Open Access is understood to mean free and unrestricted access to academic publications on the internet. According to the definition of the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, authors and copyright holders grant all users the irrevocable right to read, download and use academic documents. In order to ensure legally secure subsequent use, the documents must be provided with licences (e.g. Creative Commons licences) that regulate reproduction, redistribution and further use.
As a signatory of the Berliner Declaration on Open Access (October 2003), the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) supports the scientific political demand for open access to scientific publications. The RUB Rectorate officially passed a resolution in support of Open Access on March 6, 2013. On June 1st 2022, this resolution was joined by the Open Science-Policy of the Ruhr University.