality assurance and follow the Core Practices of the Committee on Publication Ethic (COPE).

BerlinUP Journals only publishes journals with an affiliation to one of our four institutions: Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin or Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin.

Affiliation is guaranteed by at least one employed person with responsibility for the journal in a central role:

• Central roles include editors, members of the editorial team and editorial board members, but not reviewers.
• The employment does not have to be permanent, but must run for at least 3 years into the future. In exceptional cases, this 3-year period can be undercut as long as a sustainability concept can demonstrate how the affiliation can be secured elsewhere for the next 3 years.
• The employment does not have to be in a specific status group.
• The affiliation can also be guaranteed by another person over time.

Alternatively, affiliation may be ensured by a resident institution with responsibility for the journal:

• These can be permanent institutions such as a department, library or research centre.
• These can be temporary institutions such as a collaborative research centre or a specialised information service, if funding is guaranteed for at least 3 years.
• A specific contact person for the journal must be specified. This can also be linked to a specific role such as management or coordination.

BerlinUP Journals publishes journals with a long-term perspective.

• Journals at BerlinUP Journals are published continuously for an indefinite period of time.
• Journals at BerlinUP Journals usually publish at least 12 scientific and quality-assured articles per year. The number of issues per year is not fixed.
• The editors must provide information on the sustainable operation of the planned journal for the next 3 years. This includes information on the permanent affiliation by a responsible person or institution, on the composition of the editorial board, on the personnel resources for editorial operations as well as on the expected demand for the journal within the specialist community.

BerlinUP Journals is actively engaged in a sustainable, quality-focused and cost-efficient transformation of scholarly publishing to open access. In order to fulfil this mission, exceptions to the admission criteria may be permitted. These decisions are strategic ones on a case-by-case basis and must be comprehensively weighed.

Cooperations

BerlinUP Journals strives for cooperation with other
institutions, if it serves the promotion of open access in a sense from which members of the FU, HU, TU or Charité in particular benefit.

• For this purpose, exceptions can be made to the basic affiliation guidelines.
• Collaborations of this kind must have a duration of at least 5 years.
• There must be a clear reference to the Berlin research landscape.
• Collaborations are to be used in particular for the transformation of existing journals.
• There must be a specific contact person for the journal. This can also be linked to a specific role, e.g. management or coordination.

Innovations

BerlinUP Journals promotes innovation in the scholarly publishing landscape.

• BerlinUP Journals aims to provide space for bibliodiversity and experimental forms of publication. For example, the Open Journal Systems publication software is also suitable for other periodicals (e.g. conference proceedings, research reports).
• For this purpose, exceptions to existing admission criteria may be considered, as well as the establishment of a separate section within BerlinUP Journals (e.g. proceedings).
• The criteria on scientificity and quality assurance must still be applicable.

Teaching and training

BerlinUP Journals considers scholarly publishing as a subject area of academic teaching and the training of scientists.

• BerlinUP Journals would like to provide publication options for student journals as well as for journals with didactic aims.
• For this purpose, exceptions to existing admission criteria may be considered, as well as the establishment of a separate section within BerlinUP Journals (e.g. student journals).
• For student journals, an affiliated person with a professorship must take on a "sponsorship". The tasks of a sponsorship include supervision of the quality assurance process and signing the publishing contract.
• The criteria on scientificity and quality assurance must still be applicable.